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| CC riding with Ann-Margret |
Until he appeared, professional sports strained to be
wholesome, bursting with brush-cuts, white teeth and ponytails. Stadiums rattled under Romanesque, military vibrations, and the pre-game national anthem forged a linked between competition (war) and nationalism (war). Athletes were to appear
humbled by their talents for—after all—accomplishments are attributable to
clean living and supplication.
But Joe Namath didn’t give a hot damn about any of that. He
was egocentric, boastful, drank, partied, bedded legions of women and—this is
the spoiler—won games. In fact, as quarterback for the New York Jets, he QB’d
the win for Super Bowl III in 1969. Not only did he win, but a few days beforehand,
he, the underdog, predicted his team
would win, an up-to-then outrageous and inappropriate attitude. It drove the Brush
Cuts crazy. Hell, he even made Richard Nixon’s enemies list, and Nixon loved football.
His career? Namath tossed 220 interceptions to his 173
touchdowns and compiled a quarterback rating of only 65.5 – the lowest career
rating for any quarterback who has ever won the Super Bowl. But why focus on
that? Focus on The Game, sweetheart.
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| Namath lookin' good |
With good looks and an ironic sense of humor, you have a guy
that should be in movies, and he was, getting down with Ann-Margaret on
motorbikes.
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| First, you gotta win |
What the Brush Cuts didn't understand was that Namath, even
with his pimp hat and fox-fur coat, his swinging bachelor pad and TV
commercials, came a lot closer to embodying the Constitutional qualities of liberty
and individualism than they ever did, with their ‘yes sirs’ and drip-dry beliefs.
Namath was a Hail-Mary-throwing embodiment of the American Dream, a risk-taker,
an innovator, a leader.
His legacy can be found on a tropical island, reclined by a
beach, laughing with a sumptuous blonde, now and then standing to whip a long
bomb over the waves, secure with the knowledge that it will always be caught by the hands of time.