SI picks 1968 NY Jets as most influential team in NFL history

[opus]

1. 1968 New York Jets


Record: 11–3, Super Bowl III champions
Coach: Weeb Ewbank

Hall of Famers: Weeb Ewbank, Joe Namath (QB), Don Maynard (WR), Winston Hill (OT)


Why they mattered:
In 1965, Alabama quarterback Joe Namath was selected with the No. 1 pick in the AFL draft and the No. 12 selection in the NFL draft, spurning the NFL for the riches of Sonny Werblin’s Jets, taking an eye-popping $427,000 contract.

In his fourth year with New York, Namath and a ferocious defense led the Jets to an AFL title and were 18-point underdogs to the one-loss Colts in Super Bowl III. To the shock of almost everyone—except Namath, who guaranteed they’d win the game—they won, 16–7, giving the upstart league its first victory in three tries over the established NFL.

While the 1970 AFL-NFL merger had already been agreed upon, the Jets’ victory is the most important in pro football history. The Jets showed the AFL was on par, something hammered home the following year by the ’69 Chiefs, who pummeled the Vikings—13-point favorites—in Super Bowl IV. Instead of the merger being seen as a necessary business decision that could hurt the sport from a competition standpoint, it established the AFL’s superiority over the best the NFL had to offer for the second consecutive year.

Moreover, the upset in Super Bowl III sparked additional interest in the AFL and the merger, giving a boost to a sport that was taking over the country by the late 1960s.

Panel quote:
“People remember the shocking upset, and the Jets getting five turnovers on the way to a 16–7 Super Bowl win, but they tend to forget the epic AFL championship game won by New York in a windy Shea Stadium over the Oakland Raiders. It was a rematch of the bonkers ‘Heidi Game’ played in mid-November in Oakland. The Raiders outgained the Jets in that AFL title game but had to settle for three short field goals (nine, 20 and 26 yards). The rest was up to Namath, his guarantee and the hubris of the Colts, who acted like they’d already won the game.”—Michael MacCambridge, NFL historian, best-selling author

Team quote:
“The goal is to win a championship on any level. I remember being in the training room and Sal Marchiano asked me about it and I just had three words, man, ‘We did it.’ We did it. … Our rings say world champion. We did it. Those dreams, since you were a child, since junior high ball, high school ball, college ball, to win a championship at the top level. Wow. We did it. That’s the way I felt then and now. I still get goosebumps talking about it. It was great.” —Joe Namath, Jets quarterback, 1965–76

Revealing the No. 1 Most Influential Team in NFL History: A Countdown From 50

[opus]

Anything Jets after that we won't talk about.....

[Duster76]

Nonsense, maybe it's a good thing SI is on death's door.

While the Jets win in Super Bowl III is historically significant, there was nothing influential about it. The merger had been agreed to in 1966 (Congress should never have allowed it, but that's for another day), this one game aside the general consensus remained the same, the NFL teams as a group were better. Super Bowl IV odds favored the Vikings (NFL) over the Chiefs (AFL) by 13.5, the final score Chiefs 23 Vikings 7, so the Jets win did little to influence the odd makers or the general pubic. The first year the NFL became the NFC and AFC, the old NFL teams dominated games against the old AFL teams going 39-19 with 2 ties. The 1972 Dolphins arrived at Super Bowl VII 3 point underdogs against the Redskins in spite of going 14-0 that season.

"Namath guaranteed they’d win the game", this is the single most overrated sports moment in history. If he was wrong he could have explained it away in a sentence, what did you want me to do say we'd lose, there was no risk. Nothing new here, he was just ripping off Muhammad Ali who had been making statements like that since coming on the scene.

The number 2 selection, the 1958 Colt/Giant game is number 1, and it's not even close. That game was the birth of the modern NFL. The AFL was born a year later, the potential of the NFL as a must watch television product clearly established, now in motion football would overtake baseball as the most popular sport in America by the end of the sixties. .

[biffbronson]

Sports Illustrated has a long history of promoting the pro New York sports franchises, whether it be overly-optimistic predictions of upcoming season success or cover features. I've read SI since the '70s and have observed that over and over. And it extends to history features as well.

A good example of bias occurred in the 1990s when their cover-billed feature was titled "What's Wrong with the Mets?" There is no way such preferential treatment & coverage would have been given to mediocre-season MLB teams in cities like Pittsburgh or Milwaukee.

The vast majority of SI writers & editors over the years have been east coast and NY natives, they desperately want the NY franchises to be winners. And they routinely have unrealistic expectations of how they will finish in the standings. Naturally their minds keep going back to the successful seasons, like the '68 Jets and '69 Miracle Mets.