TABLE OF CONTENTS The Guarantee 9 Birth of the Titans 17 Lean Years 24 A Big Apple Rebuild 37 Near Misses 43 GRIDIRON GREATS Titan-Sized Troubles 11 Broadway Joe 14 The Heidi Game 19 Main Street Joe 26 Mother Knows Best 32 Monday Night Miracle 40 Team Stats 47 Websites 47 Index 48
new york jets quarterback joe namath THE GUARANTEE The New York Jets faced the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III Only die-hard fans believed the Jets could win Baltimore had dominated the National Football League NFL The Colts had galloped galloped to a 13 1 regular season record Then they crushed the Cleveland Browns 34 0 in the NFL Championship Game The Jets had gone 11 3 in the American Football League AFL They barely defeated the Oakland Raiders to take the AFL title Some writers predicted that the Colts would win by 30 points or more They called the AFL a minor league They anticipated another Super Bowl mismatch The NFL’s Green Bay Packers had won the first two They had beaten the AFL’s Kansas City Chiefs 35 10 and the Raiders 33 14 11
