Meeting Broadway Joe

On the 45th anniversary of the greatest day in New York Jets history, I'm reminiscing about the time my youngest son and I met one of my all-time heroes, Joe Namath.  It happened on the Sunday morning of November 26, 2006 in the Meadowlands complex, just a few hours before a Jets-Texans game.

An autobiography of Namath had just been published, and he was scheduled to sign copies of it inside a large tent in the parking lot.  A 10-year Jets season ticket holder by this point, I asked my teenage son if he wanted to get to the Meadowlands early, skip our traditional tailgate party, and wait on a long line to meet Namath that day.  Thankfully, he did.

The line outside the tent was longer than we expected.  Eventually, we made it inside "the pearly gates" as another fan dubbed it.  Some of us were beginning to worry that Namath would be done signing before we could meet him.  We should have known better.  As the line moved slowly, very slowly, towards Namath, I decided we should buy two books, one for my son to keep.

We eventually made our way to the front of the line, and I snapped a few pictures of Namath -- I didn't want to be fumbling with a camera when it was our turn, especially since it was requested people not pose with Namath in order to keep the line moving.  Finally, we walked up to a grinning Namath, wearing tinted glasses and looking as cool as he did 30-40 years earlier.

"Thanks for making us proud to be Jets fans," I said to Namath.  He asked us where we wanted him to sign the books and, as he autographed the first, I whispered to my son Kevin that Namath was wearing his Super Bowl ring.  Namath must have heard me because he looked up at Kevin and said, "Here, try it on."

Awestruck, I watched as my son Kevin took the ring from Namath and put it on his hand.  We both stared at it as Namath autographed our second book.  After what seemed like a minute but was most likely just 15-20 seconds, Kevin handed Namath back the ring and they both smiled at each other.

"Thanks, Joe," I said as we prepared to walk away with our autographed books.  "We love you."

I took a couple more pictures as Namath prepared to sign the next person's book, and then we left the tent, beaming.  We beamed throughout the game, which the Jets won to seal a wonderful day.

When I recounted our meeting with Namath and showed our pictures to my grandmother shortly afterwards, she also began to beam.  She confided something to me that she probably would not have if my grandfather, a Jets fan, was still alive:  She understood why women were attracted to Namath -- she herself always found him very charismatic.

On this 45th anniversary of the New York Jets huge upset win over the mighty Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III, I again thank Joe Namath for making us proud to be Jets fans.