Countdown to Super Bowl
by Dave Anderson
(Click here)
Book Summary Information
Author: Dave AndersonEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Published)
Published: 1969
ISBN: N/A
Number of pages: 224
Publisher: Signet
Book Reviews of Countdown to Super Bowl
Book Review: A Winning View Of A Changing Era
Summary: 5 Stars
I just finished reading this book a second time and I wanna contact a producer to do a movie of it. Maybe the NFL would be interested in bankrolling a movie about the 1969 Superbowl Champion New York Jets and the road they took to get there. This paperback signet version of the book was published just eight months after the Superbowl and still carries a freshness of the event. It's a moment frozen in time for us to hold in our hands and look at from different angles. And for me a six year old growing up in New York at the time it's a nostalgic piece of my childhood. I remember when Broadway Joe was king of New York. The High Karate and Hanes commercials. Joe was the first sports commodity marketing products on television. Probably the only male sports figure ever to don a pair of nylons on television and have women wanting him even more for it. I remember, I was there. But this book isn't about Joe Namath alone, it's about a time and place and the team that made the place and time memorable.
One paragraph beginning on the second to last page sums up why this story is so relevant to Professional Football: "Nobody realized what the Jets had accomplished. Their victory had not only been an historic upset, but another milestone in pro football. More than four decades earlier, Harold "Red" Grange was its missionary in the major cities during a barnstorming tour with the Chicago Bears following his famous college career. In 1940, the Bears proved that the "T" formation was the most potent offense with a 73-0 rout of the Washington Redskins in the NFL championship game. And in 1958 the Colts hypnotized the nation's television viewers in the 23-17 sudden-death victory over the New York Giants that lifted pro football toward its popularity."
The author, Dave Anderson, had traveled with the team throughout their entire season, through the playoffs and on to Ft. Lauderdale for what would become known as Superbowl III. The book gets you well acquainted with the Jets players, coaches and staff and also reveals why the Jets had so much to prove individually, as a team and as a representative of the newer American Football League.
Everyone today knows of Joe Namath's Guarantee but few have heard the context in how it was said or the audience it was said to. As I began reading the book, which has an artist's rendition of Joe Namath holding up the number 1 sign, I assumed the highlight would be Joe's guarantee and I couldn't wait to get to that part. But early on in my reading I found myself becoming a part of the team and getting as nervous and finicky as the players during the two-week buildup to the big game.
The author did a fantastic job of expressing the mood of the Jets players. He told the stories of the players past football rejections that led to their being on the upstart Jets team. Many of the players, as well as the head coach himself, were on the powerhouse Baltimore Colts team at one time. And all the Jets players with ties to the Colts were unceremoniously released for not being good enough to play football for them. The mistake the colts made when releasing players was to refer them to the AFL upstart New York Jets franchise where the former colt coach, Weeb Ewbank, had been put to pasture.
So when you look at how the Jets won a game where their opponent was favored by 18 points you have to think maybe revenge played a big part in the outcome. Speaking of odds, I like that the author gave Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder a little part in the book. Long before the Greek would throw his career down the toilet with a racially tainted comment on national television, the book captures him in his heyday of game predictions and betting odds. Though the Greek would say afterwards that the Colts poor play from their quarterback missing receivers cost them the game and that he'd give a 12 point spread favoring the Colts if they play again tomorrow, he was just as shocked as the rest of the world.
The book shows the leadership of Joe Namath without making Joe the hero that he was to the Jets. Joe was a team player and a good guy per his teammates and a few of the opponents who met him. There were no tabloid-like revealing details of Joe's partying or female companionships, but you did get just a tasteful touch of his desire for both. The Jets stuck with their coach Weeb Ewbank's season long rally cry for "poise and execution" and were rewarded with a Championship.
The reason I feel this would make such a good movie is the political and social changes of the time period and how those changes impacted the players; the importance the Jets win had on the eventual merger of the two leagues; the young star quarterback with his brash guarantee of a win; the arrogance of the NFL and old school football analysts who gave the New York Jets no chance of winning; the David vs. Goliath triumph. I think most people like a story where the underdog comes out as the victor.
Me being an Oakland Raiders fan enjoyed the many positive references to the Raiders of old. One other comment Joe Namath made to the newspapers that caused a stir was that the Oakland Raiders team, who they'd beat in the AFL Championship game, was a better team than the Colts. There was even an ironic bit that referenced the now infamous Heidi Bowl; a regular season game between the Oakland Raiders and the New York Jets, which the Raiders won in the last 45 seconds. NBC pulled the plug on the game to air the regularly scheduled Sunday Night movie "Heidi" and most of the east coast was blacked out from seeing the final minutes of the miraculous Raiders comeback. Or as Jets fans would like to forget, their bumbling loss. That game is historic in itself in that the networks changed their programming rules after that game and would never again interrupt a game to switch to a regularly scheduled program.
The time, 1969, was a time of change. Television, Hippies, Civil Rights, Women's Rights, Long Hair & Sideburns, Bra Burning, Vietnam Protests/Peace, Rock & Roll, Man on the Moon, Nixon Inauguration, IBM. Wow, how can you not find something to enjoy in a movie from that era. Oh, and Mini-Skirts.
It's not just a book about football; it's about people and an era of changing ideas. But if you're a sports fan and you get bored reading political and social novels, you'll stay up reliving the late sixties and the people who were there. And you'll relive it while witnessing one of the greatest moments in sports history, Joe Namath and the New York Jets two week buildup in Florida before slaying the monster that was the Baltimore Colts and proving their detractors wrong. You'll love this book, "I Guarantee It."
Summary of Countdown to Super Bowl
The story of the Pro Football Game of the Century, the upset by the New York Jets of the heavily-favored Baltimore Colts. The Jets were led by the brash and cocky quarterback, Joe Namath, who famed prediction of victory will live forever in pro football annals. Cover by well-known artist, Leroy Neiman.Football (American) Books
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