Namath: A Biography
Mark Kriegel
Viking, 480 pages, $27.95
ROUGHLY HALFWAY THROUGH his new biography of Joe Namath, Mark Kriegel writes, with uncharacteristic formality: “It is difficult to imagine an activity more deleterious to the human knee than professional football.” In a book written in a vein of street lingo, one that seems to roll along with the buzzing lifestyle Namath led in his heyday, it is a statement that cuts to the heart of the matter of Namath’s career. Like that other great New York icon of his era, Mickey Mantle, Joe Namath had bad knees. Born with enormous gifts as an athlete–in high school he considered an offer to play baseball for the St. Louis Cardinals before choosing to join Alabama University’s football program–Namath was prematurely aged at 23, forever one bad hit from the end of his career. More than the booze, the women, and the sheer glamorous fun of his life, it seems that the salient point about Namath is what he accomplished on those damaged knees. He won Super Bowl III with a New York Jets team representing what many considered an upstart league, the AFL. He broke numerous quarterbacking records of his time, earning himself a place in football’s Hall of Fame. And along the way, he changed the game of football.
