Tag Archives: American Football League

Namath, Jets make statement for AFL

By BRUCE LOWITT

To much of America, and certainly to the NFL, the American Football League was somewhere between a minor league and a joke.

Until Super Bowl III.

Until quarterback Joe Namath made good on a preposterous guarantee -- that his New York Jets would beat the seemingly unbeatable Baltimore Colts. They did, 16-7.

This AFL was the fourth league to challenge the NFL. The first three died within a year or two of their birth. But this one, which began playing in 1960, had network television money behind it.

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