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"Broadway Joe" was one of the most gifted and cagey quarterbacks ever,he was the only quarterback to throw for over 4,000 yards in a 14-game season, he did it all with battered knees and unsurpassed charisma. While his Super Bowl III guarantee would make him a pop culture icon, it was Namath's battle-tested grit and courage that took him into the Hall of Fame.

College football career

• At Alabama, Namath played under the legendary coach Paul "Bear" Bryant from 1962 through 1964. A year after being suspended for the final two games of the season (including the Sugar Bowl) for violating team rules, Namath led the Crimson Tide to a national championship in 1964. Bryant would one day call Namath "the greatest athlete I ever coached."

Pro football career

• Despite suffering a serious knee injury in his senior year at Alabama, Namath was drafted by both the National Football League and the upstart American Football League. The two competing leagues held their respective drafts on the same day -- November 28, 1964.
• Football's St. Louis Cardinals selected Namath 12th overall in the NFL draft, while the AFL's Jets selected him with the second pick. He elected to sign with the Jets, who were under the direction of Hall of Fame owner Sonny Werblin, for more than $400,000.
• Namath was the American Football League Rookie of the year in 1965 and became the first professional quarterback to pass for 4,000 yards in a season (1967), a feat which remained a record for the 14-game seasons that were played during that time. He was a four-time American Football League All-Star, although he was plagued with knee injuries through much of his career. These injuries, which caused his knees to swell up with fluid and require periodic draining, plagued Namath for the rest of his career. On some occasions, Namath had to have his knee drained at halftime so that he could finish a game. Later in life, long after he left football, he had to have knee replacement surgery on both legs.
• In the 1968 AFL title game, Namath threw three touchdown passes to lead New York to a 27-23 win over the defending American Football League Champion Oakland Raiders. His performance in the 1968 season earned him the Hickok Belt as top professional athlete of the year. Namath was an AFL All-Star four times, in 1965, 1967, 1968, and 1969. He was a AFC-NFC Pro Bowler in 1972. Besides having the Hall of Fame distinction, he is a member of the Jets' all-time team and the American Football League All-Time Team.

• The apex of his career was his performance in the Jets' January 1969 win over the Baltimore Colts in the World Championship Game, now referred to as Super Bowl III. The Colts were touted as "the greatest football team in history". Former NFL star and coach Norm Van Brocklin ridiculed the AFL before the game, saying "This will be Namath's first professional football game." Writers from NFL cities insisted it would take the AFL several more years to be truly competitive with the NFL. Much of the hype surrounding the game was related to how it would either prove or disprove the proposition that the AFL teams were truly worthy of being allowed to merge with the NFL; the first two such games had resulted in blowout victories for the NFL champion champion in the two previous years, the Green Bay Packers, and the Colts were even more favored by media figures and handicappers than the Packers had been.
• Three days before the game, Namath responded to a heckler with the now-famous line: "The Jets will win on Sunday, I guarantee it." His words made headlines across the country, but were dismissed as mere bravado by most observers.
• In the game, however, Namath backed up his boast and showed that his success against tough American Football League competition had more than prepared him to take on the NFL. The Colts' vaunted defense was unable to contain the Jets' running or passing game, while their ineffective offense gave up four interceptions to the Jets. Namath was the game's MVP, completing eight passes to George Sauer alone, for 133 yards. Namath acquired legendary status for American Football League fans as the symbol of their league's legitimacy.
• Not long after this, Namath grew a Fu Manchu moustache, which contrasted him even more with his clean-shaven peers. In probably the most touted act in the history of shaving, Namath shaved his mustache off in a television commercial for Remington electric razors for a fee of $10,000.
• After the season, Namath opend a popular Upper East Side bar called "Bachelors III", which quickly became frequented by social undesirables. To protect the league's reputation, the NFL Commissioner, Pete Rozelle, ordered Namath to divest himself of his interest in the bar. Namath reacted defiantly, retiring from football during a teary news conference. After missing most of training camp, Namath came out of retirement and reported to the Jets. At the same time, he announced that he was selling his interest in "Bachelors III".
• The head of ABC's head of televised sports, Roone Arledge, made sure that Monday Night Football's inaugural game would feature Namath and the New York Jets in a game against the Cleveland Browns in Cleveland Municipal Stadium. A record crowd of 85,703 and a huge television audience watched the Jets set a team record for penalties and lose on a late Namath interception.
• After not missing a single game because of injury in his first five years in the league, Namath played in just 28 of a 58 possible games because of various injuries between 1970 and 1973 as the Jets struggled with records of 4-10, 6-8, 7-7, and 4-10. His most memorable moment in those four seasons came on September 24, 1972 in Baltimore, when he bombed the Colts for 496 yards and six touchdowns in a 44-34 victory, New York's first over Baltimore since Super Bowl III. In that same game, Unitas threw for 376 yards and three touchdowns, and this game is considered by many NFL experts to be the finest display of passing in a single game in league history.
• When he played, Namath always managed to improve the Jets level of play. In a 1974 game against the city rival New York Giants, Namath scored a game-tying touchdown on a five-yard bootleg, and then hit Emerson Boozer with a touchdown pass in overtime to lift the Jets to a 26-20 victory (the first regular season game in NFL history to be decided in overtime), launching New York on a six-game winning streak to end the 1974 season at 7-7. The Jets were poised to make another play-off run under Namath's leadership, and "Gang Green" seemed likely to win during the 1975 preseason, but collapsed after the short NFL strike of September as 1975 and 1976 became a series blow-outs punctuated by punishing sacks of Joe Namath. The Jets were lucky to finish 3-11 both years.
• In the twilight of his career, Namath was waived by the Jets to facilitate his move to the Los Angeles Rams when a trade couldn't be worked out. He was signed by the Rams on May 12, 1977. Namath hoped to revitalize his flagging career, but by this point his effectiveness as a quarterback was greatly reduced by his knee injuries, a bad hamstring and the general ravages of a long period of time playing professional football, as well as his "hard and fast" lifestyle. After a 2-1 start, Namath took a beating on a cold, windy and rainy Monday night game in a one point loss at the Chicago Bears and was through for the regular season.
• He was never inserted into the Rams playoff game, with the Rams losing to the Vikings by a score of 14-7 in a sea of mud at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Namath retired from the Rams after a single season.
• Namath retired with a record of 77 wins, 108 losses and 3 ties. In his career he threw 173 touchdowns and 220 interceptions. During his thirteen years in the AFL and NFL he played on three division champions (the 1968 and 1969 AFL East Champion Jets and the 1977 NFC West Champion Rams), earned one league championship (1968 AFL Championship), and one world championship (Super Bowl III). He was 2-1 as a starter in the playoffs.
• In 1999, he was ranked number 96 on The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Football Players. He was the only player on the list to have spent a majority of his career with the Jets.