Quarterbacks named Joe have had their fair share of success playing in the Super Bowl.
Four quarterbacks with the name have at least one Super Bowl ring. Hall of Famer Joe Montana is a four-time Super Bowl champion and three-time Super Bowl MVP award-winner. Joe Theismann won Super Bowl XVII with the Washington Redskins in 1983.
The other two Joes have direct ties to the Jets.
Joe Namath delivered Gang Green its first and only Super Bowl title in 1969 by famously upsetting the Baltimore Colts, who were favored by nearly 20 points in Super Bowl III. He also earned Super Bowl MVP honors.
Forty-four years after Namath helped the Jets make history, Joe Flacco made his own in Super Bowl XLVII, leading the Baltimore Ravens to a win over the San Francisco 49ers and earning MVP honors. After the game, Flacco signed a football that featured the signatures of every Super Bowl-winning quarterback. He requested to sign his name near that of one of his childhood idols. Ironically, his signature also wound up next to Namath’s — one of the greatest players in the history of the franchise Flacco now plays for.
“I asked him where Joe Montana’s signature is, and I found that,” Flacco told Comcast SportsNet Baltimore in 2013. “And Joe Namath happened to be above it, so I put myself right between them. I thought that was pretty cool.”
Flacco will not be tasked with leading the Jets to the Super Bowl as Namath once did. Instead, he will serve as the backup and defacto mentor to Sam Darnold — the quarterback the Jets hope can lead them to the promised land once again.
Until last week, the only thing Flacco and Namath had in common was their namesake and status as Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks with Super Bowl MVP honors to boot.
Now, both have ties to the green and white.