Sports: Joe Namath

 

How does a guy with a record of 62-63-4, 173 touchdowns and 227 interceptions make it into the Hall of Fame? One way is to be bigger than the game, which Joe Namath was. Uploaded by freefootballwallpapers.com.

Before I get specific about Broadway Joe, let’s give a shout out to western Pennsylvania for its unbelievable string of great quarterbacks. Joe Willie Namath is one, but the list also includes Joe Montana, Johnny Unitas, Dan Marino, Jim Kelly, Johnny Lujack, George Blanda, Jeff Hostetler, and others. Namath grew up in Beaver Falls, about 20 miles from Pittsburgh. He received several offers to play Major League Baseball, but chose to play college football for Bear Bryant at Alabama.

That’s a little bit of a puzzler, looking back on it. It’s not that Namath couldn’t play within a team concept, but his personality was so large that it might have been expected to conflict with his coach’s. He was suspended for a couple of

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games once, but he came back the next year and helped the Crimson Tide win the national championship. Instead of signing with the NFL, he chose the rival AFL, whose New York Jets had made him the first pick in the draft. He was a four-time all-star, and led the Jets to the AFC championship in 1968.

1969 was the third year that the AFC champion took on the NFC champ in the Super Bowl (the leagues merged the following year). The first two games were NFL blowouts, and Namath’s Jets were huge underdogs in Super Bowl III. In one of the great upsets in sports history, Namath guaranteed that the Jets would beat the Baltimore Colts – and he made good on his promise. It’s no doubt the single game he’ll always be known for.

Namath was a party guy, and he got in trouble for opening a bar in New York City called “Bachelors III.” What you might call your “unsavory types” became regulars, and the NFL ordered Namath to sell his interest in the club. But far from ruining his reputation, this walk on the wild side actually enhanced it. He’s now in the Pro Football Hall of Fame despite what are actually very ordinary statistics. But he was a legend, and even today, everyone still loves Broadway Joe.

Related Articles

• Namath heads first group inducted into Jets’ Ring of Honor (nypost.com)

Sports: Vin Scully

Vin Scully has been broadcasting Dodgers game -- colorfully, evocatively, memorably -- for an incredible 61 years. Uploaded by legrandclub.rds.ca.

Most sports broadcasters would agree that baseball provides its announcers the brightest spotlight. That’s particularly true on radio, where the play-by-play guy has lots of time between pitches to fill with anecdotes, statistics, and insight. There have been lots of great baseball broadcasters — Ernie Harwell, Phil Rizzuto, Harry Caray, Jack Buck, Jon Miller — but no one has ever brought the game to life more vividly than Vin Scully.

Of course, when you think of Scully, you think of the Dodgers. He broadcast their games for an incredible 61 years, from 1950 to the present. He had an early career highlight when, at the age of 25, he became the youngest person ever to broadcast the World Series (a record that still stands).

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As great as he is at baseball, Scully has brought his dulcet tones to other sports as well. During a tenure at CBS Sports he did NFL games, and anchored the network’s tennis and golf coverage. And he’s also done network baseball for both CBS and NBC.

He’s made some memorable calls: Don Larsen’s perfect game in the 1956 World Series, Sandy Koufax’s perfect game, Hank Aaron’s 715th home run, and Bill Buckner’s muffed ground ball. He also called “The Catch,” Dwight Clark’s touchdown pass from Joe Montana in the 1982 NFC Championship game.

Scully has been honored by the Baseball Hall of Fame, received a Life Achievement Emmy Award, and is in the Radio Hall of Fame. His sweetest recognition may be that which has come from his peers. The American Sportscasters Association named him Broadcaster of the Century in 2000, and honored him as top sportscaster of all-time on its Top 50 list in 2009…