There have been many great teams over the 100-plus years the NFL has been in existence. While some teams have been great on the field in a moment in time, others were great in the sense they helped the game become what it is today.
Sports Illustrated’s Matt Verderame, with a 31-person panel of NFL media, analysts and former front office members, recently created a list of the 50 most influential teams in the history of the NFL. The Jets found a place on this list — right at the very top.
Specifically, the 1968 New York Jets, the team that quarterback Joe Namath guaranteed would defeat the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III as 18-point underdogs. The Jets would win 16-7, marking the first Super Bowl victory for the AFL after the Green Bay Packers knocked off the Kansas City Chiefs (35-10) and Oakland Raiders (33-14) in the first two Super Bowls.
The merger between the NFL and AFL has already been agreed to, but this win for the Jets helped prove the AFL could compete with the NFL. The following year, the AFL won its second straight Super Bowl when the Chiefs defeated the Minnesota Vikings 23-7 in Super Bowl IV, their lone Lombardi Trophy before Super Bowl LIV.
Here’s Verderame on why the 1968 Jets mattered:
In 1965, Alabama quarterback Joe Namath was selected with the No. 1 pick in the AFL draft and the No. 12 selection in the NFL draft, spurning the NFL for the riches of Sonny Werblin’s Jets, taking an eye-popping $427,000 contract.
In his fourth year with New York, Namath and a ferocious defense led the Jets to an AFL title and were 18-point underdogs to the one-loss Colts in Super Bowl III. To the shock of almost everyone—except Namath, who guaranteed they’d win the game—they won, 16–7, giving the upstart league its first victory in three tries over the established NFL.
While the 1970 AFL-NFL merger had already been agreed upon, the Jets’ victory is the most important in pro football history. The Jets showed the AFL was on par, something hammered home the following year by the ’69 Chiefs, who pummeled the Vikings—13-point favorites—in Super Bowl IV. Instead of the merger being seen as a necessary business decision that could hurt the sport from a competition standpoint, it established the AFL’s superiority over the best the NFL had to offer for the second consecutive year.
Moreover, the upset in Super Bowl III sparked additional interest in the AFL and the merger, giving a boost to a sport that was taking over the country by the late 1960s.
