Namath
 

I picked up this book written in 2007 (?) about Broadway Joe. Pretty interesting stuff. I'll post more tomorrow when I am not too sleepy.

Saw him play and Worked with him
 

I remember Joe Wille his last year w/ Jets at Shea stadium. I had a sideline pass and took a bunch of pictures. He looked like every move was agony for him.

Flash forward to the 1980's and I'm doing commercials for a local Appliance chain and he is the "spokes-celeb" and he showed up half in the bag. He was obviously using booze/pills for the pain and you could literally HEAR his knees click when he walked! UGH!!!

Flash forward 10 years and I am doing another set of commercials for the same chain and Joe Wille shows up and he is a different person. Sober, New Knees, New Wife, all is Good.

I took out the folder of photos I took at Shea and he looked them over and smiled and said "That was a Brutal time!". He asked if he could have someone them and I offered to print up better copies in 11"x14" size and he gave me his contact info. I spent around 10 hours on printing 10 of them on really good Bromide Archival paper and sent them to him. I got a letter back two weeks later with a check for $1K (not expected) and when I saw him in an ESPN interview a few years ago, in the background was one of my shots on the wall, framed nicely.

He seems to have met and faced his demons and hopefully does not have the concussion issues that plague most football players of late.

Nice story. Thanks for sharing.:)

Indeed, really great story!

Thanks for posting this. I'm glad it had a happy ending for the guy.

About 25 years ago there was a guy that briefly worked in sales for the other division of our small technology company that had played for the Detroit Lions. I have no clue what his name was.

A few different times we ended up at the same table in our small lunch room chatting and visiting. I DISTINCTLY remember him getting up from his chair. It involved noises of all types, groaning, moaning and joint crackling. He did not work there very long and I noticed he was no longer around. I asked someone from the other division who told me that they had to let him go and that it was related to LOTS of coke usage.

I don't know if the coke and the pain was related, but I wouldn't be surprised. I wish the guy well, wherever he might be.

Right after he signed the biggest sports contract ever up til then, he went to work at the Jets. There was a lot of jealousy from other players who were making 1/10 to 1/20 what he was, including the linemen charged with protecting him.

Before the first game Joe made this little speech to the team (more or less)...."I know many of you don't like me much and really I don't like you all that much either. I do ask this though, judge me by my play not by my salary or my press clippings. If anybody has a problem with that, I am ready to step outside with you and settle it in the parking lot". he grew up in a mill town in Pennsylvania and was fearless after scrapping and getting whupped by his older brothers whenever he got out of line.

Nobody took him up on it. His earthy willingness to scrap with bigger men went a long way to winning them over. After all the dust settled they worked hard to protect him and eventually were a very successful team.

It also was the early sixties and there were hard core southern white "boys" on the team and some pretty talented blacks. There was racial strife, but Joe was completely color blind as his best friend as a child was black, so eventually a lot of that settled down too.

He caught a lot of grief for his long hair and white shoes (first ever for that). He exuded confidence but backed it up with nearly supernatural skills physically and mentally. He was among the first who really read defenses and picked them apart. He called nearly all his own plays both in college and as a pro.

he was cut from a lot of the same cloth as Muhammad Ali. I loved them both for their willingness to go against the existing norms, while backing it all up with skill intelligence and courage.

Thanks for the summation Tom. Good read!

Oh, I'm only a third of the way through.;)