Joe Namath - Retirement

With his celebrity status intact and his continuing success as a corporate pitchman, Namath concentrated on a career as an actor in the late seventies. So enthralled with the craft he took acting classes to improve his abilities, he eventually gave it up under the strain of going from the top of his field to the bottom of another. Namath would continue to invest in business opportunities and enjoy a short stay on ABC's Monday Night Football. His main focus would become his family once the confirmed bachelor settled down and married a woman he met at a voice class in 1983. After having two daughters, Namath virtually dropped out of the public eye, moving to Florida because of the beneficial effects of warm weather on his still troublesome knees. "I have four dogs, two cats, two daughters and a wonderful wife," Namath said. "I wouldn't exactly call that quiet. Different, I guess." His picture perfect life would be disrupted, however, in 1999 when his wife of fourteen years filed for divorce.

Although Namath was not a perennial winner, playing for only four winning teams in his thirteen-year career, he was one of the game's greatest superstars. He achieved the highest honors possible during his career while continually making waves in the press. He gave a face to a struggling football league and nearly single-handedly created the art of pre-Super Bowl hype. With his heroic play on the field and his sex-symbol status off the field, Namath was an athlete that appealed to both men and women. Because of what he represents, perhaps even more than what he achieved, Namath continues to be larger than life even to fans too young to remember his impossible victory.