Today, it's common for pro athletes, as well as managers & coaches, to be given air time on radio on a weekly basis during the season, or, in some cases, year-round.
Back in 1969, it was unheard of, really, for an active player to be moonlighting in anything besides acting or making commercials.
Joe Namath was never exactly the average pro athlete.
Coming off a Super Bowl win with the Jets, the only one in the team's history, Namath somehow landed a syndication deal for a talk show that ran during the 1969 season. Dick Schaap, best known for Sport magazine and as the initial moderator for ESPN's now-defunct Sports Reporters, acted as Namath's co-host, ostensibly to keep the playboy quarterback on point. Unfortunately for Namath, his first foray into television lasted just the one season. He'd try again a few years later, this time with a sitcom, The Waverly Wonders, for NBC, and that also flopped.
A few years ago, the Classic Sports Network (now ESPN Classic) acquired 15 episodes of the series. This sample clip features boxing icon Muhammad Ali:
Namath would follow up this flop with the film, "CC & Company", before Waverly Wonders ended any hope of being taken seriously on television, and, yes, that includes his broadcasting career at NBC.
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