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Namath: A Biography | 
 enlarge | Author: Mark Kriegel
Category: Book
List Price: $16.00
Buy New: $3.40
You Save: $12.60 (79%)
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Rating:  46 reviews
Sales Rank: 884907
Format: Bargain Price
Media: Paperback
Pages: 528
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.2 x 1.3
ASIN: B000COQCT2
Publication Date: July 26, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
In between Babe Ruth and Michael Jordan there was Joe Namath, one of the few sports heroes to transcend the game he played. Novelist and former sports-columnist Mark Kriegel s bestselling biography of the iconic quarterback details his journey from steel-town pool halls to the upper reaches of American celebrity and beyond. The first of his kind, Namath enabled a nation to see sports as show biz. For an entire generation he became a spectacle of booze and broads, a guy who made bachelorhood seem an almost sacred calling, but it was his audacious "guarantee" of victory in Super Bowl III that ensured his legend. This unforgettable portrait brings readers from the gridiron to the go-go nightclubs as Kriegel uncovers the truth behind Broadway Joe and why his legend has meant so much to so many.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 41 more reviews...
 Needs editing November 9, 2008
Tim Grasshoff
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I thought this book was going to be all about Namath, but there is way too much football history.Wished the history would have been edited and and the book had stuck to Namath.
 For the Serious Namath Fan November 9, 2008
E. Voit (Jeannette, PA USA)
It was OK - the Super Bowl season and the seasons leading up to it were well written and really kept you interested. The years afterwards, there was too much unrelated material making it difficult to stay foucsed on the real story. Namath was an incredibly, lucky guy who seemed to always be in the right place at the right time and the story paints this picture. A bit too long though.
Big Book About a Big Star August 11, 2007
A Southern Reader (New Orleans, LA United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Kriegel does a masterful job at covering Namath for the reader. That said, I found the book way too long for the subject matter. Definitely mainline skimming after Namath retires from the Jets. The author really covers Namath's flaws. He appears to have always been an industrial strength drinker with little regard for most of his teammates and others. Not an easy person to like. Consequently, I found myself asking why am I reading all of these words about such a person. The football parts are really good, especially I would think for old line Jets fans. However, other parts are less intriguing. I've noticed that authors who are also journalists tend to think we care as much about all the details as do they. I found Kriegel's book, Pistol, about Pete Maravich is a better read.
 All About Joe Willie, Hustler Supreme April 29, 2007
Eric V.
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Namath, through his legal mouthpiece, refused to cooperate with the author of "Namath: A Biography." A terrific researcher and writer, Mark Kriegel didn't need him. Joe left enough bitter friends, teammates, and business partners who were willing to share the lowdown on Broadway Joe. Ain't a pretty picture, but neither is pro football.
This was one of the most talented and courageous players ever to step onto a football field. The author pays due homage to Joe Namath, QB. Plenty of fascinating stuff on Beaver Falls, Alabama, and Jets heroics. His athleticism was a great gift; his grit in making the most of it was unyielding. If you utterly idolized him as #12, leave that as your only memory.
What this book presents is Namath as man in full; which is to say, a user without peer, a smalltown pool hustler who brought that ethos to all that touched his life. There's me, and there are the suckers. When he was finished with you, you learned it this way: your phone calls were not returned. Out. Finis. A buddy for twenty years now dying? A teammate for a dozen years? Sorry. Your services in the lifelong promotion that remains Joe Willie "White Shoes" are no longer required. Perhaps the best example cited by the author of the crassness of Namath the man was when he wanted 60G to attend a charity golf tournament organized by his Jets teammates. Unfortunately that sum would drain the total funds earned by the event. So no Joe. Not that he wanted to go; that was the point of the exhorbitant fee--he didn't need them.
When the primetime hustle that was Broadway Joe finally petered out, Namath decided it was family that mattered. He had always tried to take care of his natural family, which was a broken one. But he had no practice at real life. He waited too long. He soon married a user half his age who hustled him: she left him because she wanted to be a "serious actress" and "find herself," as Kriegel painfully quotes her. This she did by ditching Broadway Joe for her own personal Beverly Hills plastic surgeon. She took the two Namath daughters with her, leaving her husband shellshocked as to how such a thing could happen to The Man Himself. He quickly returned to that which best sustained him through his desultory off-field existence: booze.
Kriegel throughout makes the point that the Namath con is all part of the Big Con: The Enteraintment and Sports Sell. The original power behind Namath as Broadway Joe was Sonny Werblin, New York TV superagent and hustler extraordinnaire when he became a minority Jets owner. At the time, pro football was bringing up the rear in the American sports pantheon. Its owners still labored under the delusion they were in the football business. Namath-Werblin changed that. It was the perfect marriage in Joe's life. Joe and Sonny, Football and Show Biz.
Namath's latest promotion has been his autobiography, surprisingly titled, "Namath." This was the reason Joe risked an interview late last year with Sixty Minutes, notorious for slapping the self-satisfied smiles off its subjects. No problem: his attorney likely made sure he got what he wanted, a puff-piece where he charmingly skates Oprahesque across the wreckage of his life while walking a Florida beach. Trying to stay booze-free once again, moving on metal knees and arthritic hips, the man's hustle hasn't lost a step. And he may be alone, still devoted to his daughters, but he's certainly not lonely (wink, wink). Broadway Joe lives.
If you want a well-written take on Namath that is as gritty as the man and his world, read the Kriegel book. It's all about Joe William Namath, who remains one of the most extraordinary football players I ever watched. And wish I could pay good U.S. money to go back and watch again in the autumn dust of Shea Stadium, New York.
Joe Willie is the bomb April 12, 2007
Eugene Goldfarb (Whitehouse Station, NJ United States)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Great book. I feel sad for a man who peaked at 25.
J!E!T!S! Jets Jets Jets
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