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
new york jets Jets quarterback Joe Namath had other ideas We’re going to win Sunday he boldly announced three days before the game I guarantee it Coach Weeb Ewbank was furious You can’t go talking like this and giving the Colts fuel he scolded Namath’s words charged up his own teammates We couldn’t understand understand how they could make us 18-point underdogs said running back Emerson Boozer We were champs We didn’t get there by stumbling to it We won a lot of close games They didn’t understand how good we were on defense and we had a running game Football fans watched in disbelief as the Jets opened scoring in the second quarter Powerful running back Matt Snell bulled his way into the end zone from four yards out Kicker Jim Turner booted two field goals in the third quarter He added another early in the fourth quarter The Jets played cautiously after that Namath did not attempt a single pass in the fourth quarter Wide receiver Don Maynard 12
new york jets fullback Bill Mathis GRIDIRON GREATS TITAN-SIZED TROUBLES Harry Wismer owned the New York Titans franchise for three years The AFL’s other owners were all wealthy men Wismer wasn’t The team scrounged for practice fields It played home games before tiny crowds The field at Polo Grounds was in poor condition Wismer stopped paying many bills Eventually the team went bankrupt The league sought another owner Despite the financial bust Wismer did have some positive effects He used his newspaper contacts to boost coverage for the league More importantly he came up with the idea of revenue sharing All eight AFL teams received money from the league’s television contract 13
