December 22, 2021 • 45 mins
Hosts Nick Mangold and Mark Sanchez are joined by the man himself Pro Football Hall of Famer “Broadway” Joe Namath. The trio relive the greatest hits of Namath's career from being drafted by two leagues in one day, to his acting career and his relationship with his center, John Schmitt. They also relive the famous Guarantee before Super Bowl III and how Namath would fair in today’s NFL.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
Welcome into the Exchange with yours truly, Nick Mangold and
my co host unfortunately, Mark Sanchez. Mark, how you doing tonight, buddy?
I got a gift in the mail. I just think
it's strange that you send your own bubbleheads to people
for the holidays. Listen, I'm like a rod, you know,
signed all gift packages like I thought it was. Yes, yeah,
(00:37):
come on now, but don't worry. We all have We
all get bubbleheads sometimes. Oh nice. They forgot to put
my moles on there though I draw them in on mine.
Oh well, this isn't this one isn't official, unfortunately, I guess. Um.
But you know, as we are in the holiday season, UM,
I need this from you, and I'm putting you on
(00:58):
the spot because I didn't tell you. Um, so you're
just gonna have to roll with it. Top five holidays go,
top five holidays, yes, of all time? Like what's your
favorite holiday? And then what's your second favorite third favorite?
Everyone has their list. Wow. I mean I am a
(01:19):
big fan of Thanksgiving. I love you. I grew up
in um two different homes, like my parents were split
up when I was a little, so we can get
double Thanksgiving some kids think that's like a bad thing, Like,
oh man, I have to do like two holidays and
to this and to that, it was awesome and I
really leaned into that. Um, was it the same food
(01:41):
at both or was it different? Similar? Similar food? But
I would just you know, you get to be a
glutton for two days instead of just one. That's great.
Let's see. I mean Christmas is is great. You can't
go wrong with Christmas. I was never really a big
Halloween guy. I don't know. I wasn't you don't like
I just like candy. I'm cool with candy, but I
(02:03):
don't like seek out candy. If candy is available, I'll
get it, But I'm not like you go to the door.
You go to the door and they give you candy.
It's no I understand how it works. Thanks you, um,
but I just I don't know. It's never really my thing. Um.
Easter school, you know, you get a week off of school.
(02:25):
I don't know. Spring Break. I guess it's cooler when
you're in college. Yeah, spring break is much cooler in college.
Did you go on a cool spring break in college?
I went to Cobbo once. I was fun. Um, I know,
not really I didn't do any like crazy wild ones.
It was usually uh, usually just something easy. But what
(02:47):
you in your fifth holiday is fifth holiday would be Festivus.
I don't know, that's a great one. It's beautiful. We
have the we have the pole and everything. For me personally,
I go Thanksgiving, Christmas, Boxing Day, fourth No Thanksgiving, Christmas,
(03:08):
fourth of July Boxing Day, and then um, I would
say Labor Day, a Halloween. Halloween, Yeah, no Halloween over
Liberal Halloween. De Yeah. We got a killer beach volleyball
tournament here in this community that I live in, and
it's gotten pretty competitive. Um, Like people are bringing in
(03:29):
people from the U S national team and like, you know,
seven foot females just spiking balls right on your face.
So it's gotten intense. Remember when California was running the
tourist commercials and like, not all Californians are like, you know,
snowboarding and out on the beach and you know, movie
stars and all that stuff. You remember that, like it
was a tourism ad. Remember that commercial at all, But
(03:53):
that's not real. It's yeah, and everybody snowboarding or at
the Yeah, exactly, that's what. It's a real thing. That
was the first day. It rained out here everybody I know. Oh,
let's go to the mountains for like two days and
go skin and come home. It's perfect. Um, all right,
so we have a fantastic guest with us today. UM,
(04:15):
it's an amazing interview. And in light of that interview,
give me your best guarantee you've ever made. I don't know.
I don't know. I think some of the like guarantees
I had to have were like, you know, school tests
and stuff like to make sure you know, I'd study
(04:35):
all week and my dad's like, well, what are you
gonna get? And I'm like being it's like just to me,
and I'm like, I'm like unless unless I get an A.
It's like, so you're gonna get an A And I'm like, yes, yes,
because you want me to say yes, don't you? Yes,
I will go with you. Yeah. So I think something
(04:56):
like that, what about you? I can't count I can't
count mine as an actual guarantee, but I did. I
always wanted a son first and first, so I guess
that maybe. I mean, I think I get I don't know,
I'll come. That's my guarantee. Call your shop, calling my
(05:17):
shop or called. That was eleven years ago. Um, all right,
so so we have our guarantees. Um. Coming up is
our interview with Joe Namath. Uh. He was a fantastic guests.
He's an amazing quarterback, Hall of Fame quarterback for are
the New York Jets. Um, let's check out and see
what Joe had to chat with me and Martin. Thank
you so much for joining us today. Well man, I've
(05:39):
been a fan of yours a knick since you guys
started out with the team, So thanks for having Oh
this is great, Um, we're I just remember when you
came to our facility during training camp, and I've never
seen our coaches get so giddy about Broadway Joe Namath
walking through the hallway and between meetings. I mean coaches
(06:01):
stopped everything they were doing. It just it just um
further showed me the impact you had on that generation
of players. But uh, this all started with you getting
drafted by the NFL and the a f L on
the exact same day. So take me back to your
draft experience and why you chose the Jets and what
that was? What? What? What? Um? What that was all about? Well, Mark, Nick,
(06:26):
you guys understand you mentioned coaches and I was at
Alabama and had Coach Bryant as our leader, and uh,
I was lucky. I had a great high school coach,
he had a great college coach. And after we had
played Auburn the last game of the season, Coach Bryant
(06:48):
came over to me in the locker room, you know,
and I was I was actually taken, Uh Steve Sloan's
our quarterbacks shoes off because he heard his knee and
I'm down. They're messing around with his shoe and Cody
Bryant came over and said, Joe looked up. Yeser Uh
you said, you know those pro scots they're gonna be
(07:09):
coming around talking about money. He said, you've got any
idea what you're gonna ask for? And Uh no, sir,
I don't know. Don true. He was a year ahead. Uh,
I said. He signed I think for a hundred thousand
dollars or something, so I was thinking about asking for
something like that. He's oh, he said, well, I took
(07:32):
a draw off of that big old chest the field
he was smoking her fallow or whatever. You go in
and ask him for two hundred thousand dollars, that's a
better place to start that that that was good advice
and it went on from there. Didn't you get like
a car? Also? Oh yeah, yes I did that. But
(07:54):
see what happened? Are Nick? These guys showed up at
our dorm. I did realized that I was drafted by
the Cardinals. I didn't hear it. They didn't have it
on television or radio. Heaven and Uh. I set upstairs
in the dorm, in my room or our room. My
roommate tell him Butch Henry named after general, tell him,
(08:17):
of course, the Confederate Army. Anyway, I'm up there, and
I get a buzz, said Joe, there's some guys down
here in the lobby. You want to talk with it?
And I said, what are you talking about? The NFL scouts.
So I went down and they said they wanted to
talk to me about the contract. And I was, come on,
(08:41):
let's go upstairs. And we went up to my room
and uh. The two of them sat on my bed.
Because I wouldn't let him sit on my roommates beet
throw me out the window, you know, use a tight
head and the tough guy to it. I set them on,
had him sit on my bed and I sat on
the edge of Butch bit and they introduced themselves. One
(09:03):
was part of otorship with the Cardinals and the other
was the general manager. And uh, they told me they
drafted me. And uh, so what do you want? What?
What kind of money are you gonna ask for? And
I was embarrassed. I had never heard of that much
money before. I was embarrassed to ask for that kind
(09:25):
of money. But I said, well, uh, I want two
hundred thousand dollars to sign there and and they said,
oh my god. And the two guys fell on the bed.
They leaned back. They went into this you know, my
god motion and and then and it made me feel
like I don't know a jerk and uh, I said, oh,
(09:50):
uh and a new car too. You guys looked at
each other and said, oh, he was a new car too,
and uh. And then I did ask what time the car?
And I said I had talked to a former high
school teammate of mine who was playing out at West
Texas State, and uh, he's from my hometown. And uh
(10:12):
he asked me a couple of days before, he said, what, Joe,
what kind of short you're gonna ask for? What kind
of car you gonna ask for? Him? Man? I said, Man,
I don't know. I really hadn't thought about that, and
he told me to get a Leaden Continental CONVERTI boy,
it was a baddest short out there, barn doors open
and you know kind of and uh so that's that's
(10:35):
what I asked for. And they looked at each other
and said, oh, sure he wants a leak and continetor
I really just give it awkward his head. And then
the man goes opens his briefcase and starts pulling out
papers for me to sign. And you know, Coach Brown
(10:59):
had told the handful of us that might get drafted
not to sign anything because we had a game coming
up in the Orange Bowl we had a go to
and he told us, you make us ineligible, you'd be aneligible,
you'd be breaking the rules, and don't you sign a thing. Well,
(11:19):
God had the pen in the contract to sign, and
I told him, oh no, you know, Coach Bryant told us,
he said, don't even take a coke colda from. I
love it, but don't even take a code code from.
And uh so I told him I can't sign, man,
you know, we have to we have a game coming up.
(11:41):
And uh it turned you know, and they just couldn't
get me to sign the papers, you know, So that
was that and they left. Man, I love it. I
think it's fantastic, you know when I saw you know,
looking back at it, you know you ended up choosing
the Jets and coming to New York, you know, coming
out of Pencil Vania, you know, growing up there and
(12:01):
knowing the wonders. Uh, that is the big city of
New York City and you know, the big lights and everything. Um.
Signing that the largest rookie deal of any sports seven
thousand dollars, which Mark, I think you signed for just
a little bit more than that on Europe deal, just slightly. Um.
(12:23):
When when you signed that deal, Joe, what did you buy? Like?
What was what did you go out and get? Was
it the iconic fur coat? Uh? Was it a watch?
Was it the car? Was? Like? What was that first
purchase deal? First of all, it was a p the
president of New York Jets at the time, along with
the rest of your ownership. Man, they were great, they
(12:44):
were terrific. I got a chance to meet them, uh
uh by going out to seeing them play Sunny Werblin
invited me out to play, uh, to see the Chargers
play and my representative representative, whom I called right after
these two guys left. You know, I got a buddy
(13:06):
and we went down to the old South coffee shop
and we're sitting there and talking. Man, hey, the guys
offered that money. I didn't know what to do, so
I said, I need help, and that's what I called
a friend of ours up in Birmingham and attorney they
might Bite and uh Bite and Mr Bite worked out
(13:30):
a deal the way that we would go visit with
Mr Werblin and the Jet ownership out in San Diego.
Mike paid for the tickets. I didn't pay for the tickets.
Mike was able to pay for the tickets because he
was my friend and we're going out to see what
was up. And whenever I met the Jets and Mr Werblin,
(13:54):
especially the ownership and Mr Hess, there there was no context.
Uh there was no contest New York City. Uh. The
Jets uh been uh really a startup league. Because I've
been watching the NFL play since nineteen sixty, you see,
(14:15):
so I had watched them the first four four years
or so, and I saw some cats that could play
like Lance all were you know Jim Motto talking about
these guys could play, and I knew it was good football,
So I fell in love. What I actually uh like
(14:35):
the ownership and being in New York. You know that
that was attractive too. You know. I find it um interesting,
like we look back at it, you know as kids
and looking back at history, the a f L kind
of being the renegades, Um, you know, where it's a
startup league going against the NFL and you know, working
(14:57):
on that merger and everything. Did you guys feel that
when you were playing as part of the Jets, Um?
I know Bill Callahan used to talk about it with
the Raiders like they had that feeling the a f
L that they were they were the renegades and they
were coming in. Uh. Did you have that same feeling
as a player, you know going through it? Well, no,
not necessarily. Renegades and those other guys were like they
(15:17):
tried to sign me underneath the table or you know,
behind the doors man. They were breaking the rule. No,
we were second class. We were we were not up
to par. We weren't the same quality on the football field.
The National League had been around, and they had the players,
they had the great players going for him, and we
(15:39):
had to prove ourselves. We had some outstanding players, even
great players, but until we want we weren't accepted throughout
the football world. The first championship game that was played finally,
I believe, was in sixty six, uh, sixty seven. Uh,
(16:00):
the Green Bay Packers beat the Kansas City Chiefs out
in Los Angeles and the coliseum, Mark you. I don't
know if you even been to that game or it
was we're born at that time, a couple a couple
of years before me. And then the second championship game,
it was the Packers again and they beat the Raiders
(16:24):
down here in Miami. And I've often said, man, if
we're out in the backyard playing or whatever, if you
lose two out of three or two, you know the
first two and god a third, when you're gonna be
out of things. So we were lucky, and that not lucky.
We had a good team, you know, but we weren't
ready running games. We were the little guys on the block.
(16:47):
We had to grow up. We had to prove ourselves,
and until we beat the other side, uh, you weren't
going to be accepted. And we won that game. And
then in Super Bowl four, the Biking said a terrific team,
but you know, the Kansas City Chiefs they did it.
So the league's merged on even playing you know, two
(17:11):
Games of peace, right, two Championships of Peace, and I
believe they started calling it the super Bowl. One of
Mr Hunt's grand children there was a ball that they
called the super Bowl and he said super Bowl, and
then the super Bowl was dubbed, well we go back
to the first one. Now super Bowl one too. Yeah,
(17:35):
And so when you it's you make it sound like there.
You know, you guys were like the second class league
and you had something to prove. Is that what in
super Bowl three or the week fired a super Bowl three?
Is that what led to the guarantee? Because you're in
that press conference and I've heard you talk about this before,
but they're just you know, brating you with these questions about, well,
(17:57):
what about the Colts and what about Johnny you and
what about the NFL film they're better and you finally
just came out and guaranteed a victory. Is that what
kind of led to it? More than just the questioning
that week everything before that. You know, you guys played
at home when you were kids growing up. You play
where you play and you. You developed a confidence and
(18:20):
attitude in your aside and you're on your team whether
they you know, you just wanna prove it. You have
to prove it, and sometimes you don't get a chance
to prove it. And we our team to New York Jets. Uh,
we're the ones that earned the chance to tell you
the tough game man. And they have said this before
(18:43):
market they the toughest game physically up to that time
that I had ever been in and won was the
championship game, the a f L championship game against the
Raiders out there in Shady Stadium. I mean, the Raiders
were a good team and uh when we beat them, Uh,
(19:03):
we didn't need any extra confidence. We were. We were confident, man,
and because we played well and believed we could win
when we beat the Raiders, Uh, we were just looking
forward to the Baltimore Coach game. And the bookmakers, you know,
the oddsmakers, we have a bunch of them around. Uh,
(19:27):
even going back then made us a big underdog. It
was ridiculous. At least we thought it was ridiculous. But uh,
the football world, you know, hey, man, the Coats were
a solid team. They lost one game that year, one
game they lost that opening day of Cleveland, they lost
(19:48):
to the Cleveland Browns, and then in the NFC Championship
they beat Cleveland thirty forward and nothing I mean bad here.
It was tough boy, but Mark got back. Yeah. There
was a wise guy that mouthed off happy at a
banquet down in Miami, and uh, you know, I just
(20:13):
I had heard enough at that time. I did have
a little bit of a libation or whatever that. Uh.
You know, the guy was a wise guy, And when
he said that, I told him, you know, I got
news for it. We're gonna We're gonna win the game.
(20:33):
I guarantee. The language is a little different. You know,
there was some uh uh yeah, he brought it out.
You know, if that guy didn't open his mouth and
say that, I would have I probably would have never
said that because we went coached that way. Yeah, well,
(20:56):
we're glad you did. It's incredible. I'm gonna I'm gonna
asked that because it, I mean, it makes for a
fantastic story. Um. As you know, Mark and I have
a very unique relationship, that quarterback center relationship, and you
know we're kind of stuck together forever. Um, can you
give me a great and I love the guy. Uh,
you're um center for the Super Bowl winning team, John Schmidt.
(21:16):
He is a fantastic guy. I've been able to get
to know him over my time with the Jets and
through different practices and outings and everything. Um, can you
give me a great John Schmidt story that you've never told,
like of a center quarterback, that center quarterback story, because
I have one of Mark where he ended up teeping
my house one Thanksgiving night, which we'll get into that later.
(21:39):
But um, but so there's there's these little things, these
little things between quarterbacks and centers that no one ever
hears about. And and I love John. So if you
have a good story of that quarters quarterback center relationship,
I would love to be able to hear you know
that I've never told No, I don't I love John Man.
(21:59):
How we we were, We were tight, of course, but
he was a workhorse. You know, guys would go to
work before practice. John was one of them. You know,
the payroll at the time, guys were earning ten thousand
the season twenty thousand was high and better than like
grants might have been getting thirty thou and our guys
(22:22):
went to work in the morning and we our general
manager and coach. He knew that they needed that additional income.
So we didn't practice until noon. We didn't have to
be out there until noon every day, and that kind
of helped some of us be able to get around
town in the evening, you know, Uh being a quarterbacks
(22:46):
in the center, you know, you got to know numbers.
Well how many hours we need to sleep? Right? If
he gets you seven or eight, Well, what time does
that mean you go to sleep? So to night life
was good. John Schmitt was wonderful, uh, a very emotional guy.
(23:06):
And I've told this story. I've got to tell you.
I mean, I see pictures with John's picking me up
off the ground by the bet nick by the back
of my pads, you know, picking me up off the
ground helped me. He was always uh special out on
the field. But this was funny to me. Now I
(23:26):
told this before, but because I don't recollect anything, I
haven't said about Schmidt already. You see, Uh, we we
were training camp. I was a rookie at training camp. No,
this was my fourth year man. We we trained up
at a a military uh prep school for our first
(23:49):
my first three years there. Because a couple of the
owners were on the board of the school up there.
You know, the beds wouldn't didn't fit Nick. You would
have had to get that, you know, the wood they
brought in the lumber to put on on the bed
so they could make him big enough. The ship on
our center. Who has got a great personality. But one
(24:12):
day at training camp out at Hostra, I go downstairs
and there was only one phone in the building that
you could use. It was a pay phone on the wall. Right,
he was on the wall and there was a line
of guys usually two three deep to use the pay phone. Well,
I come downstairs. I won't make a phone call man,
(24:33):
and Schmid's on the phone. I started standing, you know, waiting,
Lady Ellison. John starts sobbing crying. Oh honey, I just
only who I missed? You get love without you? Oh well,
you know we're at Hostra at Hampstead. His wife was
(24:54):
over there America. I mean you could you could almost
walk there. Hey, my man, he was you're a handpeck.
You talk about a guy, it was handpick. We used
to bust chops about, you know guys. The girlfriend had
him under the thumb and stuff. Handpeck, yeap from the
(25:17):
get go. But he was a great player, wonderful man.
He was that. I mean, that sounds just like Nick.
That's so funny, so much incomm um No. I remember Nick,
We're in the divisional game. We were playing against the Patriots,
and I was mouthing off a little bit because we
(25:39):
had started winning, and um, we either had like a
quarterback sneak or something. But Vince Wilfork was the big
defensive lineman there, and he came across the line of
scriment on something and Nick jumped right in front of me,
and all I could think like, I'm trying to stand
my ground, like I'm some tough guy, and he's like
three fifty pounds. Dude would have squashed me with one
(26:01):
hand or threw me out of the stadium or something.
And next step in front and I remember just thinking like,
thank God, thank god, Nix here. I was so scared,
but I had to stand there. You know. So we
love our centers. That's too funny. You've you've talked about
how much fun that you did have in Manhattan, and
our good buddy Mark here had a lot of fun
(26:22):
as well. Um, you obviously had more years of opportunity
to take advantage of everything that Manhattan has offered. How
would you rank how Mark did in his nightlife um
and dating scene? Did he do well enough? Could he
have done more? Great? Look at him? He's here, he's healthy, strong,
(26:43):
you know the man score he didn't do? You know,
I don't know thinks that you went out enough. Some
things we don't take on a whole huddle, you know,
we don't talk about. You know, thank you. You know
there are things that were trying to keep and we
do keep to ourselves or between just the two of
us and three admiss whatever it is. Yeah, no, man, uh,
(27:08):
Mark did just right, He's five? Thank you? What about this? UM?
I know you had an acting career, you pursued acting
once you were done playing. What was the you know,
your favorite role or your best acting experience? And what
was the toughest part. Ye, the toughest part was not
being educated. The toughest part was learning on my feet,
(27:33):
so to speak. I had an opportunity, is what it was.
There there's an old bud billion who had the Kennedy
players of Ohio and this a theater truth and he
got the idea that I would be good for for
a play called pick me and uh maybe sell some tickets.
(27:56):
And we started out the Kennedy Players of Ohio was
in Aumbus and uh Dayton, Ohio and another town there. Anyway,
I said, wow, this is cool because I had appeared
in many TV shows uh so before that, but I
(28:17):
never studied. I didn't have the education. And it was
testing the Uh it was wonderful. You know. I recognized
the longer I've lived, how little I knew and how
I kept just getting opportunities and you know things uh
(28:40):
worked reasonably well. I met wonderful people. UH worked with
wonderful people and some jerks to like, you know, on
the football team. You know you're working together and some
guys aren't. You know, just you will go our separate ways.
We don't have to love one another, you know, we
(29:02):
work together. Uh. But then yeah, I had I worked
with guys I saw when I was a kid, almost
you know, on on the big screen man Lee Marvin,
you know we're daughter and Robert Shaw were were over
in Germany and Italy with the machine guns, Tommy gunn
shooting I'm looking and Margaret, my god, she was wonderful.
(29:25):
So the nicest lady I ever saw I saw her
with Elvis Presley, and she was she was special. She
was fired, you know when I was looking at the movie,
she was such a nice person. You know it just yeah, yeah,
they were so UM. I think everyone that I don't
(29:46):
have any bad memories of any of the UH plays,
theatrical productions, movies. I didn't have bad memories. I just
wish I could be doing. You know, you're learning on
your feet. Man. You look back at Mike. Yeah, but
(30:11):
I wasn't prepared for this, and uh it worked out.
You know, I've had some wonderful times. So how do
you think, um, as you look back and you know
you reflect back and you know, awesome career. Um, you know,
being able to do some of the acting, being able
to do the things that you've done. Um, if you
were if you were to come out now and come
(30:33):
into the NFL, how do you think you would fair?
How do you think you would deal in today's NFL
compared to the NFL of the sixties. I probably wouldn't
make the roster. First of all, I had a real
I had a knee you know that that we never
did get right. But I was able to play. And
(30:54):
when I see the game today with the players today,
it's wonderful. It's faster than ever. You know, we we did.
I never took a snap from shotgun. You know, we
were under the center all the time. We didn't have
the kind of motion, the movement offensively that we see
today in the games. Even last several years, the coaching
(31:17):
has improved and the players have improved immensely, and in
every sport. Yeah, I think I shouldn't maybe don't know
every sport, but you look at these guys playing playing
hockey now man and and playing basketball. I repeat myself
sometimes when when I'm sharing some history. But the guy
(31:41):
that invented basketball and they smith, I don't think he
ever ever I thought it was gonna be played above
the rim. These cats are up above the room the day,
you know, and many years passed. But the nutrition, the food,
the weightlifting. We did not even have a weight room
(32:01):
at the Alabama or at the New York Jets. We
didn't have a waiting. John Riggins came in and he
was a guy he hit a speedbag, you know, he
brought his own speedbag in and hit skipped rope and
do that kind of thing. But it was so different. No,
I I certainly couldn't have measured up back then. I
(32:25):
think it'd be hard. There were special athletes, you know,
Gail Stairs, Gail says could play any time. You know,
you're able to go with Jimmy Brown. But uh no,
that the game is wonderful today and you work at
it year round. Now, remember I mentioned we had guys
(32:48):
going to work in the morning with practice. What did
what did your center and do for work for his
like day job and then go to football where did
he work? Schmidt was in good shape. His grandma was
president I believe of a union. And uh he got
some good work. And and John always shows up in
(33:09):
his Rolls Royce for the last twenty five or thirty years.
But his Rolls Royce with whatever elegator shoes he has. Man,
he's always he's as clean, he's slick as a whistle boy, sharp,
and he reread. He has the threads and the automobile.
And his children are good educated. That he's he's a
(33:30):
great man, John Schmidt. He's he's raised a beautiful family.
Uh and he earned it. I mean he worked and
he put the time in. Buddy love that Rolls Royce,
that it rolls up in fantastic. Although I think in
today's danage, you know if if you if it was
still the same and you know, you come out and
you know you're coming out of Alabama, I think what
(33:52):
would be more impressive? Obviously, I think the football would
still translate, it would just be a different game. But
I think you would you would have been I think
an ultimate social media influencer. Um, you know if it
had it at the time, like Mark barely is. But
I feel like you, I think you could have taken
the reins of that and really dominated that role, which
I think would be really cool too. Like when I
(34:12):
think about these kind of things that I think would
be awesome to be, Like what would Joe Namath be
like if if he had Twitter or or Instagram? I
think it would be amazing. You know what. I go back,
I think about what my mother was said about a
twelve cent little from bread. What's the cost today? I
remember gas leading eighteen cents of galon. You know, time
(34:34):
marches on, man, and things change big time. That's probably uh.
Our only consint has changed, you know, and uh the
game of football, and I could mention the other games,
the other sports. It's grown. It's so much better these athletes.
He you watch it, and not to take anything away,
you can't take anything away from the Boston Celtics that
(34:57):
won all those championships with Russell and all. But you
watch a highlight film and they're coming up the floor
kind of slow, you know, passing the ball. You look
at these guys today playing basketball. Man, they're up and
down that court flying. You know, it's a it's a
different world in so many ways, it really is. And um,
(35:17):
I think you know, as we we like to finish
these things up, we would like to do a little
rapid fire questions for you. Um, just you know, quick
one answer either or this or that conpect thing. Um,
So we're gonna hit you with a couple of quick
ones just to see where you land on some of
these things. If that's all right with you, Joe, Well,
it's all right with me because I know I don't
have to be all right. So here's the first one,
(35:40):
UM give me. Are you Mets or Yankees? Oh? Man,
you see that. I could spend a half hour on this. Yeah,
you know what. Uh we played with the Mets. Yogi
coach the Mets. He played for the Yankees. You know,
Mickey Mantle and I would type man. We worked together.
(36:01):
We had a trainer with the Jets that went and
became the training for forty years with the Yankees. You know,
Joe Peppertone brought the first hair dryer into the locker
room to see you and you know these guys that
I would love to see the Yankees and the Mets
play and the best team come out. I don't have
a favorite. I'm a people guys understand exactly. Guys, you
(36:25):
know people on every team around the league practically right.
You just want to see a good performance and the
team that earns it come out on top of you know.
But uh, yeah, I know. I I Yankee. I'm a
Yankee fan. In I met fan, I promise you that
I didn't have the Yankee Okay, good and Yogi Bear
(36:48):
I mentioned Yogi. Uh we're standing in shakeste and he
was working with the Mets at the time and yoga
and out of talking and yogis we have a restaurant,
k which restaurant you like? Whatever? And I said something
and he's nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded. You
(37:10):
had to live a while to understand it. I thought,
he was crazy, but I could see now with the
crowd and joy, you don't go there if somebody like whatever, yeah,
that's funny. Um, well, I love the political answer. What
about Tom next or Nuts, oh, Nicks or Nets? Well,
starts out with the Knicks man, because I Clyde with
(37:32):
smoothness could be Bradley, I'd be over there. What you
those games man with those cats who were doing lucas
a kind almighty? They were great. And then the Nets.
I went over to Fort Lee to watch them play
when they were the other league or whatever. First, you know,
before this all kept rolling, Uh, there was a guy
who lived across the street from me at Goggler's Knob.
(37:55):
He had a joint called Goggler's Novel with their bar,
and he had been to do graduate and basketball player
Art Hayman was his name. So we end up going
over to watch our play basketball. So but that's the
next the next to start with yes, and to this day,
there we go, maright. Next one up is Peter Luker's
(38:16):
or Delmonico's. Well, you know what, only because I've been
around a while, man, I've got to be politically correct here.
They're both wonderful. You can't go. You have your own steakhouse?
You have a steakhouse, Yes, we do. Yeah, we have
a couple of nice restaurants here in Jupiter, right on
the south jetty of Jupiter, Intellect, Charlie's and Joe's at
(38:40):
Love Street. Thank you, Mark. Yeah, it's a lot of
fun to foods, outstanding and h A lot of folks
are frequent in the place. But you have you have
a You had a steakhouse in New York? Is that correct? No?
Oh well, I had a fast food operation called Broadway Joes. Okay,
(39:00):
you know, but Joe's Broadway Joe's Steakhouse was there since
the fifties or so late forties and fifties, down in
the Theater district around one so off Broadway. Okay, very good. Okay,
what if you had to pick one borough in New York,
(39:21):
what would you pick? You're kidding stat n Island obviously, Well,
I mean Manhattan is okay. I just want to make sure.
I just want to make sure, you know, I mean
we I went through Queen Slushing many times, man and
(39:43):
Alcohlong Island to you know, and over to the Bronx Man, Yes, sir,
but st only just once alright, last one for you
and this one, Uh, it's gonna be I assume I
know the answer this one, UM, after the answers that
have been given already, but I'm gonna I'm still gonna
(40:03):
ask it, all right, Empire State Building or Statue of Liberty?
Oh please the Statue of Liberty that I mean, ladies first,
that she means so much more man to us, to
all of us, the whole country, in the world. The
statue live it. Yeah. The Empire State Building is special
and I got lucky I was able to take my
(40:23):
daughter's up there and demand that took us there, took
us all the way up above, all the way up
to the top of the Empire State Building, above the
level where we normally go, and uh, it was exciting.
It is awesome there. Um, Joe, I want to thank
you so much for taking the time to spend a
(40:45):
little bit uh dealing with Mark and I, UM, because
I know we're a lot, but thank you so much.
Mark and I really appreciate you coming on, UM chatting
with us. It means the world, UM, you know, knowing
our jets history, UM and what you into this organization. UM.
To have you here with us it has been fantastic. Well,
(41:05):
I thank you. I like you guys both. I feel
like I've known you for half a life time too,
you know. And uh, I'm still wearing the green Boy. Yeah, baby,
that was awesome. I mean Joe Namath, who's better than that?
What a great guest. Um. I loved his stories and
you know, talking about him being out in Manhattan being
(41:28):
drafted by two different football leagues on the same day.
I mean that guy. I could have sitting there for
hours with him, but we appreciate his time and Nick.
That brings us right back to the holiday season. And
I'm curious, what's what's the best gift that you've given
or received? Um, well, I don't give gifts given I'll
(41:52):
get out of here. I gave you the gift in protection.
Um let me see here. I feel like this is
a obviously a straight plug for yourself because you were
a fantastic gift giver. Um, So now I have to
choose between. Although I will say one of my like
welcome to the NFL moments was in two thousand and
(42:14):
six my rookie year, um Chad Pennington got us all
um blu Ray players like when they first came out,
so they were huge and they were amazing, and nobody
had the disc anyway, so it didn't really matter. But
it was like all those things like yeah I got
I got a Blu ray player but whatever. Um, yeah
it was pretty cool. And then he also got it's
like a MacBook mac Book, which was amazing. So, like
(42:37):
Chad was fantastic, but you came in over the top. Um,
it's a tough call. You did some great gifts over
the years. Um, I love my watch. That's a lasting one. Um,
I'm a big fan. But my favorite was by far
the travel voucher um, which was I think it was
your first year, yeah yeah, um. And so that one
(43:01):
we used it. Uh too. We had a self plug.
I was in the Pro Bowl which was in Miami
that year, um, and so we used the travel voucher.
We flew from Miami to Cabo, uh and it was
our first time staying in Cabo. We had never gone before,
probably never would have without the voucher um because she,
(43:23):
the travel agent lady, kind of directed us that way.
So um, it was like and now Cabo is like
a very special place. So that was a fantastic gift.
So little did you know, you know, I was talking
to the travel lady and I was like, hey, keep
the prices down and send him to Cabo or something.
It's like, don't let them go anywhere. Don't let him
go anywhere else. I got a good deal in Mexico.
(43:45):
They'll take care of it. Don't worry exactly. Um. Yeah,
I mean quarterback had to be tough because you're always
giving gifts. I don't know, did you do you have
a favorite gift that received or was it more the
joy of giving gifts. I enjoyed giving the gifts. I
like seeing guys getting the stories of where they went. Um,
(44:07):
you know, knowing that guys still wear the watch, that's
really cool. Um because we you know, that took a
little time to figure out what we wanted to get
and pick out and all that. So um, that made
it really fun for me. But it sounds like we
got some gifts for some season ticket holders and people
who listen to the show. We do. We do um
(44:28):
as and we have the helmet. I have a helmet
right here, and I don't know if you have one
as well. Um, but we are going to be signing
these massive helmets, which I still pretty heavy. I don't
know what I got my helmet delivery service here say
what's up, guys? What's up? DJA go Jets? All right,
(44:51):
the New York Jets. Baby, we're gonna sign these. We're
gonna sign these, and as thank you to our valued
season ticket holders, we're putting a few of these signed
helmets up on the Jets Rewards portal for you. Visit
n y jets dot com slash rewards to access the
portal and redeem yours. Um. It's just a little little
(45:12):
gift giving. You know. St Nick had a Santa hat
on at the game this past week, so it was
a lot of fun. So we're just in the giving spirit. Really,
that's perfect. Well, I appreciate it. Nick. We want to
thank Joe namath Uh and our sponsors so much fun today.
But don't forget as listeners, be sure to rate, review
(45:33):
and follow us. Listen to us on the I Heart
Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Welcome into the Exchange with yours truly, Nick Mangold and
my co host unfortunately, Mark Sanchez. Mark, how you doing tonight, buddy?
I got a gift in the mail. I just think
it's strange that you send your own bubbleheads to people
for the holidays. Listen, I'm like a rod, you know,
signed all gift packages like I thought it was. Yes, yeah,
(00:37):
come on now, but don't worry. We all have We
all get bubbleheads sometimes. Oh nice. They forgot to put
my moles on there though I draw them in on mine.
Oh well, this isn't this one isn't official, unfortunately, I guess. Um.
But you know, as we are in the holiday season, UM,
I need this from you, and I'm putting you on
(00:58):
the spot because I didn't tell you. Um, so you're
just gonna have to roll with it. Top five holidays go,
top five holidays, yes, of all time? Like what's your
favorite holiday? And then what's your second favorite third favorite?
Everyone has their list. Wow. I mean I am a
(01:19):
big fan of Thanksgiving. I love you. I grew up
in um two different homes, like my parents were split
up when I was a little, so we can get
double Thanksgiving some kids think that's like a bad thing, Like,
oh man, I have to do like two holidays and
to this and to that, it was awesome and I
really leaned into that. Um, was it the same food
(01:41):
at both or was it different? Similar? Similar food? But
I would just you know, you get to be a
glutton for two days instead of just one. That's great.
Let's see. I mean Christmas is is great. You can't
go wrong with Christmas. I was never really a big
Halloween guy. I don't know. I wasn't you don't like
I just like candy. I'm cool with candy, but I
(02:03):
don't like seek out candy. If candy is available, I'll
get it, But I'm not like you go to the door.
You go to the door and they give you candy.
It's no I understand how it works. Thanks you, um,
but I just I don't know. It's never really my thing. Um.
Easter school, you know, you get a week off of school.
(02:25):
I don't know. Spring Break. I guess it's cooler when
you're in college. Yeah, spring break is much cooler in college.
Did you go on a cool spring break in college?
I went to Cobbo once. I was fun. Um, I know,
not really I didn't do any like crazy wild ones.
It was usually uh, usually just something easy. But what
(02:47):
you in your fifth holiday is fifth holiday would be Festivus.
I don't know, that's a great one. It's beautiful. We
have the we have the pole and everything. For me personally,
I go Thanksgiving, Christmas, Boxing Day, fourth No Thanksgiving, Christmas,
(03:08):
fourth of July Boxing Day, and then um, I would
say Labor Day, a Halloween. Halloween, Yeah, no Halloween over
Liberal Halloween. De Yeah. We got a killer beach volleyball
tournament here in this community that I live in, and
it's gotten pretty competitive. Um, Like people are bringing in
(03:29):
people from the U S national team and like, you know,
seven foot females just spiking balls right on your face.
So it's gotten intense. Remember when California was running the
tourist commercials and like, not all Californians are like, you know,
snowboarding and out on the beach and you know, movie
stars and all that stuff. You remember that, like it
was a tourism ad. Remember that commercial at all, But
(03:53):
that's not real. It's yeah, and everybody snowboarding or at
the Yeah, exactly, that's what. It's a real thing. That
was the first day. It rained out here everybody I know. Oh,
let's go to the mountains for like two days and
go skin and come home. It's perfect. Um, all right,
so we have a fantastic guest with us today. UM,
(04:15):
it's an amazing interview. And in light of that interview,
give me your best guarantee you've ever made. I don't know.
I don't know. I think some of the like guarantees
I had to have were like, you know, school tests
and stuff like to make sure you know, I'd study
(04:35):
all week and my dad's like, well, what are you
gonna get? And I'm like being it's like just to me,
and I'm like, I'm like unless unless I get an A.
It's like, so you're gonna get an A And I'm like, yes, yes,
because you want me to say yes, don't you? Yes,
I will go with you. Yeah. So I think something
(04:56):
like that, what about you? I can't count I can't
count mine as an actual guarantee, but I did. I
always wanted a son first and first, so I guess
that maybe. I mean, I think I get I don't know,
I'll come. That's my guarantee. Call your shop, calling my
(05:17):
shop or called. That was eleven years ago. Um, all right,
so so we have our guarantees. Um. Coming up is
our interview with Joe Namath. Uh. He was a fantastic guests.
He's an amazing quarterback, Hall of Fame quarterback for are
the New York Jets. Um, let's check out and see
what Joe had to chat with me and Martin. Thank
you so much for joining us today. Well man, I've
(05:39):
been a fan of yours a knick since you guys
started out with the team, So thanks for having Oh
this is great, Um, we're I just remember when you
came to our facility during training camp, and I've never
seen our coaches get so giddy about Broadway Joe Namath
walking through the hallway and between meetings. I mean coaches
(06:01):
stopped everything they were doing. It just it just um
further showed me the impact you had on that generation
of players. But uh, this all started with you getting
drafted by the NFL and the a f L on
the exact same day. So take me back to your
draft experience and why you chose the Jets and what
that was? What? What? What? Um? What that was all about? Well, Mark, Nick,
(06:26):
you guys understand you mentioned coaches and I was at
Alabama and had Coach Bryant as our leader, and uh,
I was lucky. I had a great high school coach,
he had a great college coach. And after we had
played Auburn the last game of the season, Coach Bryant
(06:48):
came over to me in the locker room, you know,
and I was I was actually taken, Uh Steve Sloan's
our quarterbacks shoes off because he heard his knee and
I'm down. They're messing around with his shoe and Cody
Bryant came over and said, Joe looked up. Yeser Uh
you said, you know those pro scots they're gonna be
(07:09):
coming around talking about money. He said, you've got any
idea what you're gonna ask for? And Uh no, sir,
I don't know. Don true. He was a year ahead. Uh,
I said. He signed I think for a hundred thousand
dollars or something, so I was thinking about asking for
something like that. He's oh, he said, well, I took
(07:32):
a draw off of that big old chest the field
he was smoking her fallow or whatever. You go in
and ask him for two hundred thousand dollars, that's a
better place to start that that that was good advice
and it went on from there. Didn't you get like
a car? Also? Oh yeah, yes I did that. But
(07:54):
see what happened? Are Nick? These guys showed up at
our dorm. I did realized that I was drafted by
the Cardinals. I didn't hear it. They didn't have it
on television or radio. Heaven and Uh. I set upstairs
in the dorm, in my room or our room. My
roommate tell him Butch Henry named after general, tell him,
(08:17):
of course, the Confederate Army. Anyway, I'm up there, and
I get a buzz, said Joe, there's some guys down
here in the lobby. You want to talk with it?
And I said, what are you talking about? The NFL scouts.
So I went down and they said they wanted to
talk to me about the contract. And I was, come on,
(08:41):
let's go upstairs. And we went up to my room
and uh. The two of them sat on my bed.
Because I wouldn't let him sit on my roommates beet
throw me out the window, you know, use a tight
head and the tough guy to it. I set them on,
had him sit on my bed and I sat on
the edge of Butch bit and they introduced themselves. One
(09:03):
was part of otorship with the Cardinals and the other
was the general manager. And uh, they told me they
drafted me. And uh, so what do you want? What?
What kind of money are you gonna ask for? And
I was embarrassed. I had never heard of that much
money before. I was embarrassed to ask for that kind
(09:25):
of money. But I said, well, uh, I want two
hundred thousand dollars to sign there and and they said,
oh my god. And the two guys fell on the bed.
They leaned back. They went into this you know, my
god motion and and then and it made me feel
like I don't know a jerk and uh, I said, oh,
(09:50):
uh and a new car too. You guys looked at
each other and said, oh, he was a new car too,
and uh. And then I did ask what time the car?
And I said I had talked to a former high
school teammate of mine who was playing out at West
Texas State, and uh, he's from my hometown. And uh
(10:12):
he asked me a couple of days before, he said, what, Joe,
what kind of short you're gonna ask for? What kind
of car you gonna ask for? Him? Man? I said, Man,
I don't know. I really hadn't thought about that, and
he told me to get a Leaden Continental CONVERTI boy,
it was a baddest short out there, barn doors open
and you know kind of and uh so that's that's
(10:35):
what I asked for. And they looked at each other
and said, oh, sure he wants a leak and continetor
I really just give it awkward his head. And then
the man goes opens his briefcase and starts pulling out
papers for me to sign. And you know, Coach Brown
(10:59):
had told the handful of us that might get drafted
not to sign anything because we had a game coming
up in the Orange Bowl we had a go to
and he told us, you make us ineligible, you'd be aneligible,
you'd be breaking the rules, and don't you sign a thing. Well,
(11:19):
God had the pen in the contract to sign, and
I told him, oh no, you know, Coach Bryant told us,
he said, don't even take a coke colda from. I
love it, but don't even take a code code from.
And uh so I told him I can't sign, man,
you know, we have to we have a game coming up.
(11:41):
And uh it turned you know, and they just couldn't
get me to sign the papers, you know, So that
was that and they left. Man, I love it. I
think it's fantastic, you know when I saw you know,
looking back at it, you know you ended up choosing
the Jets and coming to New York, you know, coming
out of Pencil Vania, you know, growing up there and
(12:01):
knowing the wonders. Uh, that is the big city of
New York City and you know, the big lights and everything. Um.
Signing that the largest rookie deal of any sports seven
thousand dollars, which Mark, I think you signed for just
a little bit more than that on Europe deal, just slightly. Um.
(12:23):
When when you signed that deal, Joe, what did you buy? Like?
What was what did you go out and get? Was
it the iconic fur coat? Uh? Was it a watch?
Was it the car? Was? Like? What was that first
purchase deal? First of all, it was a p the
president of New York Jets at the time, along with
the rest of your ownership. Man, they were great, they
(12:44):
were terrific. I got a chance to meet them, uh
uh by going out to seeing them play Sunny Werblin
invited me out to play, uh, to see the Chargers
play and my representative representative, whom I called right after
these two guys left. You know, I got a buddy
(13:06):
and we went down to the old South coffee shop
and we're sitting there and talking. Man, hey, the guys
offered that money. I didn't know what to do, so
I said, I need help, and that's what I called
a friend of ours up in Birmingham and attorney they
might Bite and uh Bite and Mr Bite worked out
(13:30):
a deal the way that we would go visit with
Mr Werblin and the Jet ownership out in San Diego.
Mike paid for the tickets. I didn't pay for the tickets.
Mike was able to pay for the tickets because he
was my friend and we're going out to see what
was up. And whenever I met the Jets and Mr Werblin,
(13:54):
especially the ownership and Mr Hess, there there was no context.
Uh there was no contest New York City. Uh. The
Jets uh been uh really a startup league. Because I've
been watching the NFL play since nineteen sixty, you see,
(14:15):
so I had watched them the first four four years
or so, and I saw some cats that could play
like Lance all were you know Jim Motto talking about
these guys could play, and I knew it was good football,
So I fell in love. What I actually uh like
(14:35):
the ownership and being in New York. You know that
that was attractive too. You know. I find it um interesting,
like we look back at it, you know as kids
and looking back at history, the a f L kind
of being the renegades, Um, you know, where it's a
startup league going against the NFL and you know, working
(14:57):
on that merger and everything. Did you guys feel that
when you were playing as part of the Jets, Um?
I know Bill Callahan used to talk about it with
the Raiders like they had that feeling the a f
L that they were they were the renegades and they
were coming in. Uh. Did you have that same feeling
as a player, you know going through it? Well, no,
not necessarily. Renegades and those other guys were like they
(15:17):
tried to sign me underneath the table or you know,
behind the doors man. They were breaking the rule. No,
we were second class. We were we were not up
to par. We weren't the same quality on the football field.
The National League had been around, and they had the players,
they had the great players going for him, and we
(15:39):
had to prove ourselves. We had some outstanding players, even
great players, but until we want we weren't accepted throughout
the football world. The first championship game that was played finally,
I believe, was in sixty six, uh, sixty seven. Uh,
(16:00):
the Green Bay Packers beat the Kansas City Chiefs out
in Los Angeles and the coliseum, Mark you. I don't
know if you even been to that game or it
was we're born at that time, a couple a couple
of years before me. And then the second championship game,
it was the Packers again and they beat the Raiders
(16:24):
down here in Miami. And I've often said, man, if
we're out in the backyard playing or whatever, if you
lose two out of three or two, you know the
first two and god a third, when you're gonna be
out of things. So we were lucky, and that not lucky.
We had a good team, you know, but we weren't
ready running games. We were the little guys on the block.
(16:47):
We had to grow up. We had to prove ourselves,
and until we beat the other side, uh, you weren't
going to be accepted. And we won that game. And
then in Super Bowl four, the Biking said a terrific team,
but you know, the Kansas City Chiefs they did it.
So the league's merged on even playing you know, two
(17:11):
Games of peace, right, two Championships of Peace, and I
believe they started calling it the super Bowl. One of
Mr Hunt's grand children there was a ball that they
called the super Bowl and he said super Bowl, and
then the super Bowl was dubbed, well we go back
to the first one. Now super Bowl one too. Yeah,
(17:35):
And so when you it's you make it sound like there.
You know, you guys were like the second class league
and you had something to prove. Is that what in
super Bowl three or the week fired a super Bowl three?
Is that what led to the guarantee? Because you're in
that press conference and I've heard you talk about this before,
but they're just you know, brating you with these questions about, well,
(17:57):
what about the Colts and what about Johnny you and
what about the NFL film they're better and you finally
just came out and guaranteed a victory. Is that what
kind of led to it? More than just the questioning
that week everything before that. You know, you guys played
at home when you were kids growing up. You play
where you play and you. You developed a confidence and
(18:20):
attitude in your aside and you're on your team whether
they you know, you just wanna prove it. You have
to prove it, and sometimes you don't get a chance
to prove it. And we our team to New York Jets. Uh,
we're the ones that earned the chance to tell you
the tough game man. And they have said this before
(18:43):
market they the toughest game physically up to that time
that I had ever been in and won was the
championship game, the a f L championship game against the
Raiders out there in Shady Stadium. I mean, the Raiders
were a good team and uh when we beat them, Uh,
(19:03):
we didn't need any extra confidence. We were. We were confident, man,
and because we played well and believed we could win
when we beat the Raiders, Uh, we were just looking
forward to the Baltimore Coach game. And the bookmakers, you know,
the oddsmakers, we have a bunch of them around. Uh,
(19:27):
even going back then made us a big underdog. It
was ridiculous. At least we thought it was ridiculous. But uh,
the football world, you know, hey, man, the Coats were
a solid team. They lost one game that year, one
game they lost that opening day of Cleveland, they lost
(19:48):
to the Cleveland Browns, and then in the NFC Championship
they beat Cleveland thirty forward and nothing I mean bad here.
It was tough boy, but Mark got back. Yeah. There
was a wise guy that mouthed off happy at a
banquet down in Miami, and uh, you know, I just
(20:13):
I had heard enough at that time. I did have
a little bit of a libation or whatever that. Uh.
You know, the guy was a wise guy, And when
he said that, I told him, you know, I got
news for it. We're gonna We're gonna win the game.
(20:33):
I guarantee. The language is a little different. You know,
there was some uh uh yeah, he brought it out.
You know, if that guy didn't open his mouth and
say that, I would have I probably would have never
said that because we went coached that way. Yeah, well,
(20:56):
we're glad you did. It's incredible. I'm gonna I'm gonna
asked that because it, I mean, it makes for a
fantastic story. Um. As you know, Mark and I have
a very unique relationship, that quarterback center relationship, and you
know we're kind of stuck together forever. Um, can you
give me a great and I love the guy. Uh,
you're um center for the Super Bowl winning team, John Schmidt.
(21:16):
He is a fantastic guy. I've been able to get
to know him over my time with the Jets and
through different practices and outings and everything. Um, can you
give me a great John Schmidt story that you've never told,
like of a center quarterback, that center quarterback story, because
I have one of Mark where he ended up teeping
my house one Thanksgiving night, which we'll get into that later.
(21:39):
But um, but so there's there's these little things, these
little things between quarterbacks and centers that no one ever
hears about. And and I love John. So if you
have a good story of that quarters quarterback center relationship,
I would love to be able to hear you know
that I've never told No, I don't I love John Man.
(21:59):
How we we were, We were tight, of course, but
he was a workhorse. You know, guys would go to
work before practice. John was one of them. You know,
the payroll at the time, guys were earning ten thousand
the season twenty thousand was high and better than like
grants might have been getting thirty thou and our guys
(22:22):
went to work in the morning and we our general
manager and coach. He knew that they needed that additional income.
So we didn't practice until noon. We didn't have to
be out there until noon every day, and that kind
of helped some of us be able to get around
town in the evening, you know, Uh being a quarterbacks
(22:46):
in the center, you know, you got to know numbers.
Well how many hours we need to sleep? Right? If
he gets you seven or eight, Well, what time does
that mean you go to sleep? So to night life
was good. John Schmitt was wonderful, uh, a very emotional guy.
(23:06):
And I've told this story. I've got to tell you.
I mean, I see pictures with John's picking me up
off the ground by the bet nick by the back
of my pads, you know, picking me up off the
ground helped me. He was always uh special out on
the field. But this was funny to me. Now I
(23:26):
told this before, but because I don't recollect anything, I
haven't said about Schmidt already. You see, Uh, we we
were training camp. I was a rookie at training camp. No,
this was my fourth year man. We we trained up
at a a military uh prep school for our first
(23:49):
my first three years there. Because a couple of the
owners were on the board of the school up there.
You know, the beds wouldn't didn't fit Nick. You would
have had to get that, you know, the wood they
brought in the lumber to put on on the bed
so they could make him big enough. The ship on
our center. Who has got a great personality. But one
(24:12):
day at training camp out at Hostra, I go downstairs
and there was only one phone in the building that
you could use. It was a pay phone on the wall. Right,
he was on the wall and there was a line
of guys usually two three deep to use the pay phone. Well,
I come downstairs. I won't make a phone call man,
(24:33):
and Schmid's on the phone. I started standing, you know, waiting,
Lady Ellison. John starts sobbing crying. Oh honey, I just
only who I missed? You get love without you? Oh well,
you know we're at Hostra at Hampstead. His wife was
(24:54):
over there America. I mean you could you could almost
walk there. Hey, my man, he was you're a handpeck.
You talk about a guy, it was handpick. We used
to bust chops about, you know guys. The girlfriend had
him under the thumb and stuff. Handpeck, yeap from the
(25:17):
get go. But he was a great player, wonderful man.
He was that. I mean, that sounds just like Nick.
That's so funny, so much incomm um No. I remember Nick,
We're in the divisional game. We were playing against the Patriots,
and I was mouthing off a little bit because we
(25:39):
had started winning, and um, we either had like a
quarterback sneak or something. But Vince Wilfork was the big
defensive lineman there, and he came across the line of
scriment on something and Nick jumped right in front of me,
and all I could think like, I'm trying to stand
my ground, like I'm some tough guy, and he's like
three fifty pounds. Dude would have squashed me with one
(26:01):
hand or threw me out of the stadium or something.
And next step in front and I remember just thinking like,
thank God, thank god, Nix here. I was so scared,
but I had to stand there. You know. So we
love our centers. That's too funny. You've you've talked about
how much fun that you did have in Manhattan, and
our good buddy Mark here had a lot of fun
(26:22):
as well. Um, you obviously had more years of opportunity
to take advantage of everything that Manhattan has offered. How
would you rank how Mark did in his nightlife um
and dating scene? Did he do well enough? Could he
have done more? Great? Look at him? He's here, he's healthy, strong,
(26:43):
you know the man score he didn't do? You know,
I don't know thinks that you went out enough. Some
things we don't take on a whole huddle, you know,
we don't talk about. You know, thank you. You know
there are things that were trying to keep and we
do keep to ourselves or between just the two of
us and three admiss whatever it is. Yeah, no, man, uh,
(27:08):
Mark did just right, He's five? Thank you? What about this? UM?
I know you had an acting career, you pursued acting
once you were done playing. What was the you know,
your favorite role or your best acting experience? And what
was the toughest part. Ye, the toughest part was not
being educated. The toughest part was learning on my feet,
(27:33):
so to speak. I had an opportunity, is what it was.
There there's an old bud billion who had the Kennedy
players of Ohio and this a theater truth and he
got the idea that I would be good for for
a play called pick me and uh maybe sell some tickets.
(27:56):
And we started out the Kennedy Players of Ohio was
in Aumbus and uh Dayton, Ohio and another town there. Anyway,
I said, wow, this is cool because I had appeared
in many TV shows uh so before that, but I
(28:17):
never studied. I didn't have the education. And it was
testing the Uh it was wonderful. You know. I recognized
the longer I've lived, how little I knew and how
I kept just getting opportunities and you know things uh
(28:40):
worked reasonably well. I met wonderful people. UH worked with
wonderful people and some jerks to like, you know, on
the football team. You know you're working together and some
guys aren't. You know, just you will go our separate ways.
We don't have to love one another, you know, we
(29:02):
work together. Uh. But then yeah, I had I worked
with guys I saw when I was a kid, almost
you know, on on the big screen man Lee Marvin,
you know we're daughter and Robert Shaw were were over
in Germany and Italy with the machine guns, Tommy gunn
shooting I'm looking and Margaret, my god, she was wonderful.
(29:25):
So the nicest lady I ever saw I saw her
with Elvis Presley, and she was she was special. She
was fired, you know when I was looking at the movie,
she was such a nice person. You know it just yeah, yeah,
they were so UM. I think everyone that I don't
(29:46):
have any bad memories of any of the UH plays,
theatrical productions, movies. I didn't have bad memories. I just
wish I could be doing. You know, you're learning on
your feet. Man. You look back at Mike. Yeah, but
(30:11):
I wasn't prepared for this, and uh it worked out.
You know, I've had some wonderful times. So how do
you think, um, as you look back and you know
you reflect back and you know, awesome career. Um, you know,
being able to do some of the acting, being able
to do the things that you've done. Um, if you
were if you were to come out now and come
(30:33):
into the NFL, how do you think you would fair?
How do you think you would deal in today's NFL
compared to the NFL of the sixties. I probably wouldn't
make the roster. First of all, I had a real
I had a knee you know that that we never
did get right. But I was able to play. And
(30:54):
when I see the game today with the players today,
it's wonderful. It's faster than ever. You know, we we did.
I never took a snap from shotgun. You know, we
were under the center all the time. We didn't have
the kind of motion, the movement offensively that we see
today in the games. Even last several years, the coaching
(31:17):
has improved and the players have improved immensely, and in
every sport. Yeah, I think I shouldn't maybe don't know
every sport, but you look at these guys playing playing
hockey now man and and playing basketball. I repeat myself
sometimes when when I'm sharing some history. But the guy
(31:41):
that invented basketball and they smith, I don't think he
ever ever I thought it was gonna be played above
the rim. These cats are up above the room the day,
you know, and many years passed. But the nutrition, the food,
the weightlifting. We did not even have a weight room
(32:01):
at the Alabama or at the New York Jets. We
didn't have a waiting. John Riggins came in and he
was a guy he hit a speedbag, you know, he
brought his own speedbag in and hit skipped rope and
do that kind of thing. But it was so different. No,
I I certainly couldn't have measured up back then. I
(32:25):
think it'd be hard. There were special athletes, you know,
Gail Stairs, Gail says could play any time. You know,
you're able to go with Jimmy Brown. But uh no,
that the game is wonderful today and you work at
it year round. Now, remember I mentioned we had guys
(32:48):
going to work in the morning with practice. What did
what did your center and do for work for his
like day job and then go to football where did
he work? Schmidt was in good shape. His grandma was
president I believe of a union. And uh he got
some good work. And and John always shows up in
(33:09):
his Rolls Royce for the last twenty five or thirty years.
But his Rolls Royce with whatever elegator shoes he has. Man,
he's always he's as clean, he's slick as a whistle boy, sharp,
and he reread. He has the threads and the automobile.
And his children are good educated. That he's he's a
(33:30):
great man, John Schmidt. He's he's raised a beautiful family.
Uh and he earned it. I mean he worked and
he put the time in. Buddy love that Rolls Royce,
that it rolls up in fantastic. Although I think in
today's danage, you know if if you if it was
still the same and you know, you come out and
you know you're coming out of Alabama, I think what
(33:52):
would be more impressive? Obviously, I think the football would
still translate, it would just be a different game. But
I think you would you would have been I think
an ultimate social media influencer. Um, you know if it
had it at the time, like Mark barely is. But
I feel like you, I think you could have taken
the reins of that and really dominated that role, which
I think would be really cool too. Like when I
(34:12):
think about these kind of things that I think would
be awesome to be, Like what would Joe Namath be
like if if he had Twitter or or Instagram? I
think it would be amazing. You know what. I go back,
I think about what my mother was said about a
twelve cent little from bread. What's the cost today? I
remember gas leading eighteen cents of galon. You know, time
(34:34):
marches on, man, and things change big time. That's probably uh.
Our only consint has changed, you know, and uh the
game of football, and I could mention the other games,
the other sports. It's grown. It's so much better these athletes.
He you watch it, and not to take anything away,
you can't take anything away from the Boston Celtics that
(34:57):
won all those championships with Russell and all. But you
watch a highlight film and they're coming up the floor
kind of slow, you know, passing the ball. You look
at these guys today playing basketball. Man, they're up and
down that court flying. You know, it's a it's a
different world in so many ways, it really is. And um,
(35:17):
I think you know, as we we like to finish
these things up, we would like to do a little
rapid fire questions for you. Um, just you know, quick
one answer either or this or that conpect thing. Um,
So we're gonna hit you with a couple of quick
ones just to see where you land on some of
these things. If that's all right with you, Joe, Well,
it's all right with me because I know I don't
have to be all right. So here's the first one,
(35:40):
UM give me. Are you Mets or Yankees? Oh? Man,
you see that. I could spend a half hour on this. Yeah,
you know what. Uh we played with the Mets. Yogi
coach the Mets. He played for the Yankees. You know,
Mickey Mantle and I would type man. We worked together.
(36:01):
We had a trainer with the Jets that went and
became the training for forty years with the Yankees. You know,
Joe Peppertone brought the first hair dryer into the locker
room to see you and you know these guys that
I would love to see the Yankees and the Mets
play and the best team come out. I don't have
a favorite. I'm a people guys understand exactly. Guys, you
(36:25):
know people on every team around the league practically right.
You just want to see a good performance and the
team that earns it come out on top of you know.
But uh, yeah, I know. I I Yankee. I'm a
Yankee fan. In I met fan, I promise you that
I didn't have the Yankee Okay, good and Yogi Bear
(36:48):
I mentioned Yogi. Uh we're standing in shakeste and he
was working with the Mets at the time and yoga
and out of talking and yogis we have a restaurant,
k which restaurant you like? Whatever? And I said something
and he's nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded. You
(37:10):
had to live a while to understand it. I thought,
he was crazy, but I could see now with the
crowd and joy, you don't go there if somebody like whatever, yeah,
that's funny. Um, well, I love the political answer. What
about Tom next or Nuts, oh, Nicks or Nets? Well,
starts out with the Knicks man, because I Clyde with
(37:32):
smoothness could be Bradley, I'd be over there. What you
those games man with those cats who were doing lucas
a kind almighty? They were great. And then the Nets.
I went over to Fort Lee to watch them play
when they were the other league or whatever. First, you know,
before this all kept rolling, Uh, there was a guy
who lived across the street from me at Goggler's Knob.
(37:55):
He had a joint called Goggler's Novel with their bar,
and he had been to do graduate and basketball player
Art Hayman was his name. So we end up going
over to watch our play basketball. So but that's the
next the next to start with yes, and to this day,
there we go, maright. Next one up is Peter Luker's
(38:16):
or Delmonico's. Well, you know what, only because I've been
around a while, man, I've got to be politically correct here.
They're both wonderful. You can't go. You have your own steakhouse?
You have a steakhouse, Yes, we do. Yeah, we have
a couple of nice restaurants here in Jupiter, right on
the south jetty of Jupiter, Intellect, Charlie's and Joe's at
(38:40):
Love Street. Thank you, Mark. Yeah, it's a lot of
fun to foods, outstanding and h A lot of folks
are frequent in the place. But you have you have
a You had a steakhouse in New York? Is that correct? No?
Oh well, I had a fast food operation called Broadway Joes. Okay,
(39:00):
you know, but Joe's Broadway Joe's Steakhouse was there since
the fifties or so late forties and fifties, down in
the Theater district around one so off Broadway. Okay, very good. Okay,
what if you had to pick one borough in New York,
(39:21):
what would you pick? You're kidding stat n Island obviously, Well,
I mean Manhattan is okay. I just want to make sure.
I just want to make sure, you know, I mean
we I went through Queen Slushing many times, man and
(39:43):
Alcohlong Island to you know, and over to the Bronx Man, Yes, sir,
but st only just once alright, last one for you
and this one, Uh, it's gonna be I assume I
know the answer this one, UM, after the answers that
have been given already, but I'm gonna I'm still gonna
(40:03):
ask it, all right, Empire State Building or Statue of Liberty?
Oh please the Statue of Liberty that I mean, ladies first,
that she means so much more man to us, to
all of us, the whole country, in the world. The
statue live it. Yeah. The Empire State Building is special
and I got lucky I was able to take my
(40:23):
daughter's up there and demand that took us there, took
us all the way up above, all the way up
to the top of the Empire State Building, above the
level where we normally go, and uh, it was exciting.
It is awesome there. Um, Joe, I want to thank
you so much for taking the time to spend a
(40:45):
little bit uh dealing with Mark and I, UM, because
I know we're a lot, but thank you so much.
Mark and I really appreciate you coming on, UM chatting
with us. It means the world, UM, you know, knowing
our jets history, UM and what you into this organization. UM.
To have you here with us it has been fantastic. Well,
(41:05):
I thank you. I like you guys both. I feel
like I've known you for half a life time too,
you know. And uh, I'm still wearing the green Boy. Yeah, baby,
that was awesome. I mean Joe Namath, who's better than that?
What a great guest. Um. I loved his stories and
you know, talking about him being out in Manhattan being
(41:28):
drafted by two different football leagues on the same day.
I mean that guy. I could have sitting there for
hours with him, but we appreciate his time and Nick.
That brings us right back to the holiday season. And
I'm curious, what's what's the best gift that you've given
or received? Um, well, I don't give gifts given I'll
(41:52):
get out of here. I gave you the gift in protection.
Um let me see here. I feel like this is
a obviously a straight plug for yourself because you were
a fantastic gift giver. Um, So now I have to
choose between. Although I will say one of my like
welcome to the NFL moments was in two thousand and
(42:14):
six my rookie year, um Chad Pennington got us all
um blu Ray players like when they first came out,
so they were huge and they were amazing, and nobody
had the disc anyway, so it didn't really matter. But
it was like all those things like yeah I got
I got a Blu ray player but whatever. Um, yeah
it was pretty cool. And then he also got it's
like a MacBook mac Book, which was amazing. So, like
(42:37):
Chad was fantastic, but you came in over the top. Um,
it's a tough call. You did some great gifts over
the years. Um, I love my watch. That's a lasting one. Um,
I'm a big fan. But my favorite was by far
the travel voucher um, which was I think it was
your first year, yeah yeah, um. And so that one
(43:01):
we used it. Uh too. We had a self plug.
I was in the Pro Bowl which was in Miami
that year, um, and so we used the travel voucher.
We flew from Miami to Cabo, uh and it was
our first time staying in Cabo. We had never gone before,
probably never would have without the voucher um because she,
(43:23):
the travel agent lady, kind of directed us that way.
So um, it was like and now Cabo is like
a very special place. So that was a fantastic gift.
So little did you know, you know, I was talking
to the travel lady and I was like, hey, keep
the prices down and send him to Cabo or something.
It's like, don't let them go anywhere. Don't let him
go anywhere else. I got a good deal in Mexico.
(43:45):
They'll take care of it. Don't worry exactly. Um. Yeah,
I mean quarterback had to be tough because you're always
giving gifts. I don't know, did you do you have
a favorite gift that received or was it more the
joy of giving gifts. I enjoyed giving the gifts. I
like seeing guys getting the stories of where they went. Um,
(44:07):
you know, knowing that guys still wear the watch, that's
really cool. Um because we you know, that took a
little time to figure out what we wanted to get
and pick out and all that. So um, that made
it really fun for me. But it sounds like we
got some gifts for some season ticket holders and people
who listen to the show. We do. We do um
(44:28):
as and we have the helmet. I have a helmet
right here, and I don't know if you have one
as well. Um, but we are going to be signing
these massive helmets, which I still pretty heavy. I don't
know what I got my helmet delivery service here say
what's up, guys? What's up? DJA go Jets? All right,
(44:51):
the New York Jets. Baby, we're gonna sign these. We're
gonna sign these, and as thank you to our valued
season ticket holders, we're putting a few of these signed
helmets up on the Jets Rewards portal for you. Visit
n y jets dot com slash rewards to access the
portal and redeem yours. Um. It's just a little little
(45:12):
gift giving. You know. St Nick had a Santa hat
on at the game this past week, so it was
a lot of fun. So we're just in the giving spirit. Really,
that's perfect. Well, I appreciate it. Nick. We want to
thank Joe namath Uh and our sponsors so much fun today.
But don't forget as listeners, be sure to rate, review
(45:33):
and follow us. Listen to us on the I Heart
Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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