The Squish Posted July 13, 2006 Share Posted July 13, 2006 I was looking at Namath's career stats and boy do they suck.I mean, they really suck.In 13 seasons he threw more interceptions then TD's 11 times. And it's not even close. Here are some numbers:1966: 19 TD's, 27 int's1970: 5 TD's 12 int's1975: 15 TD's 28 int's1976: 4 TD's 16 int'sHe never led the NFL/AFL outright in TD's but was tied for first place in 1972, when he threw a grand total of 19. Oh yeah, he also threw 21 int's that year.His career completion % is 50.1, which is awful considering the era he played in, plus all of the hype he was getting.Interestingly, the years when he had his highest completion % 1967 and 1974, he also had more int's then TD's.And his numbers in Super Bowl III aren't all that, and Matt Snell would have been a far better choice for MVP, but I doubt the sportswriters would have voted a black man MVP of the Super Bowl at that time.Looking at his numbers I really can't understand why he's in the Hall of Fame. I wouldn't even call him borderline.My best guess is that once again the New York media is to blame for hyping him up to an insane degree.Here's a link to Namath's stats Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OnWis97 Posted July 14, 2006 Share Posted July 14, 2006 Namath is definately overrated (though I believe he could have been better if not for some college knee injuries). But I don't think it is the New York media (not too much anyway). It's super bowl 3. He had the swagger, he made the bold prediction and went out and got it done. But yeah, to call him a great QB would be a big stretch. Disclaimer: If this comment is about an NBA uniform from 2017-2018 or later, do not constitute a lack of acknowledgement of the corporate logo to mean anything other than "the corporate logo is terrible and makes the uniform significantly worse." BADGERS TWINS VIKINGS TIMBERWOLVES WILD POTD (Shared) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NJTank Posted July 14, 2006 Share Posted July 14, 2006 Namath's career is Super Bowl 3 and his showmanship take 1 away and he is a fairly average QB, but keep in mind Shea was a horrible playce for football with the swirling wind and many of Namath's passes had to battle the wind. www.sportsecyclopedia.com For the best in sports history go to the Sports E-Cyclopedia at http://www.sportsecyclopedia.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coast2CoastAM2006 Posted July 14, 2006 Share Posted July 14, 2006 seems like i remember hearing that after SBIII, he never beat a winning team. Spoilers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jigga Posted July 14, 2006 Share Posted July 14, 2006 Yes, yes, and YES! No one else is even close, no question, and without a shadow of a doubt. On January 16, 2013 at 3:49 PM, NJTank said: Btw this is old hat for Notre Dame. Knits Rockne made up George Tip's death bed speech. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
footballfiji Posted July 14, 2006 Share Posted July 14, 2006 I'd be willing to give him a pass just from winning a Super Bowl and ushering a new era in football in general.Even though he went to Alabama and even though his numbers don't sing. He still won a SuperBowl and how could you be overrated when you lived up the hype and won the championship? Plainsman Parking Lot. Auburn Baseball Blog Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
infrared41 Posted July 14, 2006 Share Posted July 14, 2006 I'd like to see his win/loss percentage as a starter. He was a 5 time Pro Bowler and his stats aren't that awful. He was among the league's top ten in most passing categories throughout most of his career. Plus he was pretty :censored:ing cool at the time. It is the Hall of Fame not the Hall of Stats after all. Broadway Joe should be there.That said, just winning a Super Bowl isn't enough. If it were then Trent Dilfer, Mark Rypien, and Jeff Hostetler are Hall of Famers too. All roads lead to Dollar General. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
footballfiji Posted July 14, 2006 Share Posted July 14, 2006 He didn't just win a Super Bowl. He changed the face of modern football. SuperBowl III showed that not only could the upstart AFL compete with the Dominant NFL but also that the "old guard" (i.e. Unitas) was on their way out. Plainsman Parking Lot. Auburn Baseball Blog Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arr1023 Posted July 14, 2006 Share Posted July 14, 2006 I'd like to see his win/loss percentage as a starter. He was a 5 time Pro Bowler and his stats aren't that awful. He was among the league's top ten in most passing categories throughout most of his career. Plus he was pretty :censored:ing cool at the time. It is the Hall of Fame not the Hall of Stats after all. Broadway Joe should be there.That said, just winning a Super Bowl isn't enough. If it were then Trent Dilfer, Mark Rypien, and Jeff Hostetler are Hall of Famers too. if the hall of fame was based on stats how would linemen and fullbacks get in Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevja Posted July 14, 2006 Share Posted July 14, 2006 He's not overated. When discussions of great QB's such as Montana, Favre, Unitis, Marino, Elway, etc., his name never comes up. In fact when some magazine (forgot which one) rated the all time 50 OB's he was in the 20s. Maybe people think that's too high. He had some decent seasons when he first broke into the league, but so-so seasons due mainly to injuries after those years made his career stats rather average. But that guy changed football! A genuine Superstar and personality for the AFL that was just about to tank. Add to that the most famous big game performance in SB history that sealed the deal for the merger. Overater in some ways, yes. Overater in other ways. Hell No. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TFoA Posted July 14, 2006 Share Posted July 14, 2006 His stats certainly weren't HOF, but if you did what he did in Super Bowl III, guaranteeing victory when people at that time saw the AFL-NFL Game as just an exhibition to see how vastly superior the NFL was over the AFL, then yeah, you deserve to go to the HOF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Squish Posted July 18, 2006 Author Share Posted July 18, 2006 A genuine Superstar and personality for the AFL that was just about to tank. Add to that the most famous big game performance in SB history that sealed the deal for the merger. Please.The AFL was thriving by 1965, and merger talks had already started and were finalized in 1967, just after the first Super Bowl.Namath had zip to do with saving the AFL, unless you take into account his outrageous salary which led Chefs owner Lamar Hunt to start secret talks with Cowboys owner Tex Schram about possibly colluding to keep players salaries down, and those talks were the start of the merger talks. It wasn't anything Namath did on the field that led to the merger, but rather his obscene salary.SuperBowlIII showed that not only could the upstart AFL compete with the dominant NFL, but also that the "old guard" (ie Unitas) was on their way out.This would be the same Unitas who smoked Namath's ass when the Colts and Jets played after the merger, yes?And this would be the same Unitas who made it to two Super Bowls and won one, unlike Namath, who only made it to one, yes?As for the AFL not being able to compete with the NFL until the exact moment of Super Bowl III, give me a break.The AFL and NFL scheduled pre-season games against each other in the 1967 season and the Chiefs put up 66 points on the Bears and slaughtered them. One of the Bears assistants had worked with the Cheifs and went up to Chiefs coach Hank Stram after the game and said, "You shouldn't have done that. You'll kill (Halas) the old man."Oh, NJTank, saying that Namath had to deal with Shea's swirling winds is the lamest friggin' copout of an excuse and you know it. Namath had a gun for an arm, which more then compensated for the swirling winds and he still threw the ball to the other team more often then he threw TD's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred T. Jane Posted July 18, 2006 Share Posted July 18, 2006 Please.The AFL was thriving by 1965, and merger talks had already started and were finalized in 1967, just after the first Super Bowl. No one's saying Namath's performance in Super Bowl III led to the merger, but rather it was the confirmation that the AFL and NFL were merging as equals, not a lesser league being swallowed by a more dominant counterpart. Anything else is revisionist.This would be the same Unitas who smoked Namath's ass when the Colts and Jets played after the merger, yes?...and how many times did the Colts beat the Jets in the Super Bowl, where it counts? (after all, isn't the postseason where legacies are written in football? Dan Marino would regretfully agree with this notion, for the record) Oh wait, that would be zero occasions.And this would be the same Unitas who made it to two Super Bowls and won one, unlike Namath, who only made it to one, yes?Just because you get to the Super Bowl more than once doesn't mean you're that great. After all, by your measuring stick, Jim Kelly (4 [Consecutive] appearances) is twice as good of a QB as Johnny Unitas, Jim Plunkett (2) is Unitas' equal, and John Elway (5) is 2.5 times as good as Unitas was. besides, for the record, Unitas had little to do with the Colts' run to Super Bowl III, as Earl Morrall led the Colts to a 13-1 record that season, and was the starter for the game. Don Shula put in Unitas in the game after it was 13-0 in the third quarter. As for Unitas' lone Super Bowl "win," though he led the Colts to the Super Bowl, he was knocked out of the game in the second quarter with an injury with the Colts down 13-6. Super Bowl III goat Morrall led the Colts to the victory, not UnitasAs for the AFL not being able to compete with the NFL until the exact moment of Super Bowl III, give me a break.The AFL and NFL scheduled pre-season games against each other in the 1967 season and the Chiefs put up 66 points on the Bears and slaughtered them. One of the Bears assistants had worked with the Cheifs and went up to Chiefs coach Hank Stram after the game and said, "You shouldn't have done that. You'll kill (Halas) the old man."All of that is superfluous, because the popular impression (even at that time) was that the AFL was still inferior. After all, the Chiefs (the best team in the AFL) was smoked in the two previous Super Bowls by the Packers, NFL's most dominant team. Considering the fact that the Jets weren't seen as being as good as the Chiefs (popular is another story), much less Baltimore, who with Unitas and Co. were on the short list of the NFL's dominant sides, the upset in Super Bowl III is what the popular impression is. If you've got a problem with Super Bowl III being told that way, take it up with Steve Sabol.I'm not trying to either elevate Namath (who, to be euphemistic, didn't play up to his potential through his career) or downgrade Unitas (one of the best QBs of all time), but Super Bowl III was a pivitol moment in NFL history, and trying to minimize Namath's impact on the game (which on-field isn't *that* impressive, anyway) is disingenuous. [Croatia National Team Manager Slavan] Bilic then went on to explain how Croatia's success can partially be put down to his progressive man-management techniques. "Sometimes I lie in the bed with my players. I go to the room of Vedran Corluka and Luka Modric when I see they have a problem and I lie in bed with them and we talk for 10 minutes." Maybe Capello could try getting through to his players this way too? Although how far he'd get with Joe Cole jumping up and down on the mattress and Rooney demanding to be read his favourite page from The Very Hungry Caterpillar is open to question. --The Guardian's Fiver, 08 September 2008 Attention: In order to obtain maximum enjoyment from your stay at the CCSLC, the reader is advised that the above post may contain large amounts of sarcasm, dry humour, or statements which should not be taken in any true sort of seriousness. As a result, the above poster absolves himself of any and all blame in the event that a forum user responds to the aforementioned post without taking the previous notice into account. Thank you for your cooperation, and enjoy your stay at the CCSLC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stampman Posted July 19, 2006 Share Posted July 19, 2006 He was a better QB than an actor.IMDB's list of his moiew & TV shows.This one's probably the "highlight" Comic Sans walks into a bar, and the bartender says, "Sorry, we don't serve your type here." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steel Certain Posted July 19, 2006 Share Posted July 19, 2006 I love this post. I knew that Superbowl III was one of the great upsets in Superbowl history, and that he was an exciting player who made it to the HOF, but I've never taken a look at his career stats. They are TERRIBLE. His average year has 17 TDs and 23 INTs. That's not exactly Peyton Manning-style.Who else approached this level of overrated? Is a fancy nickname (Broadway Joe) and a big game (Superbowl III) all that's required to make it to Canton, Ohio these days?Yes, he was a league leader in a bunch of categories, but 15TD/28INTs in 1975? C'mon now. That's Bubby Brister level there, man. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred T. Jane Posted July 19, 2006 Share Posted July 19, 2006 I love this post. I knew that Superbowl III was one of the great upsets in Superbowl history, and that he was an exciting player who made it to the HOF, but I've never taken a look at his career stats. They are TERRIBLE. His average year has 17 TDs and 23 INTs. That's not exactly Peyton Manning-style. So what you're saying is that he's basically Terry Bradshaw minus 3 Super Bowl rings? [Croatia National Team Manager Slavan] Bilic then went on to explain how Croatia's success can partially be put down to his progressive man-management techniques. "Sometimes I lie in the bed with my players. I go to the room of Vedran Corluka and Luka Modric when I see they have a problem and I lie in bed with them and we talk for 10 minutes." Maybe Capello could try getting through to his players this way too? Although how far he'd get with Joe Cole jumping up and down on the mattress and Rooney demanding to be read his favourite page from The Very Hungry Caterpillar is open to question. --The Guardian's Fiver, 08 September 2008 Attention: In order to obtain maximum enjoyment from your stay at the CCSLC, the reader is advised that the above post may contain large amounts of sarcasm, dry humour, or statements which should not be taken in any true sort of seriousness. As a result, the above poster absolves himself of any and all blame in the event that a forum user responds to the aforementioned post without taking the previous notice into account. Thank you for your cooperation, and enjoy your stay at the CCSLC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nyk Posted July 19, 2006 Share Posted July 19, 2006 If Joe Namath was remember for just winning Super Bowl III. Doug Williams should be remember for winning Super Bowl XXII and Mark Rypien XXVI. They both fall in the same catigory as Namath. MVP who won the Super Bowl but have bad career stats. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HowBoutThemFins Posted July 19, 2006 Share Posted July 19, 2006 Had he not made a guarantee to win the SB no one would even remember him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevja Posted July 19, 2006 Share Posted July 19, 2006 Had he not made a guarantee to win the SB no one would even remember him. You guys must be too young to remember that he was a STAR before SBlll. Maybe the only real star the AFL had. He then became a mega star after the guarantee and win in SBlll. I'm not defending his career numbers, although he a had some decent seasons. But his inpact on the game, AFL or NFL was unmatched. In the late 60s, there was Ali, then Namath.And as far as the AFL thriving in 1965, don't make me laugh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bleujayone Posted July 19, 2006 Share Posted July 19, 2006 He was a better QB than an actor.IMDB's list of his moiew & TV shows.This one's probably the "highlight"Nah, his highlight had to be this oneJoe Namth's Shining Moment We all have our little faults. Mine's in California. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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