The Lasting Legacy of Super Bowl III
“19 Straight.”
270–0.
17.5.
It remains, to this day, 50 years ago today, the greatest upset in the history of pro football. That no one saw it coming was even more amazing.
“The Foolish Club,” “The Mickey Mouse League,” that’s how the American Football League was referred to by nearly everyone, sportswriters and NFL partisans alike. There was a merger in 1966 and two previous “Super Bowl” games, known as the “NFL-AFL World Championship Game,” that were won by the vaunted Green Bay Packers by the combined score of 68–24, that the game between the 15–1 Baltimore Colts, who had demolished the NFL in 1968, giving up just 144 points in 14 games and the New York Jets, 13–3, who had Joe Namath and not much else, according to the experts, that the Detroit Free Press’ lead sports columnist Joe Falls predicted the Colts would win 270–0.
The Jets had started out as the New York Titans, (or, more correctly, The Titans of New York) owned by Harry Wismer, a former co-owner of the Detroit Lions. He had no real money of his own and eventually, the League removed him as owner and found a buyer with actual money. David “Sonny” Werblin was a movie and TV producer and land developer who rescued the team, renamed them the Jets and got them into Shea Stadium.
But, the most important accomplishments Werblin did was get a long-term contract with NBC that paid each team $460,000 a year starting in 1964 and he signed Joe Namath to a unheard of $427,000 contract, three years. He was AFL Rookie of the Year in 1965, the first quarterback to pass for 4,000 yards (4,007 in 1967) and League MVP in 1968 and ’69. In a renegade league, he became the epitome of what the AFL achieved.
Super Bowl III was the first to be called that, after Lamar Hunt, the founder of the League and owner of the Kansas City Chiefs, brought a Super Ball for his children to play with (I still think to this day there are people finding that ball in house gutters all over the country) and suggested that the “AFL-NFL Championship Game,” needed a better name. Pete Rozelle agreed.
The first two games, both lopsided wins for the NFL, brought fears that the upstart league’s teams would never catch up. Some old guard NFL owners, George Hallas and the Mara Family, thought it would be 20 years before any AFL team would win a title. There was even talk of calling off the merger completely.
The 1968 Baltimore Colts were a fluke. In 1967, they tied for the Coastal Division crown, but lost out on a tie-break with the Los Angeles Rams. In the pre-season, Johnny Unitas was injured and journeyman backup Earl Morrall was thrust into the starting position. Morrall, who attended Michigan State and played 21 years in the pros, lead the Miami Dolphins to the only undefeated season and Super Bowl win in 1973 (Super Bowl VII), also stepping in when Bob Griese got hurt early in the 1972 season. Morrall, who died in 2014, also won a Super Bowl with the Colts two years prior.
17.5. That was the line set by Jimmy “The Greek” Snyder, the most famous bookmaker in America. Others had the Colts as up to a 21-point favorite. In addition to Falls, every prognosticator in every newspaper gave the Jets no chance. Norm Van Broklin, then the Atlanta Falcons’ coach, said “(Super Bowl III) was going to be Namath’s first professional game.”
The Jets were irritated by this. Namath said there were five quaterbacks in the AFL better than Morrall. The five were himself, his 38-year-old backup Babe Parilli, Lamonica, John Hadl of the San Diego Chargers, and Bob Griese of the Dolphins. When asked about the Colts’ defense, lead by Bubba Smith and Mike Curtis, Joe said the best defense he had faced all season was the Buffalo Bills, who finished with a 1–12–1 record, their one win coming against the Jets.
Of course, there was the famous guarantee by Namath, three days before the game, Namath appeared at the Miami Touchdown Club and boldly predicted to the audience, “We’re gonna win the game. I guarantee it.” Of course he had said this to others during the week, including Dave Anderson of the New York Times, Luther Evans of the Miami Herald and Jerry Izenberg of the Newark Star-Leger and the Detroit News’ Jerry Green. Green and Izenberg are the last two men to have covered every Super Bowl.
In addition, the Colts didn’t know the Jets All-Pro wide receiver, Don Maynard, had pulled a hamstring in the Championship game against Oakland. Weeb Ewbank, who had coached the Colts to the 1958 and 59 NFL Championships, wisely used Maynard as a decoy for most of the game. It opened up a hole in the zone defense used by the Colts and George Sauer caught eight passes for 133 yards. Maynard didn’t catch a pass in the game but was double teamed, leaving Sauer to exploit the Baltimore zone.
Morrall had a terrible game. He threw three interceptions and missed a wide open Johnny Orr at the end of the first half on a flea-flicker. In addition, several Jets, including defensive back Johnny Sample, had played for the Colts when Ewbank was coach and knew the team’s offensive schemes better than most. Ewbank also had a young defensive coordinator in Buddy Ryan who kept an eye on the Colts receivers, including John Mackey, the first tight end enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Ryan’s defense was so effective, Morrall completed only six passes all day and threw three interceptions.
“19 Straight.” That was the play that the Jets ran all the time, with Matt Snell and Emerson Boozer out of the backfield. The Colts knew about Namath, but they thought Snell and Boozer were inferior to Tom Matte and Jerry Hill.
The play, when broken down, wasn’t all that different than the Packers famous power sweep. Snell ran all over the Colts. He and Boozer made a pact before the game, who ever got it going, the other would block like a lineman. Boozer took care of the weak-side linebacker and Snell ran for 121 yards and the only touchdown for the Jets.
The Colts missed three field goals and were held scoreless until 3:19 of the fourth quarter. Namath didn’t throw a pass in the fourth quarter. He didn’t have to. The Jets had the ball for almost the entire third quarter, expanding their lead with two Jim Turner field goals (and one early in the 4th) that sealed the win for the Jets.
After the win, everyone said it was a fluke. Years later, Bubba Smith said the game was fixed. He even told me that more than once. 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. None of his claims were ever substantiated.
The next year, which was the last year before the merger was complete, Kansas City, who had lost to the Packers in the first game, were 16-point underdogs against Minnesota. They then went out and dominated the overmatched Vikings 23–7. That left the two leagues even as rivals.
But none of the outlandishness and unbridled attention that would become the Super Bowl would have happened without a team with a brash QB and a solid supporting cast and a guarantee that still reverberates 50 years later.
