Here’s Joe Namath Wearing a 1964 New York Jets Helmet
As originally seen on UniWatch, here’s a very cool photo of Joe Namath in a New York Jets uniform. It’s notable for a few reasons, which I’ll get into shortly.
What makes this interesting is that Broadway Joe is wearing a helmet with an altered version the mostly white Jets logo that was used for the 1964 season only, but didn’t play his first game for New York until 1965. By that time the team had adopted a helmet logo that was essentially the same but with the colors reversed. Here’s a replica of that version:
And here’s the ’64 version as well:
So based on the Namath pic, it looks like the helmet he wore for that shoot is a prototype of some sort. Perhaps the team had already decided to move in a new direction for ’65? Makes sense, considering what a landmark signing Namath was. Or perhaps all they had was a blank white helmet and had to improvise a logo?
The world may never know. Either way, it’s a unique piece of history for fans of Namath, the Jets, or the AFL.
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The decal is also terribly askew in that picture. And you can also see that his jersey is cinched by a belt which he is wearing over what appear to be a pair of maroon pants (perhaps a pair of Alabama practice shorts).
My guess is that this picture was taken for some kind of season ticket promo in early 1965, prior to the production of the new helmet decal. He would not have been in a Jet uniform – even for promotional purposes – until ’65 seeing as how he was still the Crimson Tide QB in their 1/1/65 loss to Texas in the Orange Bowl.