In the world of athletics, there are certain players that belong with one team, nowhere else, and when they do move on it just feels different, like they're losing a limb. Like Michael Jordan playing for the Wizards and Joe Montana with the Chiefs, while they may have had something left in the tank, most of the public just never accepted them in another jersey. By 1973 and 1977, Johnny Unitas and Joe Namath were two has-beens that had yet to give up the sport that had define them for much of their lives. So they traveled across the country to sunny Southern California, wanting to rediscover that magic that had made the public swoon over them. They were in for a rude awakening.
Johnny U
In the beginning, Johnny Unitas was just your average, ordinary construction worker who happened to play semi-pro football on the weekends in the heart of the Steel City. Having been rejected by the Steelers, he was biding his time playing for the Bloomfield Rams in a nondescript park littered with glass and rocks. Somehow, the Baltimore Colts young head coach Weeb Ewbank got a whiff of a rumor about the skinny gunslinger and decided to take a chance on him.
And the rest is history. What followed was a miraculous period in the city of Baltimore. With Unitas leading the Colts, the team went to three NFL Championship Games, winning twice, in the era before the Super Bowl. Sure, his legacy took a hit when the Colts lost to the Jets in Super Bowl III, but he had been hurt for much of the year with a damaged right arm and sat on the sidelines for much of the season as his backup Earl Morrall led the team through the rugged NFL. By the time Unitas entered the Super Bowl, the damage had already been done with the Jets defense clearly in a groove that the Colts just couldn't match that fateful night.
He redeemed himself two years later by leading the Colts all the way back to the Super Bowl only to be knocked out of the game and watch as Morrall led his team to victory over the Dallas Cowboys. By then the wear and tear of 14 years had begun to take a toll on Unitas's body. No longer could he zip passes on a line. Most importantly, gone was the structure that had given him the opportunity to dominate the sport like few others had.
Ewbank had been gone since 1963, replaced by the now departed Don Shula who had led the team to that fateful Super Bowl III loss. Fellow Hall of Famers Raymond Berry, Art Donovan, John Mackey, Gino Marchetti, Lenny Moore and Jim Parker had long since been retired. Still, Baltimore craved Johnny Unitas's presence in that special way that only small towns can project.
With the Colts in a full-fledged rebuild after a 5-9 finish in 1972, "Johnny U" could see the writing on the wall. Eschewing a previously-signed contract that would have kept him employed with his beloved Colts for a decade after his retirement, he was traded to the woeful San Diego Chargers that offseason.
The Chargers were in the midst of a rebuilt of their own, having drafted highly touted Oregon quarterback Dan Fouts in the third round of that year's draft. Knowing that Unitas was on his last leg, they hoped that he could provide a critical veteran presence that their young gunslinger needed as he navigated the perils of the NFL.
With Fouts watching from the sidelines, Johnny Unitas started the first four games of the season, coughing up three interceptions in a disastrous 38-0 loss to the Washington Redskins. Seeking to outperform his below paltry 5.4 passer rating, Unitas led the Chargers to a 34-7 win over the Buffalo Bills the following week, completing 55.56% of his passes for 175 yards. and two touchdowns with a 125.6 passer rating.
He showed a hint of what he once was the following week against the Bengals. Down 20-3 going into the fourth quarter, Johnny U drove his team down the field to set up a Ray Wersching field goal. On the following drive, he again led his teammates down the field, finishing the drive with an eight-yard strike to Bob Thomas to make the final score a more respectable 20-13. In that moment, it didn't matter that he had completed less than half of his passes and threw two interceptions. All that mattered were those last two drives. The old man still had something left in the tank!
It turned out that that touchdown pass to Thomas was Unitas's last. The following week, Johnny Unitas reverted back to the player that he now was , completing just two of nine passes for 19 yards, two interceptions and a 0.0 rating in Pittsburgh before being benched at halftime for his understudy, Dan Fouts. Four weeks later, he trotted out to the field one last time in relief of a beleaguered Fouts towards the end of a 19-0 loss to the Chiefs. Sacked for an eight yard loss and completing his only pass for seven yards, Johnny Unitas ended his Hall of Fame career with a whimper under the San Diego sun as the Charger sputtered to a miserable 2-11-1 finish.
Broadway Joe
Unlike Unitas, Joe Namath chose Weeb Ewbank. In those days there were two drafts with both the AFL and NFL battling it out for the top talent in college football. Since Namath sported one of the best arms in the game for the almighty Alabama Crimson tide, he was a hot commodity that Spring. But while the NFL's Cardinals blanched at his contract demand, the Jets didn't even blink, giving him exactly what he wanted. And thus, "Broadway Joe" was born.
Blessed with an arm that seemingly dropped out of Heaven and a charisma that would make any woman swoon, Joe Namath immediately took the Big Apple by storm, hitting night clubs harder than he did the Jets playbook. He took advantage of his opportunity, becoming the first player to pass for 4,000 yard sin a season in 1967. But what truly drew America's attention was when he had the audacity to guarantee a Jets victory over Johnny Unitas's Colts in Super Bowl III.
Weeb Ewbank was aghast and tried in vain to squelch the flames that Broadway Joe had stoked, but Namath was having none of it. He truly believed that the Jets were going to pull off one of the biggest upsets in sports history and as New York's quarterback, he wasn't going to back down from such a publicized statement.
Despite not throwing a single touchdown pass in the game, Joe Namath proved to be a man of his word on the sport's biggest stage, delivering the Jets their only Super Bowl. The NFL was never the same.
But alas, Namath had little time to enjoy the spoils of victory. He would never again beat a winning team in the NFL and soon his knees began to buckle and fail him. Having already endured a severe knee injury in college, he knew going into his professional life that he only had so much time on the gridiron.
After the Jets finished 1976 with an abysmal 3-11 record, Broadway Joe was released and quickly signed with the Los Angeles Rams, reuniting with former Jets offensive line coach Chuck Knox. The Rams were in a much better situation than New York, having reached the NFC Championship Game in each of the previous three years and ultimately winning the NFC West from 1973 through 1979. Still hungering for another Super Bowl ring, Namath salivated at the opportunity.
Despite an early 27-yard touchdown pass to Harold Jackson to kick off the 1977 season, Joe Namath was less than stellar against the Atlanta Falcons, completing half of his passes while posting a 74.4 passer rating. He led his team to a 20-0 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles the following week, completing 52.17% of his passes for 136 yards and two touchdowns.
Against a weak 49ers squad in Week Three, "Broadway Joe" was briefly brought to life as he averaged nine yards per attempt in a 34-14 victory. The old gunslinger gave a valiant effort in Week Four, completing 16 of 40 passes and could have led his team to a critical victory over the playoff-bound Chicago Bears. But his four interceptions proved to be L.A.'s downfall in a 24-23 loss. Namath was replaced in the lineup by local hero Pat Haden after that and stood on the sidelines the rest of the way as the Rams ended the year in a Divisional Round loss to the Minnesota Vikings. Like his childhood hero, Johnny U, Broadway Joe's football career ended not with a bang, but with a whimper.
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