Someone asked me yesterday, if I was ready for the Super Bowl. Frankly, no. Since I have been around for the 42 other Super Bowls, this one, like most Super Bowls, won’t matter much to me. I am not sure who is even playing. Maybe I’ll watch it, maybe I won’t, but I certainly am not building a day around it. 

     Besides, I have already seen the greatest Super Bowl ever. Well, I didn’t really see it, I listened to on the radio.  It was Super Bowl III played on January 12, 1969 at the Orange Bowl in Miami. I was a junior at Woodberry Forest. A few days before the game, the press found Joe Willie Namath, a.k.a. “Broadway Joe”, poolside surrounded by babes. When asked who was going to win, this brash young man guaranteed the Jets.

    In 1969, you cannot imagine the hoopah caused by this statement. Imagine the lowly Jets of the AFL daring to challenge the great NFL Colt team coached by Don Shula. The Johnny U Colts (Unitas was out most of that season, but made a late game appearance to get the Colts their only points that day) had lost only 1 game all year. Yeah, there was Joe in swim trunks, reclining on a chaise lounge, and guaranteeing the Jet win. Best of all he did it and then left the field with his finger raised high in “we’re # 1″ sign pictured above. (I didn’t see this picture until weeks after the game – remember I listened to the game on the radio.) And the next day, no one even remembered or discussed one television commercial.