Super Bowl III with Bob Lederer (10/10)

basically the halftime performance. They're gonna be honored at MetLife Stadium, and what better way be honored throughout the weekend? Greens I think the organization has something set up for them throughout the weekend. I think the guys are arriving, maybe late Friday, maybe bringing in their families a necessary morning. I believe they'll be here on a day when it's

closed to the media and things like that. But I believe the Super Bowl three team will be here to take in walk through, maybe talk to some of the current members of two thousand and eighteen Jets. Then there's some festivities Saturday afternoon. I know there's a dinner at MetLife Stadium Saturday night, hosted by Jets fan himself, the Swammy, Chris Berman Swamy. Yeah you young buck Man. No, well I know he's just Swammy. I didn't know he was hosting.

Oh yeah, so of course I know who the Swallow. Okay, So then Sunday morning, actually I think I'm hosting a breakfast at MetLife Stadium. And then, like you mentioned before, the players will be honored at halftime. So everybody, make sure you get your beers early, maybe the second quarter early time out, or your pepsis, your pop worms, whatever things like that, because we'd love to hit everybody in their seats. Make sure to go in the two minute warning.

Don't go out two minute warning, You're still gonna get caught in lines man. Yeah, okay, well everybody does a two minute warning. You gotta be before that. Yeah, I do that in the press box too. But so ea, and I talked to Bob Letter, who wrote a book that essentially is about everyone except Joe Namath on the Super Bowl. A chapter about Joe in there. But as you'll soon find out, he's one of the few people

he wasn't able to talk to right. And the book is called Beyond Broadway Joe the Super Bowl Team that Changed Football, And so Bob spoke to what he say, thirty eight of the forty four members of the team excluding Joe, and then five coaches, And there's a chapter on every player. And if you're a Jets fan that watched that Super Bowl and you follow the team growing up, you're obviously going to be very in tune and you're going to know a lot of a lot of the players.

But there's some fascinating stories from the beginning of the book to the end of the book. But if you're a young Jets fan like myself and I have the good fortune of understanding what the Super Bowl meant, not only from literature and and whatnot, but my grandmother actually was at the game along with my dad and my uncle. And I don't think wether, I don't think we've actually discussed this. They were at the Orange Bowl. Yeah, yeah, my grandma, my grandpa, my uncle, my brother were all

there in nineteen six nine. Did they keep anything from that, like a ticket stub or you know that my grandma program programs needs to be big. Back in the day, I believe there is a program somewhere in my grandmother's house. I mean, like, you know, not that the audience needs to know this, but my grandmother is a hoarder, so she has everything from she had a check from the nineteen fifties that we recently threw out because obviously it

is expired. But like she she has a couple of things and there's a uh, there's a program somewhere, I mean, we have to find it. And there's a photo of polaroid picture uh, and it's uh, you see Broadway Joe like getting on a bus, and my grandma was just like in the front front of the photo. This isn't in Miami. Yeah, yeah, look at you. Yeah, Broadway Joe's

So I will say this. Uh. And we didn't get into this with Bob, but there was a feeling that season, if the Jets could beat the Raiders, that they would beat the Baltimore Colts. They were confident that they would beat the Colts. Now, the Hodgemakers weren't confident. And we didn't talk to Bob about the guarantee because it's been

talked about so many times. But I was in New York City recently hosting a Q and A with Joe Namath and he said that we're at the Miami Touchdown Club and somebody in the back was saying, Hey, you're gonna get your butt beat, Joe, You're gonna get your butt beat, and he said, no, we're not. No, we're not. I guarantee it. And that's how that's how it all started.

And then the next morning you see headlines in the newspaper, so you're hosting the Q and A and some guy didn't to like, no, no, no, no, that happened at the mind, I thought you were saying that some and tried to like recreate the moment that would be something that would be funny. Maybe some day that will happen, but uh uh, that's all. It's not like Nameth one out there and he was talking to a medium member

and was like, oh, yeah, we're gonna win it. But if you talk to the guys over the years, and I've had a great opportunity to do that, they were very confident heading into that game. And the thing about that game in particular, which was very interesting is the Jets down, I mean dominated on the ground and with the defense. I think that had five takeaways in all

sixteen and seven against the Baltimore Colts. But that game really changed the football landscape and we were we are lucky to be part of an organization that, um, you know, has that as part of its legacy. And again who knows what had what would have happened. Uh, people ultimately think the merger was happening, but this definitely quicken it or made it faster that the merger was definitely going to happen. Um, So we never know because the NFL

dominating those first two Super Bowls. So a couple of things here before we roll in this interview with Bob Letter is one I think Bob and you and everyone and would be happy to know that the Super Bowl three is It was actually taught in when I went to school, so I was part of like an American sports history class and very much so we talked about Super Bowl three you want to advanced school man, because it was a real cool We wasn't elective, but it

was really cool. We didn't have any sports history class. Yeah, it was awesome. We learned all about the history. It was the history of sports and television and Super Bowl three was a big part of that. And just some really cool stuff there, Like, for example, I didn't know this is that Floyd Little and Suilve. Oh, by the way,

we gotta drop the four four in here. Yeah. So Floyd Little actually, right before the a f L NFL merger, had agreed to sign with the New York Jets, and then the two leagues merged and then there was just one singular draft. Floyd Little went to the Amber. Bronco's

arrest is history. The other thing is that I just wanted to say about Joan Amath and the Super Bowl and the guarantee is just my favorite story is that he's like out by the pool like a day before the game and reporters just like walked up to him and had had a conversational interview with him. And could you imagine could you just imagine what that would be like today if a player were just hanging out by the pool the day before a game. First of all,

screwy on social media would be through the roof. Second of all, it just would never happen, No, it when, it when. And that was the innocence of everything, because back in the day, you could go out and there's stories you guys, heaven beers with reporters and you know, and there were certain things off limits. Now we live in a world where your phone controls everything, so you

gotta be on point all the time. I think there was more freedom back in the day, and it was more of a relaxed atmosphere, like you're saying, and isn't it something if you look back to that raft. I believe Joe Namath gets was lockted by the St. Louis Cardinals in the NFL and the New York Jets of the NFL and something any opts to go to the Jets and the rest of the history. But this was a great team. Greens about the mine. This is a great team, and we get lost in and and that

over the years. That just thinking it was broadway Joe, because if you talk to Joe, he is the first person to talk about his running backs, whether it be Matt Snow or Emerson Boozer, or offensive linement guys like John Schmidt is center up front, or the receivers Donny Maynard of course, and George Sower and then that defense

Jerry philbin Um and company. So, uh, the ultimate team and they had the ultimate win and maybe in sports history, and well, what a perfect segue to roll in this interview with Bob Letter, because it is more than just Joe Namath. And I think that's why Bob Letter wrote

this book. As you'll soon here, he said that someone would said, oh, that's the Joe Namanth Super Bowl, and he took it personally and said, because this team was great in many more ways than just Joe Namath, even though he was a key component to the Jets of success. But without further ado, here's our talk with Bob Letter. All right, now joined by the author of Beyond Broadway, Joe the Super Bowl Team that Changed Football, Bob Letter. Bob, thanks so much for joining us. Thank you gentlemen for

inviting me. It's a pleasure. And uh, I hope a lot of Jets fans are gonna learn something from our conversation today in from the book. I'm sure that they will. And for fans that don't know about what the book is, can you want to explain what it is, how long the project took for you to complete, and where you got the idea to write this book. The project took

three years. The book is essentially, I guess the best way to describe it is the story of the Super Bowl Jets team other than Joe Namath, although he's obviously essential character in it, and I think he still has the second largest chapter in the book. But it's the first attempt ever made to try to incorporate and tell the stories of the other forty four players, UM, and the five coaches and the pro personnel director who enabled, as I say it, Joe Namath to live up to

his Super Bowl three Guarantee. Bob, there's gonna be a lot of young people listening to today and they don't know the enormous um victory that was for not only the Jets, but the a f L and the entire football world. And your part three of your book is how Super Bowl three changed everything? How did it change everything? Well, I don't want to give the whole thing away, but let me put it. Let me put it to you

this way. Um. The Jet players, first of all, had heard rumors during the two weeks between the a f L Championship game where they beat Oakland and earned a spot in the Super Bowl, and the Super Bowl game itself, UM that the NFL was not necessarily going to follow through and have all the a f L teams come into the NFL. In fact, a couple of them, and

they talk about it in the book. Told me that some of the weaker a FL franchises were seriously being considered not being included, and frankly the two weakest AFL franchises at the time. And think about this gentleman with the Boston Patriots and the Denver Bronco. So imagine Tom Brady never having played for the Patriots. Well, maybe he

would have gotten to the Jets. Who knows um. But the other thing that happened is that Pete Rosel, it was well known, was looking to incorporate um the ten AFL teams or however many they were going to put in into the NFL structure, and in other words that Jess, we're going to be placed in the Giants vision. The Oakland Raiders were going to be in the forty Niners division.

Buffalo would have been in a division with Detroit, um, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. UM. After the Super Bowl game, the a f L owners got their backs up and they told the NFL, because this was decision making time about the merger that was still two weeks two years off from actually being completed, that they were insistent that the structure of the old American Football League be maintained. And so the best way to really look at this, and I really thought about

this over this past weekend. Imagine today if the American Football Conference was not the American Football Conference but the American Football League, and the NFC was the National Football League and they were literally separate league, still at war with each other, and each year vying for the talent coming out each year. Imagine for Sam Donald would have cost the Jets to try to sign away from an NFL team. That it's fascinating to think about when you

put it that way. But I want to know is how did you go about writing this book and how many players did you speak to? It were as a phone interviews? How did you get in contact with the players? And did you have a favorite interview? Um? How I got in touch with the players is a deep guarded secret,

but I will reveal to no one. Um. Um. We had a system in place that we put together here UM that allowed me to identify where the players were and then to connect with them through different various means.

I talked to thirty eight different people who were part of the forty four players other than Joe and the five coaches, um and and Sonny Werblin's kids, and even the children of some of the other owners of the Jets, As Sonny Werblin had really gone out of the way after the sixty seven season, he had been brought out by the There's uh And so I was able to

talk to probably um of the players. Several of them had died, notably George Sowar Jr. In Jim Hudson that was actually just a couple of years before I started, But there had been others who early on had passed away. Cleave Rush, who was a superb offensive coordinator, had been the first to pass away in ninety eight or seventy nine. Um, Buddy Ryan was not doing well at the time that I started the book, But I was able to get

most everybody else. And I also got the last interviews um that people like um Winston Hill ever did, Curtly Johnson ever did, etcetera. So it was it was really a thrill for me to talk to a lot of these guys. Now, what's what's the most interesting interview? Boy, that's really tough to pick out, but I'll tell you the first one because it was very very telling about the rest of the book. Curly Johnson was the first player, UM that I elected the call, and it was just

by chance. I had no specific reason for starting there.

Curly lived out in Texas and his wife answers the phone, and she I told her who I was, and my my spiel for everybody was and I'm a Jet fan since nineteen sixty three, and I remember the evolution of the team from the Titans to the Jets, and even more so the evolution and the progress that the players made individually between nineteen sixty three when Sonny Werblin and we Viewbank took over, and of course at the end of the sixty eight and beginning of the sixty nine

season when the Jets became champions UM. And and she listened to me and said, okay, she says, can you hold on a second? I said sure. She covered the microphone on the phone, and I heard her distinctly say, Hey, Curly, there's a guy on the phone that wants to talk to you about the Super Bowl. UM, And I could hear Curly, who really couldn't communicate for well at that point he had really been struck early on by CTE.

But he laughed. She laughed even louder. She came back, and she said, Curly has been waiting forty eight years to tell people what happened in his mind, the memories he has about that great season, and although nobody else exactly put it that way, UM, reading between the lines, that's what most of the players I talked to really felt. And the best way I can explain that is that when the book was done, and everybody in the book has their own chapter and they've all seen what I've

written about them. Um. I heard from at least a half a dozen who said they can't wait for the book to come out because it will give them something they can pass on to generations from their family, to show what Grandpa, great grandpa, great great grandpa did as a football player back in the nineteen sixties. Yeah, and that's really wonderful. And the Jets are gonna honor more of thirty those Jets players who were there. January twelfth,

nineteen sixty nine. Down in the Orange Bowl one, the Green and White beat the Baltimore Colt sixteen seven UM and one of the most iconic games in any sport ever. Uh. The coach of that team was we view bank. You actually were able to dig up some player evaluations. How cool was that? And I gotta imagine, Bob and when you went into this, you didn't think that, well, there's a chance I get some player evaluations from we view back.

Well remember wildest treams. What actually happened is that some of the Jet players, after I had interviewed them, invited me to come to New York to meet them, because said, hey, you're asking us a lot of questions. There's a bunch of us that want to look you in the face

and ask you a bunch of questions. So I did travel to New York in January of two thousand and sixteen, and I met with guys like Jerry Philman and Ralph Baker and Al Atkinson and Larry Grantham and Bake Turner and Cornell Gordon and a whole bunch of them, um and in and amongst the crowd, I was introduced to a gentleman named j Palmerans who lives on the island and is one of the biggest Jet season ticket holders.

Um and Jay was introduced to me and I told him what the project was and he said, hey, he got some time before you go back to Chicago this weekend, and I said, sure, followed him to his home that Sunday morning, and he told he took me into what I would best describe as a jet caves filled with uniforms, helmets, shoes, all sorts of playing paraphernalia from that from that team. He's really the ultimate fan of that Super Bowl team.

But more importantly and have more interest to me, He opened up his shelf and showed me the weeview Bank States, which essentially meant that he had playbooks and personal notes and things of that nature, um from from the end of his Colts time to the end of his Jets time. And he said, here, have fun. I think you're going to find a lot of interesting stuff. And he showed me a number of items that were there, including, just as an example, uh uh, the hospital report on Joe

Amos knees. And one of the great things, AHAs that comes out of this book is that at the end of the seventh season UM the Jets ownership and we were told by Dr Nicholas and a specialist of knees and such that Joe probably had two to three years of full capability left in him. And then there was no guessing that they could make about whether he'd even be able to suit up and play evermore. And so, UM, they basically said, if you're going to go for a championship,

go for it soon. Well that that summer, as a lot of Jet historians no, in trading camp, the Jets traded for Bob Talamini to really fortify their offensive line eight, and that was to protect Joe and be They brought in Babe Perilli, who became the first veteran quarterback to back up Joe Namath and be ready really to step in if Nameth got hurt or had to leave a game or or what for whatever reason. And that, to me in retrospect, was the sign that they were going

for it. I felt that way as a kid when I was sixteen that year. But I also in looking back now and being able to read all this information, recognized, um, that that we and and Sonny Werblin and the Jets ownership had decided. Yet we're going for it now because we can see what the doctor reports have to say. And that's just one of the things, Um that comes out of the book. You mentioned Babelli going through this process, and as time has gone on. How difficult is it

when you've seen some of these guys passed recently. It's been very hard for me personally because Babe, Larry Grantham, Um in particular, were guys that I was talking to on a fairly regular basis long after I was done interviewing them. I mean, Larry Grantham has really taught me before he died last year, what professional defenses are all about, and what you do and what you don't, and especially

the critical importance of watching film. A lot of the other guys I still talk to, you know with with some regularity, and I count you know, a handful of them as really amongst my very best friends, and I hope to continue that well past this fiftieth anniversary. Have you mentioned that you were sixteen at the time when the Jets won the Super Bowl. I just want to know, is has grown up watching this team and rooting for this team? And what do you remember about the season

about the Super Bowl? And did you have a favorite player? My favorite players were Jerry Selban and Emerson Boozer. And that's one of the reasons I wrote the book, is that my my interests in those days, although we all loved Joe. You couldn't fail to love Joe. His talent was just, you know, out of this world. But the Jets had eleven play who played in the a f

L All Star Game that year. So there were ten other guys, guys like John Elliott and Jerry Philbin and Al Atkinson and John Schmidt and Dave Herman and Boozer himself and Don Maynard and George Sower Jr. Um. These guys were special talents, um. And so as the youths have gone by and the fiftieth anniversary has come to be connected almost strictly with Joe Namoth. In fact, that's what I hear here in Chicago when I tell people about the book. They said, oh, you're you're writing a

book about the name of Super Bowl. And in a way that's almost offended me because as a Jets fan and somebody who grew up watching football and learning about football, as this team was being put together piece by piece in sixty three and sixty four and sixty sixty sixty seven, even bits and pieces that still came together in sixty eight, UM, I have really come to recognize that these guys were a tremendous outfit of forty five players who really committed

themselves to going to win. And I don't know about the players today, but I did discover that most of these guys back then knew very little about their teammates. I'm talking about their personal lives. The obviously they knew their lives and their kids, but beyond that, not much else. And Jerry Philbin, after reading his chapter, said Hey, I'd

like to read a couple of the other chapters. I said, sure, said to to him, and he said, Wow, there is so much information here that I didn't know about my teammates. And he said, I can't wait to read about the rest of them. And I've heard that from a number of players. In fact, Billie Joe, who was at the beginning of the season the third string fullback, told me a couple of weeks ago he learned things about himself

in his chapter. And I don't think you could give me a nicer research compliments than to point that after you can't get anybody than that. How about Broadway Joe himself did. He liked the concept of the of the book because I've been here for close to well, this is my eighteenth season, and I've been around Joe quite a bunch, and he is a humble guy. He is

a guy who has that magnetic personality. I know when a lot of people hear that name, and probably you go through this every day, they think of Broadway, Joe the fur Coat, um, the Bachelor's uh, the establishment that I had in New York City, the TV shows and all that other stuff. But I don't think people understand that this guy was a good teammate and he also went through an evolution as a player, specifically in Night when he said, Hey, I can't do it all by myself.

I have a great running game behind me, I have a good offensive line, and I have a dominant defense. Well, you know, I have to be honest with you. I have never talked to Joe Namas. Wow, he did not talk to me for the book. The players told me that they loved him. In fact, all Atkinson's told me that the end of his chapter had to conclude with his simple comment that always remember that we wouldn't have won without Joe Namas. Um the players love him. Um, I they just you know, they know that he was

a difference maker. And we all know he was a difference maker. Everybody recognized that um, but he said after the game to Sal Marciano of Channel two in New York, when Sal tried to congratulate him and say to him, congratulations, you're the king of the Hill, Joe immediately turned it around and said, no, we're the kings of the Hill.

We've got the team. And that was another bit of the the reason that I did the book that I did, I wanted to show and this, this is the way the book is laid out, that without a great offensive line, a very good running game, and particularly running backs who could block like the devil, great receivers, and a defense that in nineteen six eight became the best in the

American Football League. Without all those components, that even I'll add the special teams because they were largely um inhabited by rookie players who just basically played their hearts out and put their lives on the line. Because even in those days, the special teams were more dangerous than anything that we see today because there were less and less rules. All those things together, as I said early on in this conversation, enabled Joe to fulfill his guarantee, Well, the

book is beyond Broadway. Joe, Bob Letter tremendous research, well written, uh, piece of literature for any Jets fan. And I just wanted to leave today with one question. The fathers and sons are gonna go to the game Amountlife Stadium this weekend Sunday, it's halftime. Here come the Jets onto the field. What do you want the fathers to tell their young kids about the sea the team? Wow? Great question. Uh. First of all, I plan to be there too. I'm gonna find by hooker by crook away to get into

the ballpark. But um, the thing about the sixty eight team, as I mentioned before, is that these were guys who really played their heart out together one of the real keys to that team winning and I think it probably applies as well today. But Larry Grantham stressed to me that, particularly on defense, every one of the eleven players had to not only understand, um, what exactly the other ten

guys would do on every single play. So imagine whether it's a draw play, or it's there a sweep to either side, or it's a screen or it's a long pass play. Um, the defensive tackle John Elliott had to know what the other guys on the defensive line. Each one of them was going to do on that play, what the linebackers were going to do, kind of the safeties we're gonna be lined up, and what the corners were prepared to do, and that sort of thing. And

that is what makes a team cohesive and work. And just to give an example, you know from the present day, watching the game against Jacksonville the other day, so the the thriving uh Jacksonsville offense because they could just throw over the middle, as Jet defensive backs would let their guy go and anticipate that somebody else was going to pick them up deeper in the secondary. Um. That comes from experience, that comes from really watching film for for

endless hours and understanding what's going on. But it's the cohesion that comes together. And you know, going into the six eight season, guys, um, there were only three new players that started for the Jets, so everybody else had become more and more accustomed to playing alongside the guy next to them um in the years that had passed on, and that was one of the keys to the success of that team. That is Bob Letter, the author of

Beyond Broadway Joe, The Super Bowl Team that Change Football. Bob, thank you so much. Again for joining us. Well, thank you. I appreciate your your opportunity and your recommendation, and I hope people will take advantage uh and read up because young or old, but particularly to the young not there, who I understand may not be as with it. As far as this team goes, this is the legacy that we have as Jet fans. This is the greatest team in the history um of the New York Jet franchise.

In fact, they still hold the record for official points scored in the season, and I think that says quite a bit fifty years later. Thanks Bob, We'll see us Sunday. Okay, thank you. Tremendous stuff from Bob, getting some insight on how he went about talking to the players, how the book came to fruition three years in the making. I mean,

the book is let's take a look here. It's about three hundred plus pages, almost four hundred, and there's just tons of information in this book from the beginning to the end. And then truly like, as as we sit

here recording this podcast, I'm looking in the middle. There's just like some photos here and I'm looking at a photo of the nineties side players and it looks like it's out of a notebook that I have on my desk, and you know what I mean, Like, this is crazy just to think about how the operation was so different in the nineteen sixties and the seventies compared to now, because this document would not only would be electronic, could probably be locked somewhere like this is just like a

piece of paper. And what's so funny to me is when in the interview with Bob is when he was saying that he came across papers from the doctors on Joe Naman's knees, like that, that's crazy. You don't just like find that anymore. And then, uh, just looking back, I'm still thinking about the defense and bringing up Randy Beverly had a couple of interceptions and that game. Um yeah, but all you said, Yeah, Bob elaborated on his relationship with j palm Rance, and palm Rance is a guy

who's got a lot of Judge memorabilia. So there is uh some really neat information that palm Rance hands and he was able to share with Bob in this book. I have a good name of story for you. So we're also in the Q and A in the city and we get done with it, and I said, thanks

Joe and the people. There was a small, uh crowd in attendance, and they clapped, and he went over to the Super Bowl trophy because they brought it into the city, and he kissed it, and then he came over to me and he whispered to me, he goes, I think that's the first time I ever did it. Oh, look at that about that. Uh yeah, I've met Joe a couple of times, and growing up, you know, you hear stories about Joe, and you see photos and see videos

and whatever. But meeting Joe in person, it's weird because you can and see exactly why people were pulled to him as fans, as friends, and you said that he had a magnetic personality. I mean, it's so obvious just in the first time I met him, I think was for like two minutes at a United Way event and he's a big proponent of United Way as a hometown hero.

That happens every year, and I suppose I interviewed him for like probably a minute or two, probably less than two minutes, because he's a busy guy, and I mean you could tell immediately that you know he's got he's still got the fashion going. He's very charismatic and he that was a great edge to charismatic man that that guy he got. He still can walk down New York City. He's still got he's got a glow about him. There's

just something different. And remember he's been on a public eye for what fifty some years now, and he is so good with people because a lot of people want to come up to him and tell him their story, tell him where they were when it happened, or maybe where their dad was when it happened, and think like that, and you know, or maybe maybe asked him a story about Bear Bryant and Alabama and he is so giving with his time and his smile and that beaver falls

the draw uh that he developed and then went down to Alabama picked up some southern twain to Yeah, it's like a Pennsylvania and Alabama Pennsylbama. There it is. But he's a man. He's still the man to this day. And this team is you know, it's still you know, they'll always be remembered. But any time you get to a fiftieth anniversary, it's really special. Fifty years later again super Bowl three, the team will be honored at halftime at met Life said he has the Jets take on

me now, Indianapolis Colts, make sure he has. He said, make sure to get your popcorn and get your pepsi, your soda, your beer or whatever you need. Make sure to get it before the two minute warnings. Are wearing all whites like they did in Super Bowl, and as on our previous podcast, Neil Glatt, the President of the Jets, said, they're rocking the gray face masks. I like it, so a little bit of a uniform combination, a new one so a new one for new Jets fans, an old

one for older Jets fans. Nonetheless, it should be a great day, thanks again to Bob Letter. But that's all we have on this episode of the Official Jets Podcast.