In Defense Of Joe Namath’s Being In The Hall Of Fame

June 5, 2010   ·   William Berry   ·   Jump to comments

 
Why am I defending Joe Namath? Lack of Jet fans apparently. OK, to be fair, they are probably tired of replying to every “anti-Namath in the Hall of Fame” thing they see.
 
He became the poster boy for the AFL merger “proving” they were as good as the NFL. The AFL wasn't but Joe Namath gave it cover.
 
Would it have happened without Namath?  Probably.  But it would have been a harder sell that it wasn't just money, it was because the AFL was as good at football as the NFL.
 
In 1970, first year after the merger, the AFC was 78-73-11 and the NFC 95-80-7. The AFC representative in the Super Bowl was the Baltimore Colts, formerly of the NFL – not AFL.
 
It would be like if Tim Couch went to the UFL, had a decent career their and lead them to victory over the NFL in the Super-Duper Bowl, then had a mediocre career after the UFL and NFL merged, but was the excuse for why the UF...

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