Super Bowl III
Super Bowl III took place on
January 12,
1969 at Miami Orange Bowl,
Miami,
Florida.
The final result was New York Jets 16, Baltimore Colts 7.
Before the game
The Colts, the champions of the NFL, were heavily favored to defeat the AFL champion Jets. Although the upstart AFL had successfully forced the long established NFL into a merger agreement three years earlier, the previous AFL champions had lost the first two Super Bowls and the league was not generally respected as having the same calibre of talent as the NFL.
However, at the Touchdown Club in Miami, Jets quarterback Joe Namath predicted a Jets victory. "I guarantee it," he said.
The game
- Matt Snell rushed for 121 yeards, including the Jets' touchdown, and George Sauer caught eight passes for 133 yards. Don Maynard played injured, but his 112-yard, two touchdown performance against the Oakland Raiders in the AFL championship game made the Colts so wary of him that Namath took advantage of single coverage on other receivers, while the Jets defense shut down a Colts offense that had carried them to a 13-1 record during the regular season.. Although the Colts had been touted by the NFL as "the greatest team of all time", Namath and the American Football League's Jets silenced the arrogant older league and struck a blow for underdogs everywhere.
- Attendance: 75,389
Scoring by quarter
| Team | Quarter |
|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
| New York | 0 | 7 | 6 | 3 |
| Baltimore | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 |
See Also