Mike Francesa Suggests Joe Namath as Jets Football Czar in Woody Johnson's Absence

Jets owner Woody Johnson is going to be Donald Trump’s ambassador to the United Kingdom, which means that he is expected to cede day-to-day control of the football team. Given some of the decisions that have been made in that organization in the past several years, this isn’t necessarily the worst thing in the world for Jets fans, but it does mean that changes are afoot.

Whoever Woody Johnson hires in his place will have a hell of a cleanup job, as the team either needs a new quarterback or must pray that Bryce Petty or Christian Hackenberg (lol) develops into a viable starter. Anything can happen in the NFL, but the Jets do not appear to be primed for a playoff berth next season.

In discussing this story, Mike Francesa had a caller on who noted that the team needs a football czar, a la John Elway or what the Colts are supposedly trying to nail down with Peyton Manning. The caller wanted Parcells. If you know a thing or two about Francesa you know he knows a thing or two about Parcells, and Pope said no way.

Francesa threw out the name Joe Namath, saying that if you talk to him he really knows football. However, Francesa confessed that he had no idea if this would be something Namath would be interested at this point in his life.

The caller didn’t think Namath would work because he’s a maverick. Whether his football acumen is indeed sterling is not something that could be gleaned from the observations on his Twitter account, but there is also the fact that Namath is 73 years old. While it’s not like he’d be flying on scouting trips or poring over film, you want somebody in this job who is going to be able to commit more time to it than I reckon Namath would at this point in his life.

It’s unclear whether Francesa was suggesting this as an actual, thought-out idea, or if it just came to his head and he threw it out there for the sake of conversation. But, Namath has been out of football for 40 years and there would seem from the outside to be little chance he is attuned enough to the sport at a grassroots level now to succeed with the job.

One thing the caller and Francesa both agreed on was that Chad Pennington would be a good pick for this job. Francesa noted that Pennington is extremely intelligent, but didn’t know whether he would be willing to move his family to the metropolitan New York area.