"I guarantee it!" Joe Willie Namath's outlandish promise, made poolside in the days preceding the 1969 Super Bowl, angered his own head coach, infuriated his opponents, and helped bring the spirit of the 1960s counterculture into sports. When the New York Jets backed up their 25-year-old quarterback's "guarantee" with a 16-7 upset over the highly favored Baltimore Colts, the new American Football League gained credibility and sealed the success of the upcoming NFL-AFL merger.

While "Broadway Joe" never challenged "establishment" social structures in the manner of the draft-resisting, poetry-spouting boxer Muhammad Ali, his hedonistic "make love, not war" lifestyle infused the strait-laced atmosphere of professional football with an entirely alien cultural attitude. An openly promiscuous user of adults-only substances (he preferred Johnnie Walker Red Label) who partied all night, Namath simply admitted to behavior usually indulged in secrecy by more clean-cut (and more married) jocks...