Ciatterelli “Goes Joe Namath” & Guarantees Win Over Murphy

In 1969, the underdog New York Jets were headed to Super Bowl III.

It was The American Football League (AFL) versus The National Football League (NFL).

The AFL was universally considered to be the inferior league at the time.

The flamboyant Joe Namath, who wore white shoes on the field and flashy mink costs off the field, guaranteed to the media that his Jets would defeat The Baltimore Colts.

The guarantee by Namath is considered to be one of the most famous statements ever made by a professional athlete.

It was made even more legendary, because on January 12, 1969 at The Orange Bowl Stadium in Miami, Florida, Namath delivered on his bodacious promise. The Jets defeated The Colts 16-7.

The Colts were a 7-1 favorite, meaning if you bet $ 100 on The Jets, you would win $700. By contrast, if you bet $ 100 on The Colts, you would win only $ 14.29.

By game day, The Colts were an overwhelming 18 point favorite.

To give you an idea of how bold Namath’s guarantee was, The Colts had just completed a 13-1 regular season, while shutting out their last four opponents.

The Colts were coached by the legendary Don Shula.

Here’s how the Namath guarantee happened. On January 9, 1969 Namath was being honored by the Miami Touchdown Club when someone yelled out, “The Colts are going to kick your ass.” Cool Namath responded, “Hey, I got news for you. We’re going to win Sunday, I’ll guarantee you.”

When Jets coach Weeb Ewbank found out about what Namath had said, he was furious. “Ah Joe, Joe, Joe,” said Ewbank, you know what they’re going to do?, “They’re (Baltimore) going to put that up on the locker room wall. Those Colts are gonna want to kill us,” said Ewbank.

Athletes and political candidates had often times predicted victory, but, Namath guaranteed it.

New York sportswriter Mike Lupica said it this memorable way about Namath’s performance, “Nobody ever proved that Babe Ruth actually called his home run shot in that World Series against the Cubs. Namath called his.”

Fast forward to the present.

On Friday, October 29, 2021 on WPG Talk Radio 95.5’s “Hurley in the Morning,” Jack Ciatterelli went all in and guaranteed a win, even citing Joe Namath’s bold prediction from 52 years ago.

Ciatterelli proclaimed it with confidence, not arrogance.

Ciatterelli appears to be facing even greater odds then Namath’s Jets.

It’s New Jersey. There are more than 1,000,000 more registered Democrats versus Republicans.

The score was 0-0 when the underdog Jets took the field against The Colts.

Ciatterelli takes the field trailing by the equivalent of a million. Add to that the fact that North Jersey is predominantly Democrat and has considerably more voters versus South Jersey.

On paper, it appears to be “Mission Impossible” for Ciatterelli, yet Republicans have won 6 of the past 10 Gubernatorial elections in New Jersey.

Republican’s Tom Kean, Christie Whitman and Chris Christie, each won twice.

At the same time, no Democrat has been re-elected Governor since Brendan Byrne 40 years ago. Incumbent Democrat Governor Phil Murphy is also trying to make history.

The current odds predict that Murphy will do it.

Yet, the odds said that the Baltimore Colts would win it all in 1969.

Here are other major upsets that were never supposed to happen:

• President Harry Truman defeated Thomas Dewey in the 1948 Presidential election. The media was so certain that Dewey would win, that they ran banner headlines stating that Dewey had defeated the incumbent President.
• Villanova University defeated Georgetown in 1985 for the men’s NCAA collegiate basketball championship.
• The USA Men’s Hockey Team defeated The vaunted Soviet Union in 1980, “The Miracle on Ice.”
• Cassius Clay defeated Sonny Liston for the Heavyweight World Boxing Championship in 1964.
• North Carolina State University (Jimmy Valvano) defeats Houston for the NCAA men’s collegiate national basketball championship.
• Buster Douglas knocked out Mike Tyson on February 10, 1990 in The Tokyo Dome. Tyson was a 50-1 favorite.

This is exactly why you play the game.

The 9 days of early voting are all over now. All that remains is General Election Day, on Tuesday, November 2, 2021.

Ciatterelli has boldly guaranteed a victory.