Today is supposedly the 60th Super Bowl…this is false if only in semantics.

The first two games between the NFL and AFL champions were called the AFL-NFL Championship Game.

The first Super Bowl was actually played in 1969 and was the first AFL-NFL Championship Game to be referred to as the Super Bowl, and was called Super Bowl III.

That was the last Super Bowl, as far as I am concerned.

That game played on January 12th, 1969, changed professional football forever. Because the two previous games were so lopsided in favor of the Green Bay Packers, the NFL representative in each, there was a real chance that another dismal showing by the AFL would have resulted in the cancellation of the planned merger of both leagues. This would have been catastrophic to the AFL and may have led to its demise.

Instead, Joe Namath guaranteed a victory, and he made good on his claim by playing a flawless, albeit conservative, game and handing the 19-point-favored Baltimore Colts a taste of what football would become.

Johnny Unitas’s crew cut and high-top black cleats would give way to Joe Namath’s long hair, sideburns, and white cleats. Not willing to make short passes to running backs a staple of his offence, Namath dared defensive backs to stop him from throwing long sideline passes and hitting receivers in stride with abandon. Yeah, he got picked off more than some from the past, but that didn’t deter him. But in Super Bowl III, Joe played it safe as he picked apart the Colts’ vaunted defense, a defense that shut out the Cleveland Browns in the NFL Championship game just a few weeks earlier.

I have been a Jet fan since 1965, and we have not had another moment like Super Bowl III since then. We have had some moments, but lately it has been frustrating to the Nth degree to root for the J E T S JETS JETS JETS.

But, as the song goes, When you’re a Jet, you’re a Jet all the way!