Pat Kerwin and Jim Miller said that they didn't see anything special in him.

First to be clear, I hated Nameth. I lived thru Super Bowl III and actually threw up at the end. Better team lost to what I considered a loudmouth punk. Having said that Nameth transcended what he did on the field. That win in the SB was of historic significance It helped pave the way for the two leagues uniting. I loved kicking his ass in the following years. I still can’t stand the Jets.

o


In 1967, Joe Namath became the first player ever in NFL-AFL history to throw for more than 4,000 yards in a single season (he threw for 4,007 yards that season for the Jets.)

Keep in mind that there were only 14-game schedules as the time, as opposed to the 16-game schedules that have been prevalent since the 1978 season.



Strange, but true......no Jets quarterback has ever had a 4,000-yard season since then......even with the 16-game schedule in its 43rd season, and all of the rule changes that have greatly benefitted quarterbacks and their receivers in the past 15-20 years.


https://www.pro-football-reference.c...on-passing.htm



11) l Joe Namath lllllllllllllllllllllll, 1967 lllllllllllllll 4,007

12) l Ryan Fitzpatrick lllllllllllllllll 2015 lllllllllllllll 3,905

13) l Ken O'Brien llllllllllllllllllllll,, 1985 lllllllllllllll 3,888

14) l Vinny Testaverde llllllllllll,, 2000 llllllllllll,, 3,732

15) l Ken O'Brien lllllllllllllllllllllllll 1986 llllllllllll.. 3,690

16) l Richard Todd lllllllllll,,,,llllll 1983 lllllllllllllll 3,478

17) l Mark Sanchez lllllllllllllllllllll 2011 lllllllllllllll 3,474

18) l Brett Favre llllllllllllllllllllllllll 2008 lllllllllllllll 3,472

19) l Boomer Esiason lllllllllllllllll 1993 llllllllllllll) 3,421

10) , Joe Namath llllllllllllllllll,,,,, 1966 llllllllllllll, 3,379

o

Joe Namath threw for 173 touchdowns and threw 220 interceptions. His career quarterback rating was 65.5.

Not hall of fame numbers, extremely overrated. The Colts should have destroyed the Jets. Bubba Smith came out and said there was no way the Jets could beat those Colts and believes the game was fixed.

He said the refs, Rozelle and Carroll Rosenbloom, the owner of the Colts, all were in on the fix and that a big-time gambler won $40 million betting the Jets in London, where the odds were 8,000–1.

Namath does not belong in the Hall of Fame, he wasn't that damn good, hell he wasn't even average.

Yep. Me too.
I don't know how this clown got into the HOF (maybe because of this one game), but he is the only QB in the HOF with many more career INTs than TDs.

There is no special in him. He is limited athletically, has a decent arm, not great. At best, IMHO, will be a back up somewhere in the NFL. He really never trailed in any games with Alabama, had a shitload of talented receivers who were always open by a mile. I hear the BS from some of the talking heads such as Todd McShay, Charlie Weis, & Mel Kiper Jr. (fucking idiots in my opinion) saying he might be the next Tom Brady, I call bullshit on that.

Tua was considered a top 3 NFL pick, he isn't worth a shit. Mac Jones is no better than him. Alabama has a lot of great players who do well in the NFL, but not QB's, or fucking Trent Richardson.

Somebody has to I guess. I don't hate the man, he's just overrated. He played before I was born anyway.

They must only be watching for athletic ability, then, because many of the reads and throws he made were special.

Jones has enough athleticism to keep a defense honest. He has no elite physical trait, I'll definitely agree with that. Physically, he's average-above average across the board. It's his mental traits that are off the charts good. He reads and manipulates defenses like a multiple year NFL starter, and the anticipation throws he makes are like those of a multiple year NFL starter as well. If he continues to display those traits in the NFL, he'll be a lot more successful than his school pedigree or athletic profile would suggest. Hopefully WFT drafts him.

I was being sarcastic.

I never quite got the Tua love. I just kinda shrugged and said ok everyone must see something I don’t. But he was just a rookie. Mac I think is much more accurate and goes through his progressions very fast. But he is not on the scrambler mode everyone prefers today.

Class and respectability, a couple of years ago he was drunk on air when he said to Susie Kolber “I would like to kiss you right now”. He’s an overrated buffoon, always has been and always will be!!

Suzy Kolber would agree with you on that.

It was 17 years ago. Time flies when you're a drunken buffoon.


https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1574173699303241

Joe's battle with alcoholism has been pretty well documented. The HBO special on him a few years ago was one of the best I've seen. He was my favorite QB growing up and injuries took a huge toll on his career and his stats. The couple seasons he was healthy 1968-69 he was among the best of his era. Should he be in HOF is questionable but he was sure entertaining even when he played on some lousy teams.

While I respect your opinion, Joe Namath in the hall of fame is not questionable, he doesn't belong there. Nobody, and I mean nobody with his terrible stats is in the hall of fame. He and his Jets only scored 16 points in that Super Bowl game. Morrall was terrible and Shula fucked up by not putting Unitas in earlier. Maybe he was in on the fix too.

Nameth belongs in the Hall because he legitimized the AFL. He helped, and did it in a big way if you were alive back then, make possible the two leagues combining. Until the Jets won the Super Bowl it wasn't even the Super Bowl. We NFL types thought that the AFL was the equivalent of a minor league. A joke. NFL fans laughed at the AFL. Then they won two in a row. But the first is always the most important and Nameth was the story of the first. He was an incredibly culturally influential player who helped make a lot of money for a lot of people. I hated him though for how he made me feel that Sunday and was pissed when he was elected. I get it now.

Alcoholism in the league is rampant and one of the dirty secrets the NFL doesn’t talk about. Still, being an addict doesn’t excuse you from bad behavior. Ultimately we are all responsible for how we act.

I'll grudgingly add this, as I hated the result that Sunday too.

It is the Hall of FAME, and not the Hall of Great Career Stats. And there is no argument to be made against the fact that Namath was/is famous, and considered a big deal in his era.

o


While Namath's overall stats were certainly sub-par, the era that he played in also needs to be taken into consideration when doing so. Ken Stabler had 194 TD passes and 222 INT's, and he was the beneficiary of standing behind one of the greatest offensive lines of all time for 8 seasons between 1972 and 1979 before being traded to the Oilers in 1980. He also played more of his career after the rules were altered to significantly help quarterbacks and their receivers than Namath did (in 1974, 1977, and 1978 the 3 biggest rule changes were made in regard to allowing defenders to bump receivers before the ball was in the air) ...... Stabler's last full season as a starting quarterbacks was 1983, while Namath's last full season as a starting quarterback was 1976.

Even Johnny Unitas, who some would argue was the greatest quarterback of all-time, had what we would now view as pedestrian career stats with 290 TD passes, 253 INT's, and a 54.6% Completion Percentage ........ if Carson Wentz has that kind of season in 2021 (21 TD passes, 18 INT's, and a 54.6% Completion Percentage), televisions sets all over the greater Indianapolis area will be broken by enraged Colts fans.



So while one can argue one way or the other in regard to whether or not Namath deserves to be in the Hall-of-Fame, his sup-par stats (173 TD Passes, 220 INT's, and a 50.1% Completion Percentage) need to viewed in the proper context of the era in which he played in (1965 through 1976 for the Jets, and 4 games with the Rams in 1977.)

o

This is crazy talk. No player should ever be in t the HOF because of one fortunate moment in time. That's why why Jeff Hosteler, Brad Johnson and Trent Dilfer aren't in the HOF. Historic or not, it's the complete career that has to be be the deciding factor.

Namath didn't do shit, he didn't even throw 1 TD in that SB. Hell, he didn't even throw one pass in the 4th quarter. Snell should have been the MVP, or for conspiracy theorists like me, Morrall should have been, for the Jets. The hall of fame should only be reserved for great players, period. Reserved for only players like Manning, Montana, Elway and a host of others. Hell, I would put the whole Jets defense in the hall of fame before I would Namath, they and Morrall had a lot more to do with that win than Namath. We just can't keep lowering our standards for BS like this. Just a year later the Chiefs beat the Vikings, so that would have validated the AFL. The Hall of Fame is for great players and Namath was not a great player.