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Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated
Sport
Tyler Lauletta

Joe Namath Has Best Response to 55th Anniversary of Jets-Raiders 'Heidi' Game

Fifty-five years ago, NFL broadcasts were not nearly as smooth as they are today.

In what would become known as the "Heidi Game," NBC once cut away from a shootout between Joe Namath's New York Jets and the Oakland Raiders to show the television film Heidi.

The gist of the story: the Jets and Raiders game ran long thanks to scoring a ton of points and two rivals producing a good amount of penalties playing against each other, so much so that they ran past the broadcast window of the game.

As a result, fans across the country missed out on the Raiders' thrilling comeback win.

Ahead of Sunday Night Football, NBC celebrated the anniversary of the Heidi Game, inviting actress Jennifer Edwards to tell the story and introduce Sunday night's rematch.

Many fans watching at home enjoyed the cheeky call-back to a time before national networks knew to never, ever turn away from an NFL game.

But one person was not so entertained by the bit—Joe Namath, who was quarterbacking the Jets team that went on to lose that fateful night in November.

It was Namath and the Jets who would get the last laugh in 1968 though, winning the rematch with the Raiders when they met in the AFL Championship Game, and going on to defeat the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III. 

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