Namath
<p><p>in Between Babe Ruth And Michael Jordan There Was Joe Namath, One Of The Very Few Sports Heroes Who Transcended Their Game. The Son Of A Hungarian Immigrant, Namath Left The Steel Country Of Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, For The Deep South, Where He Played Quarterback For Bear Bryant At The University Of Alabama. Almost Four Years Later, He Signed A $427,000 Contract With The New York Jets That Changed Football Forever, Transforming A Crude, Violent Game Into Show Business. Namath Became The Most Glamorous Athlete In America——his Fame Nurtured By The Age Of Television, The Point Spread, And The Sexual Revolution. His Hair, His Draft Deferment, And His White Shoes Became Symbols For A Generation. But It Was His Guarantee Of Victory In Super Bowl Iii That Ensured His Legend.<p>in The Tradition Of Richard Ben Cramer's Joe Dimaggio, David Maraniss's A Life Of Vince Lombardi, And Nick Tosches's Dino, Mark Kriegel Details Namath's Journey From Steeltown Pool Halls To The...</p> <h3>publishers Weekly</h3> <p>avoiding The Pitfalls Of Mythology While Telling A Larger-than-life Story Is Never Easy, But Kriegel Does It Grandly In This Landmark Portrait Of The 1960s Icon. From The Segregated South To The Era Of Showbiz Sports, Namath Has A Forrest Gump-like Way Of Being There. All The Important Athletic Moments Are Here, Elegantly Told: His Hardscrabble Western Pennsylvania Upbringing; His Unlikely Pairing With Bear Bryant; His Arrival In New York As A Hard-partying, Money-making Star And, Of Course, The Win In Super Bowl Iii. Namath Comes Off As Both Throwback (he Played Through Unbearable Pain) And Hypermodern (40 Years Ago, He Was Already Getting Paid To Wear Certain Brands Of Clothing). But To Write Of The First Media-age Sports Star Is To Tell Not Just Of An Athlete But The Changing Nature Of Celebrity And Society In The '60s-that Is, The Story Of Modern America-and The Author Manages The Elusive Trick Of Illuminating Setting As Much As Subject. He Documents How Sports Became Both Big Business And Pop Culture Through Savvy Tv Deals And The Merchandising Of Stars. If Namath Feels Like A Distant Figure, More Statue Around Whom Society Scrambled To Adjust Itself Than Active Change Seeker, That's Because Kriegel Convinces Us He Was-a Figure Both Epic And Accidental In A World Revolving Too Fast For One Person To Control. Kriegel Has Written A Remarkable Book: A Feel-good Sports Story Still Abundant With Insight And Social Commentary. Agent, David Vigliano. (aug.) Forecast: Football Books Can Be As Vulnerable As A Quarterback's Extremities, But This Will Cross Fluidly Into Pop Culture-as Has Namath Himself. Expect Adulation And Sales. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.</p>