Speaker 1: The game is over and New York the world. You
Speaker 1: play to win the gate. He's got as Jet. What's down?
Speaker 1: You're listening to the Official New York Jets podcast, a
Speaker 1: Jets three sixty production. What's Up Everybody? Eating Greenberg and
Speaker 1: Eric Allen back in studio for the Official Jets Podcast.
Speaker 1: In this weekend, it's not only Jets colts on Sunday
Speaker 1: I MetLife Stadium, it's also an honoring of the Super
Speaker 1: Bowl three team in nine. It's been fifty years since
Speaker 1: that team has took the field and they're gonna be
Speaker 1: basically the halftime performance. They're gonna be honored at MetLife Stadium,
Speaker 1: and what better way be honored throughout the weekend? Greens
Speaker 1: I think the organization has something set up for them
Speaker 1: throughout the weekend. I think the guys are arriving, maybe
Speaker 1: late Friday, maybe bringing in their families a necessary morning.
Speaker 1: I believe they'll be here on a day when it's
Speaker 1: closed to the media and things like that. But I
Speaker 1: believe the Super Bowl three team will be here to
Speaker 1: take in walk through, maybe talk to some of the
Speaker 1: current members of two thousand and eighteen Jets. Then there's
Speaker 1: some festivities Saturday afternoon. I know there's a dinner at
Speaker 1: MetLife Stadium Saturday night, hosted by Jets fan himself, the Swammy,
Speaker 1: Chris Berman Swamy. Yeah you young buck Man. No, well
Speaker 1: I know he's just Swammy. I didn't know he was hosting.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, so of course I know who the Swallow. Okay,
Speaker 1: So then Sunday morning, actually I think I'm hosting a
Speaker 1: breakfast at MetLife Stadium. And then, like you mentioned before,
Speaker 1: the players will be honored at halftime. So everybody, make
Speaker 1: sure you get your beers early, maybe the second quarter
Speaker 1: early time out, or your pepsis, your pop worms, whatever
Speaker 1: things like that, because we'd love to hit everybody in
Speaker 1: their seats. Make sure to go in the two minute warning.
Speaker 1: Don't go out two minute warning, You're still gonna get
Speaker 1: caught in lines man. Yeah, okay, well everybody does a
Speaker 1: two minute warning. You gotta be before that. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: do that in the press box too. But so ea,
Speaker 1: and I talked to Bob Letter, who wrote a book
Speaker 1: that essentially is about everyone except Joe Namath on the
Speaker 1: Super Bowl. A chapter about Joe in there. But as
Speaker 1: you'll soon find out, he's one of the few people
Speaker 1: he wasn't able to talk to right. And the book
Speaker 1: is called Beyond Broadway Joe the Super Bowl Team that
Speaker 1: Changed Football, And so Bob spoke to what he say,
Speaker 1: thirty eight of the forty four members of the team
Speaker 1: excluding Joe, and then five coaches, And there's a chapter
Speaker 1: on every player. And if you're a Jets fan that
Speaker 1: watched that Super Bowl and you follow the team growing up,
Speaker 1: you're obviously going to be very in tune and you're
Speaker 1: going to know a lot of a lot of the players.
Speaker 1: But there's some fascinating stories from the beginning of the
Speaker 1: book to the end of the book. But if you're
Speaker 1: a young Jets fan like myself and I have the
Speaker 1: good fortune of understanding what the Super Bowl meant, not
Speaker 1: only from literature and and whatnot, but my grandmother actually
Speaker 1: was at the game along with my dad and my uncle.
Speaker 1: And I don't think wether, I don't think we've actually
Speaker 1: discussed this. They were at the Orange Bowl. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: my grandma, my grandpa, my uncle, my brother were all
Speaker 1: there in nineteen six nine. Did they keep anything from that,
Speaker 1: like a ticket stub or you know that my grandma
Speaker 1: program programs needs to be big. Back in the day,
Speaker 1: I believe there is a program somewhere in my grandmother's house.
Speaker 1: I mean, like, you know, not that the audience needs
Speaker 1: to know this, but my grandmother is a hoarder, so
Speaker 1: she has everything from she had a check from the
Speaker 1: nineteen fifties that we recently threw out because obviously it
Speaker 1: is expired. But like she she has a couple of
Speaker 1: things and there's a uh, there's a program somewhere, I mean,
Speaker 1: we have to find it. And there's a photo of
Speaker 1: polaroid picture uh, and it's uh, you see Broadway Joe
Speaker 1: like getting on a bus, and my grandma was just
Speaker 1: like in the front front of the photo. This isn't
Speaker 1: in Miami. Yeah, yeah, look at you. Yeah, Broadway Joe's
Speaker 1: So I will say this. Uh. And we didn't get
Speaker 1: into this with Bob, but there was a feeling that season,
Speaker 1: if the Jets could beat the Raiders, that they would
Speaker 1: beat the Baltimore Colts. They were confident that they would
Speaker 1: beat the Colts. Now, the Hodgemakers weren't confident. And we
Speaker 1: didn't talk to Bob about the guarantee because it's been
Speaker 1: talked about so many times. But I was in New
Speaker 1: York City recently hosting a Q and A with Joe
Speaker 1: Namath and he said that we're at the Miami Touchdown
Speaker 1: Club and somebody in the back was saying, Hey, you're
Speaker 1: gonna get your butt beat, Joe, You're gonna get your
Speaker 1: butt beat, and he said, no, we're not. No, we're not.
Speaker 1: I guarantee it. And that's how that's how it all started.
Speaker 1: And then the next morning you see headlines in the newspaper,
Speaker 1: so you're hosting the Q and A and some guy
Speaker 1: didn't to like, no, no, no, no, that happened at
Speaker 1: the mind, I thought you were saying that some and
Speaker 1: tried to like recreate the moment that would be something
Speaker 1: that would be funny. Maybe some day that will happen,
Speaker 1: but uh uh, that's all. It's not like Nameth one
Speaker 1: out there and he was talking to a medium member
Speaker 1: and was like, oh, yeah, we're gonna win it. But
Speaker 1: if you talk to the guys over the years, and
Speaker 1: I've had a great opportunity to do that, they were
Speaker 1: very confident heading into that game. And the thing about
Speaker 1: that game in particular, which was very interesting is the
Speaker 1: Jets down, I mean dominated on the ground and with
Speaker 1: the defense. I think that had five takeaways in all
Speaker 1: sixteen and seven against the Baltimore Colts. But that game
Speaker 1: really changed the football landscape and we were we are
Speaker 1: lucky to be part of an organization that, um, you know,
Speaker 1: has that as part of its legacy. And again who
Speaker 1: knows what had what would have happened. Uh, people ultimately
Speaker 1: think the merger was happening, but this definitely quicken it
Speaker 1: or made it faster that the merger was definitely going
Speaker 1: to happen. Um, So we never know because the NFL
Speaker 1: dominating those first two Super Bowls. So a couple of
Speaker 1: things here before we roll in this interview with Bob
Speaker 1: Letter is one I think Bob and you and everyone
Speaker 1: and would be happy to know that the Super Bowl
Speaker 1: three is It was actually taught in when I went
Speaker 1: to school, so I was part of like an American
Speaker 1: sports history class and very much so we talked about
Speaker 1: Super Bowl three you want to advanced school man, because
Speaker 1: it was a real cool We wasn't elective, but it
Speaker 1: was really cool. We didn't have any sports history class. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was awesome. We learned all about the history. It
Speaker 1: was the history of sports and television and Super Bowl
Speaker 1: three was a big part of that. And just some
Speaker 1: really cool stuff there, Like, for example, I didn't know
Speaker 1: this is that Floyd Little and Suilve. Oh, by the way,
Speaker 1: we gotta drop the four four in here. Yeah. So
Speaker 1: Floyd Little actually, right before the a f L NFL merger,
Speaker 1: had agreed to sign with the New York Jets, and
Speaker 1: then the two leagues merged and then there was just
Speaker 1: one singular draft. Floyd Little went to the Amber. Bronco's
Speaker 1: arrest is history. The other thing is that I just
Speaker 1: wanted to say about Joan Amath and the Super Bowl
Speaker 1: and the guarantee is just my favorite story is that
Speaker 1: he's like out by the pool like a day before
Speaker 1: the game and reporters just like walked up to him
Speaker 1: and had had a conversational interview with him. And could
Speaker 1: you imagine could you just imagine what that would be
Speaker 1: like today if a player were just hanging out by
Speaker 1: the pool the day before a game. First of all,
Speaker 1: screwy on social media would be through the roof. Second
Speaker 1: of all, it just would never happen, No, it when,
Speaker 1: it when. And that was the innocence of everything, because
Speaker 1: back in the day, you could go out and there's
Speaker 1: stories you guys, heaven beers with reporters and you know,
Speaker 1: and there were certain things off limits. Now we live
Speaker 1: in a world where your phone controls everything, so you
Speaker 1: gotta be on point all the time. I think there
Speaker 1: was more freedom back in the day, and it was
Speaker 1: more of a relaxed atmosphere, like you're saying, and isn't
Speaker 1: it something if you look back to that raft. I
Speaker 1: believe Joe Namath gets was lockted by the St. Louis
Speaker 1: Cardinals in the NFL and the New York Jets of
Speaker 1: the NFL and something any opts to go to the
Speaker 1: Jets and the rest of the history. But this was
Speaker 1: a great team. Greens about the mine. This is a
Speaker 1: great team, and we get lost in and and that
Speaker 1: over the years. That just thinking it was broadway Joe,
Speaker 1: because if you talk to Joe, he is the first
Speaker 1: person to talk about his running backs, whether it be
Speaker 1: Matt Snow or Emerson Boozer, or offensive linement guys like
Speaker 1: John Schmidt is center up front, or the receivers Donny
Speaker 1: Maynard of course, and George Sower and then that defense
Speaker 1: Jerry philbin Um and company. So, uh, the ultimate team
Speaker 1: and they had the ultimate win and maybe in sports history,
Speaker 1: and well, what a perfect segue to roll in this
Speaker 1: interview with Bob Letter, because it is more than just
Speaker 1: Joe Namath. And I think that's why Bob Letter wrote
Speaker 1: this book. As you'll soon here, he said that someone
Speaker 1: would said, oh, that's the Joe Namanth Super Bowl, and
Speaker 1: he took it personally and said, because this team was
Speaker 1: great in many more ways than just Joe Namath, even
Speaker 1: though he was a key component to the Jets of success.
Speaker 1: But without further ado, here's our talk with Bob Letter.
Speaker 1: All right, now joined by the author of Beyond Broadway,
Speaker 1: Joe the Super Bowl Team that Changed Football, Bob Letter. Bob,
Speaker 1: thanks so much for joining us. Thank you gentlemen for
Speaker 1: inviting me. It's a pleasure. And uh, I hope a
Speaker 1: lot of Jets fans are gonna learn something from our
Speaker 1: conversation today in from the book. I'm sure that they will.
Speaker 1: And for fans that don't know about what the book is,
Speaker 1: can you want to explain what it is, how long
Speaker 1: the project took for you to complete, and where you
Speaker 1: got the idea to write this book. The project took
Speaker 1: three years. The book is essentially, I guess the best
Speaker 1: way to describe it is the story of the Super
Speaker 1: Bowl Jets team other than Joe Namath, although he's obviously
Speaker 1: essential character in it, and I think he still has
Speaker 1: the second largest chapter in the book. But it's the
Speaker 1: first attempt ever made to try to incorporate and tell
Speaker 1: the stories of the other forty four players, UM, and
Speaker 1: the five coaches and the pro personnel director who enabled,
Speaker 1: as I say it, Joe Namath to live up to
Speaker 1: his Super Bowl three Guarantee. Bob, there's gonna be a
Speaker 1: lot of young people listening to today and they don't
Speaker 1: know the enormous um victory that was for not only
Speaker 1: the Jets, but the a f L and the entire
Speaker 1: football world. And your part three of your book is
Speaker 1: how Super Bowl three changed everything? How did it change everything? Well,
Speaker 1: I don't want to give the whole thing away, but
Speaker 1: let me put it. Let me put it to you
Speaker 1: this way. Um. The Jet players, first of all, had
Speaker 1: heard rumors during the two weeks between the a f
Speaker 1: L Championship game where they beat Oakland and earned a
Speaker 1: spot in the Super Bowl, and the Super Bowl game itself,
Speaker 1: UM that the NFL was not necessarily going to follow
Speaker 1: through and have all the a f L teams come
Speaker 1: into the NFL. In fact, a couple of them, and
Speaker 1: they talk about it in the book. Told me that
Speaker 1: some of the weaker a FL franchises were seriously being
Speaker 1: considered not being included, and frankly the two weakest AFL
Speaker 1: franchises at the time. And think about this gentleman with
Speaker 1: the Boston Patriots and the Denver Bronco. So imagine Tom
Speaker 1: Brady never having played for the Patriots. Well, maybe he
Speaker 1: would have gotten to the Jets. Who knows um. But
Speaker 1: the other thing that happened is that Pete Rosel, it
Speaker 1: was well known, was looking to incorporate um the ten
Speaker 1: AFL teams or however many they were going to put
Speaker 1: in into the NFL structure, and in other words that Jess,
Speaker 1: we're going to be placed in the Giants vision. The
Speaker 1: Oakland Raiders were going to be in the forty Niners division.
Speaker 1: Buffalo would have been in a division with Detroit, um, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. UM.
Speaker 1: After the Super Bowl game, the a f L owners
Speaker 1: got their backs up and they told the NFL, because
Speaker 1: this was decision making time about the merger that was
Speaker 1: still two weeks two years off from actually being completed,
Speaker 1: that they were insistent that the structure of the old
Speaker 1: American Football League be maintained. And so the best way
Speaker 1: to really look at this, and I really thought about
Speaker 1: this over this past weekend. Imagine today if the American
Speaker 1: Football Conference was not the American Football Conference but the
Speaker 1: American Football League, and the NFC was the National Football
Speaker 1: League and they were literally separate league, still at war
Speaker 1: with each other, and each year vying for the talent
Speaker 1: coming out each year. Imagine for Sam Donald would have
Speaker 1: cost the Jets to try to sign away from an
Speaker 1: NFL team. That it's fascinating to think about when you
Speaker 1: put it that way. But I want to know is
Speaker 1: how did you go about writing this book and how
Speaker 1: many players did you speak to? It were as a
Speaker 1: phone interviews? How did you get in contact with the players?
Speaker 1: And did you have a favorite interview? Um? How I
Speaker 1: got in touch with the players is a deep guarded secret,
Speaker 1: but I will reveal to no one. Um. Um. We
Speaker 1: had a system in place that we put together here
Speaker 1: UM that allowed me to identify where the players were
Speaker 1: and then to connect with them through different various means.
Speaker 1: I talked to thirty eight different people who were part
Speaker 1: of the forty four players other than Joe and the
Speaker 1: five coaches, um and and Sonny Werblin's kids, and even
Speaker 1: the children of some of the other owners of the Jets,
Speaker 1: As Sonny Werblin had really gone out of the way
Speaker 1: after the sixty seven season, he had been brought out
Speaker 1: by the There's uh And so I was able to
Speaker 1: talk to probably um of the players. Several of them
Speaker 1: had died, notably George Sowar Jr. In Jim Hudson that
Speaker 1: was actually just a couple of years before I started,
Speaker 1: But there had been others who early on had passed away.
Speaker 1: Cleave Rush, who was a superb offensive coordinator, had been
Speaker 1: the first to pass away in ninety eight or seventy nine. Um,
Speaker 1: Buddy Ryan was not doing well at the time that
Speaker 1: I started the book, But I was able to get
Speaker 1: most everybody else. And I also got the last interviews
Speaker 1: um that people like um Winston Hill ever did, Curtly
Speaker 1: Johnson ever did, etcetera. So it was it was really
Speaker 1: a thrill for me to talk to a lot of
Speaker 1: these guys. Now, what's what's the most interesting interview? Boy,
Speaker 1: that's really tough to pick out, but I'll tell you
Speaker 1: the first one because it was very very telling about
Speaker 1: the rest of the book. Curly Johnson was the first player,
Speaker 1: UM that I elected the call, and it was just
Speaker 1: by chance. I had no specific reason for starting there.
Speaker 1: Curly lived out in Texas and his wife answers the phone,
Speaker 1: and she I told her who I was, and my
Speaker 1: my spiel for everybody was and I'm a Jet fan
Speaker 1: since nineteen sixty three, and I remember the evolution of
Speaker 1: the team from the Titans to the Jets, and even
Speaker 1: more so the evolution and the progress that the players
Speaker 1: made individually between nineteen sixty three when Sonny Werblin and
Speaker 1: we Viewbank took over, and of course at the end
Speaker 1: of the sixty eight and beginning of the sixty nine
Speaker 1: season when the Jets became champions UM. And and she
Speaker 1: listened to me and said, okay, she says, can you
Speaker 1: hold on a second? I said sure. She covered the
Speaker 1: microphone on the phone, and I heard her distinctly say, Hey, Curly,
Speaker 1: there's a guy on the phone that wants to talk
Speaker 1: to you about the Super Bowl. UM, And I could
Speaker 1: hear Curly, who really couldn't communicate for well at that
Speaker 1: point he had really been struck early on by CTE.
Speaker 1: But he laughed. She laughed even louder. She came back,
Speaker 1: and she said, Curly has been waiting forty eight years
Speaker 1: to tell people what happened in his mind, the memories
Speaker 1: he has about that great season, and although nobody else
Speaker 1: exactly put it that way, UM, reading between the lines,
Speaker 1: that's what most of the players I talked to really felt.
Speaker 1: And the best way I can explain that is that
Speaker 1: when the book was done, and everybody in the book
Speaker 1: has their own chapter and they've all seen what I've
Speaker 1: written about them. Um. I heard from at least a
Speaker 1: half a dozen who said they can't wait for the
Speaker 1: book to come out because it will give them something
Speaker 1: they can pass on to generations from their family, to
Speaker 1: show what Grandpa, great grandpa, great great grandpa did as
Speaker 1: a football player back in the nineteen sixties. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: that's really wonderful. And the Jets are gonna honor more
Speaker 1: of thirty those Jets players who were there. January twelfth,
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty nine. Down in the Orange Bowl one, the
Speaker 1: Green and White beat the Baltimore Colt sixteen seven UM
Speaker 1: and one of the most iconic games in any sport ever. Uh.
Speaker 1: The coach of that team was we view bank. You
Speaker 1: actually were able to dig up some player evaluations. How
Speaker 1: cool was that? And I gotta imagine, Bob and when
Speaker 1: you went into this, you didn't think that, well, there's
Speaker 1: a chance I get some player evaluations from we view back.
Speaker 1: Well remember wildest treams. What actually happened is that some
Speaker 1: of the Jet players, after I had interviewed them, invited
Speaker 1: me to come to New York to meet them, because said, hey,
Speaker 1: you're asking us a lot of questions. There's a bunch
Speaker 1: of us that want to look you in the face
Speaker 1: and ask you a bunch of questions. So I did
Speaker 1: travel to New York in January of two thousand and sixteen,
Speaker 1: and I met with guys like Jerry Philman and Ralph
Speaker 1: Baker and Al Atkinson and Larry Grantham and Bake Turner
Speaker 1: and Cornell Gordon and a whole bunch of them, um
Speaker 1: and in and amongst the crowd, I was introduced to
Speaker 1: a gentleman named j Palmerans who lives on the island
Speaker 1: and is one of the biggest Jet season ticket holders.
Speaker 1: Um and Jay was introduced to me and I told
Speaker 1: him what the project was and he said, hey, he
Speaker 1: got some time before you go back to Chicago this weekend,
Speaker 1: and I said, sure, followed him to his home that
Speaker 1: Sunday morning, and he told he took me into what
Speaker 1: I would best describe as a jet caves filled with uniforms, helmets, shoes,
Speaker 1: all sorts of playing paraphernalia from that from that team.
Speaker 1: He's really the ultimate fan of that Super Bowl team.
Speaker 1: But more importantly and have more interest to me, He
Speaker 1: opened up his shelf and showed me the weeview Bank States,
Speaker 1: which essentially meant that he had playbooks and personal notes
Speaker 1: and things of that nature, um from from the end
Speaker 1: of his Colts time to the end of his Jets time.
Speaker 1: And he said, here, have fun. I think you're going
Speaker 1: to find a lot of interesting stuff. And he showed
Speaker 1: me a number of items that were there, including, just
Speaker 1: as an example, uh uh, the hospital report on Joe
Speaker 1: Amos knees. And one of the great things, AHAs that
Speaker 1: comes out of this book is that at the end
Speaker 1: of the seventh season UM the Jets ownership and we
Speaker 1: were told by Dr Nicholas and a specialist of knees
Speaker 1: and such that Joe probably had two to three years
Speaker 1: of full capability left in him. And then there was
Speaker 1: no guessing that they could make about whether he'd even
Speaker 1: be able to suit up and play evermore. And so, UM,
Speaker 1: they basically said, if you're going to go for a championship,
Speaker 1: go for it soon. Well that that summer, as a
Speaker 1: lot of Jet historians no, in trading camp, the Jets
Speaker 1: traded for Bob Talamini to really fortify their offensive line eight,
Speaker 1: and that was to protect Joe and be They brought
Speaker 1: in Babe Perilli, who became the first veteran quarterback to
Speaker 1: back up Joe Namath and be ready really to step
Speaker 1: in if Nameth got hurt or had to leave a
Speaker 1: game or or what for whatever reason. And that, to
Speaker 1: me in retrospect, was the sign that they were going
Speaker 1: for it. I felt that way as a kid when
Speaker 1: I was sixteen that year. But I also in looking
Speaker 1: back now and being able to read all this information, recognized, um,
Speaker 1: that that we and and Sonny Werblin and the Jets
Speaker 1: ownership had decided. Yet we're going for it now because
Speaker 1: we can see what the doctor reports have to say.
Speaker 1: And that's just one of the things, Um that comes
Speaker 1: out of the book. You mentioned Babelli going through this process,
Speaker 1: and as time has gone on. How difficult is it
Speaker 1: when you've seen some of these guys passed recently. It's
Speaker 1: been very hard for me personally because Babe, Larry Grantham,
Speaker 1: Um in particular, were guys that I was talking to
Speaker 1: on a fairly regular basis long after I was done
Speaker 1: interviewing them. I mean, Larry Grantham has really taught me
Speaker 1: before he died last year, what professional defenses are all about,
Speaker 1: and what you do and what you don't, and especially
Speaker 1: the critical importance of watching film. A lot of the
Speaker 1: other guys I still talk to, you know with with
Speaker 1: some regularity, and I count you know, a handful of
Speaker 1: them as really amongst my very best friends, and I
Speaker 1: hope to continue that well past this fiftieth anniversary. Have
Speaker 1: you mentioned that you were sixteen at the time when
Speaker 1: the Jets won the Super Bowl. I just want to know,
Speaker 1: is has grown up watching this team and rooting for
Speaker 1: this team? And what do you remember about the season
Speaker 1: about the Super Bowl? And did you have a favorite player?
Speaker 1: My favorite players were Jerry Selban and Emerson Boozer. And
Speaker 1: that's one of the reasons I wrote the book, is
Speaker 1: that my my interests in those days, although we all
Speaker 1: loved Joe. You couldn't fail to love Joe. His talent
Speaker 1: was just, you know, out of this world. But the
Speaker 1: Jets had eleven play who played in the a f
Speaker 1: L All Star Game that year. So there were ten
Speaker 1: other guys, guys like John Elliott and Jerry Philbin and
Speaker 1: Al Atkinson and John Schmidt and Dave Herman and Boozer
Speaker 1: himself and Don Maynard and George Sower Jr. Um. These
Speaker 1: guys were special talents, um. And so as the youths
Speaker 1: have gone by and the fiftieth anniversary has come to
Speaker 1: be connected almost strictly with Joe Namoth. In fact, that's
Speaker 1: what I hear here in Chicago when I tell people
Speaker 1: about the book. They said, oh, you're you're writing a
Speaker 1: book about the name of Super Bowl. And in a
Speaker 1: way that's almost offended me because as a Jets fan
Speaker 1: and somebody who grew up watching football and learning about football,
Speaker 1: as this team was being put together piece by piece
Speaker 1: in sixty three and sixty four and sixty sixty sixty seven,
Speaker 1: even bits and pieces that still came together in sixty eight, UM,
Speaker 1: I have really come to recognize that these guys were
Speaker 1: a tremendous outfit of forty five players who really committed
Speaker 1: themselves to going to win. And I don't know about
Speaker 1: the players today, but I did discover that most of
Speaker 1: these guys back then knew very little about their teammates.
Speaker 1: I'm talking about their personal lives. The obviously they knew
Speaker 1: their lives and their kids, but beyond that, not much else.
Speaker 1: And Jerry Philbin, after reading his chapter, said Hey, I'd
Speaker 1: like to read a couple of the other chapters. I said, sure,
Speaker 1: said to to him, and he said, Wow, there is
Speaker 1: so much information here that I didn't know about my teammates.
Speaker 1: And he said, I can't wait to read about the
Speaker 1: rest of them. And I've heard that from a number
Speaker 1: of players. In fact, Billie Joe, who was at the
Speaker 1: beginning of the season the third string fullback, told me
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks ago he learned things about himself
Speaker 1: in his chapter. And I don't think you could give
Speaker 1: me a nicer research compliments than to point that after
Speaker 1: you can't get anybody than that. How about Broadway Joe
Speaker 1: himself did. He liked the concept of the of the
Speaker 1: book because I've been here for close to well, this
Speaker 1: is my eighteenth season, and I've been around Joe quite
Speaker 1: a bunch, and he is a humble guy. He is
Speaker 1: a guy who has that magnetic personality. I know when
Speaker 1: a lot of people hear that name, and probably you
Speaker 1: go through this every day, they think of Broadway, Joe
Speaker 1: the fur Coat, um, the Bachelor's uh, the establishment that
Speaker 1: I had in New York City, the TV shows and
Speaker 1: all that other stuff. But I don't think people understand
Speaker 1: that this guy was a good teammate and he also
Speaker 1: went through an evolution as a player, specifically in Night
Speaker 1: when he said, Hey, I can't do it all by myself.
Speaker 1: I have a great running game behind me, I have
Speaker 1: a good offensive line, and I have a dominant defense. Well,
Speaker 1: you know, I have to be honest with you. I
Speaker 1: have never talked to Joe Namas. Wow, he did not
Speaker 1: talk to me for the book. The players told me
Speaker 1: that they loved him. In fact, all Atkinson's told me
Speaker 1: that the end of his chapter had to conclude with
Speaker 1: his simple comment that always remember that we wouldn't have
Speaker 1: won without Joe Namas. Um the players love him. Um,
Speaker 1: I they just you know, they know that he was
Speaker 1: a difference maker. And we all know he was a
Speaker 1: difference maker. Everybody recognized that um, but he said after
Speaker 1: the game to Sal Marciano of Channel two in New York,
Speaker 1: when Sal tried to congratulate him and say to him, congratulations,
Speaker 1: you're the king of the Hill, Joe immediately turned it
Speaker 1: around and said, no, we're the kings of the Hill.
Speaker 1: We've got the team. And that was another bit of
Speaker 1: the the reason that I did the book that I did,
Speaker 1: I wanted to show and this, this is the way
Speaker 1: the book is laid out, that without a great offensive line,
Speaker 1: a very good running game, and particularly running backs who
Speaker 1: could block like the devil, great receivers, and a defense
Speaker 1: that in nineteen six eight became the best in the
Speaker 1: American Football League. Without all those components, that even I'll
Speaker 1: add the special teams because they were largely um inhabited
Speaker 1: by rookie players who just basically played their hearts out
Speaker 1: and put their lives on the line. Because even in
Speaker 1: those days, the special teams were more dangerous than anything
Speaker 1: that we see today because there were less and less rules.
Speaker 1: All those things together, as I said early on in
Speaker 1: this conversation, enabled Joe to fulfill his guarantee, Well, the
Speaker 1: book is beyond Broadway. Joe, Bob Letter tremendous research, well written, uh,
Speaker 1: piece of literature for any Jets fan. And I just
Speaker 1: wanted to leave today with one question. The fathers and
Speaker 1: sons are gonna go to the game Amountlife Stadium this
Speaker 1: weekend Sunday, it's halftime. Here come the Jets onto the field.
Speaker 1: What do you want the fathers to tell their young
Speaker 1: kids about the sea the team? Wow? Great question. Uh.
Speaker 1: First of all, I plan to be there too. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna find by hooker by crook away to get into
Speaker 1: the ballpark. But um, the thing about the sixty eight team,
Speaker 1: as I mentioned before, is that these were guys who
Speaker 1: really played their heart out together one of the real
Speaker 1: keys to that team winning and I think it probably
Speaker 1: applies as well today. But Larry Grantham stressed to me that,
Speaker 1: particularly on defense, every one of the eleven players had
Speaker 1: to not only understand, um, what exactly the other ten
Speaker 1: guys would do on every single play. So imagine whether
Speaker 1: it's a draw play, or it's there a sweep to
Speaker 1: either side, or it's a screen or it's a long
Speaker 1: pass play. Um, the defensive tackle John Elliott had to
Speaker 1: know what the other guys on the defensive line. Each
Speaker 1: one of them was going to do on that play,
Speaker 1: what the linebackers were going to do, kind of the
Speaker 1: safeties we're gonna be lined up, and what the corners
Speaker 1: were prepared to do, and that sort of thing. And
Speaker 1: that is what makes a team cohesive and work. And
Speaker 1: just to give an example, you know from the present day,
Speaker 1: watching the game against Jacksonville the other day, so the
Speaker 1: the thriving uh Jacksonsville offense because they could just throw
Speaker 1: over the middle, as Jet defensive backs would let their
Speaker 1: guy go and anticipate that somebody else was going to
Speaker 1: pick them up deeper in the secondary. Um. That comes
Speaker 1: from experience, that comes from really watching film for for
Speaker 1: endless hours and understanding what's going on. But it's the
Speaker 1: cohesion that comes together. And you know, going into the
Speaker 1: six eight season, guys, um, there were only three new
Speaker 1: players that started for the Jets, so everybody else had
Speaker 1: become more and more accustomed to playing alongside the guy
Speaker 1: next to them um in the years that had passed on,
Speaker 1: and that was one of the keys to the success
Speaker 1: of that team. That is Bob Letter, the author of
Speaker 1: Beyond Broadway Joe, The Super Bowl Team that Change Football. Bob,
Speaker 1: thank you so much. Again for joining us. Well, thank you.
Speaker 1: I appreciate your your opportunity and your recommendation, and I
Speaker 1: hope people will take advantage uh and read up because
Speaker 1: young or old, but particularly to the young not there,
Speaker 1: who I understand may not be as with it. As
Speaker 1: far as this team goes, this is the legacy that
Speaker 1: we have as Jet fans. This is the greatest team
Speaker 1: in the history um of the New York Jet franchise.
Speaker 1: In fact, they still hold the record for official points
Speaker 1: scored in the season, and I think that says quite
Speaker 1: a bit fifty years later. Thanks Bob, We'll see us Sunday. Okay,
Speaker 1: thank you. Tremendous stuff from Bob, getting some insight on
Speaker 1: how he went about talking to the players, how the
Speaker 1: book came to fruition three years in the making. I mean,
Speaker 1: the book is let's take a look here. It's about
Speaker 1: three hundred plus pages, almost four hundred, and there's just
Speaker 1: tons of information in this book from the beginning to
Speaker 1: the end. And then truly like, as as we sit
Speaker 1: here recording this podcast, I'm looking in the middle. There's
Speaker 1: just like some photos here and I'm looking at a
Speaker 1: photo of the nineties side players and it looks like
Speaker 1: it's out of a notebook that I have on my desk,
Speaker 1: and you know what I mean, Like, this is crazy
Speaker 1: just to think about how the operation was so different
Speaker 1: in the nineteen sixties and the seventies compared to now,
Speaker 1: because this document would not only would be electronic, could
Speaker 1: probably be locked somewhere like this is just like a
Speaker 1: piece of paper. And what's so funny to me is
Speaker 1: when in the interview with Bob is when he was
Speaker 1: saying that he came across papers from the doctors on
Speaker 1: Joe Naman's knees, like that, that's crazy. You don't just
Speaker 1: like find that anymore. And then, uh, just looking back,
Speaker 1: I'm still thinking about the defense and bringing up Randy
Speaker 1: Beverly had a couple of interceptions and that game. Um yeah,
Speaker 1: but all you said, Yeah, Bob elaborated on his relationship
Speaker 1: with j palm Rance, and palm Rance is a guy
Speaker 1: who's got a lot of Judge memorabilia. So there is
Speaker 1: uh some really neat information that palm Rance hands and
Speaker 1: he was able to share with Bob in this book.
Speaker 1: I have a good name of story for you. So
Speaker 1: we're also in the Q and A in the city
Speaker 1: and we get done with it, and I said, thanks
Speaker 1: Joe and the people. There was a small, uh crowd
Speaker 1: in attendance, and they clapped, and he went over to
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl trophy because they brought it into the city,
Speaker 1: and he kissed it, and then he came over to
Speaker 1: me and he whispered to me, he goes, I think
Speaker 1: that's the first time I ever did it. Oh, look
Speaker 1: at that about that. Uh yeah, I've met Joe a
Speaker 1: couple of times, and growing up, you know, you hear
Speaker 1: stories about Joe, and you see photos and see videos
Speaker 1: and whatever. But meeting Joe in person, it's weird because
Speaker 1: you can and see exactly why people were pulled to
Speaker 1: him as fans, as friends, and you said that he
Speaker 1: had a magnetic personality. I mean, it's so obvious just
Speaker 1: in the first time I met him, I think was
Speaker 1: for like two minutes at a United Way event and
Speaker 1: he's a big proponent of United Way as a hometown hero.
Speaker 1: That happens every year, and I suppose I interviewed him
Speaker 1: for like probably a minute or two, probably less than
Speaker 1: two minutes, because he's a busy guy, and I mean
Speaker 1: you could tell immediately that you know he's got he's
Speaker 1: still got the fashion going. He's very charismatic and he
Speaker 1: that was a great edge to charismatic man that that
Speaker 1: guy he got. He still can walk down New York City.
Speaker 1: He's still got he's got a glow about him. There's
Speaker 1: just something different. And remember he's been on a public
Speaker 1: eye for what fifty some years now, and he is
Speaker 1: so good with people because a lot of people want
Speaker 1: to come up to him and tell him their story,
Speaker 1: tell him where they were when it happened, or maybe
Speaker 1: where their dad was when it happened, and think like that,
Speaker 1: and you know, or maybe maybe asked him a story
Speaker 1: about Bear Bryant and Alabama and he is so giving
Speaker 1: with his time and his smile and that beaver falls
Speaker 1: the draw uh that he developed and then went down
Speaker 1: to Alabama picked up some southern twain to Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: like a Pennsylvania and Alabama Pennsylbama. There it is. But
Speaker 1: he's a man. He's still the man to this day.
Speaker 1: And this team is you know, it's still you know,
Speaker 1: they'll always be remembered. But any time you get to
Speaker 1: a fiftieth anniversary, it's really special. Fifty years later again
Speaker 1: super Bowl three, the team will be honored at halftime
Speaker 1: at met Life said he has the Jets take on
Speaker 1: me now, Indianapolis Colts, make sure he has. He said,
Speaker 1: make sure to get your popcorn and get your pepsi,
Speaker 1: your soda, your beer or whatever you need. Make sure
Speaker 1: to get it before the two minute warnings. Are wearing
Speaker 1: all whites like they did in Super Bowl, and as
Speaker 1: on our previous podcast, Neil Glatt, the President of the Jets, said,
Speaker 1: they're rocking the gray face masks. I like it, so
Speaker 1: a little bit of a uniform combination, a new one
Speaker 1: so a new one for new Jets fans, an old
Speaker 1: one for older Jets fans. Nonetheless, it should be a
Speaker 1: great day, thanks again to Bob Letter. But that's all
Speaker 1: we have on this episode of the Official Jets Podcast.