Broadway Joe
Genre: Sports/Biography/Drama
Director: David O. Russell
Writer: APJ
Cast: Jeremy Allen White, John C. Reilly, John Goodman, Kathryn Hahn, Bob Odenkirk, Madelyn Cline, Emma Mackey, Quincy Isaiah, Will Patton
Plot: Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania - The 1950s.
Grainy home-movie footage shows a young Joe Namath playing backyard football with his friends, showing early glimpses of his natural ability - juking around trash cans, diving into bushes, and throwing the ball harder and farther than any other kid in the neighborhood. Joe Namath (Jeremy Allen White), in his prime, enters the screen, addressing the camera directly: "I may not have been born with a football in my hands... but it was pretty close." Young Joe continues to stand out against his peers. His mother Rose (Kathryn Hahn) watches from the porch, beaming with pride.
Tuscaloosa, Alabama - 1962.
Legendary Alabama football coach Bear Bryant (John C. Reilly) barks orders as Alabama's star quarterback, Namath, rolls his eyes during practice. Namath narrates: "Bear Bryant - hard as nails, but he knew talent when he saw it." Bryant pushes Namath through grueling drills, and Namath, ever the charmer, grins and winks at the camera. Bryant's disciplined old-school methods are in stark contrast to Namath's more rebellious personality.
Namath shows up to practice drunk after an all-night bender, wearing sunglasses. Bryant pulls him aside and suspends him, chastising him for thinking he can party all night and then play football. Namath shrugs, not taking it seriously. Cut to a flashback of a wild party - drinks spilling, girls laughing, Namath at the center of it all.
During the next game, Namath still looks hungover. Alabama is losing, and despite suspending Namath, Bryant needs him to win. Bryant curses under his breath and reluctantly calls Namath in from the sidelines. Namath stumbles into the huddle, grinning at his teammates. Namath narrates: "Hungover? Sure. But I could still throw." As if on queue, Namath leads the team to a miraculous comeback as he throws a perfect pass for the game-winning touchdown. The crowd goes wild in slow-motion. Bryant shakes his head, muttering under his breath.
New York City, New York - 1965.
Joe Namath, fresh out of college, walks into a room full of AFL executives, ready to sign the most lucrative contract in football history. Namath narrates: "Most kids dream of playing in the NFL. Not me. I wanted the spotlight, and the AFL was my ticket." The contract amount flashes across the screen in bold numbers: $427,000. After signing, Namath leans back in his chair. "$427,000 - who says no to that?"
Miami, Florida - 1969.
Neon lights flash as Namath drinks the night away at a night club in Miami in the days leading up to Super Bowl III where his Jets are set to take on the Baltimore Colts. Namath is surrounded by celebrities and teammates, holding court. As he knocks back drinks, he leans into a nearby sportswriter and guarantees that the Jets will win the Super Bowl. "The problem with guarantees? You gotta back 'em up."
Before the big game, Joe Namath stays in the locker room after the rest of the Jets have taken the field for warmups. He stands in front of a mirror, wearing only a jock strap, psyching himself before what he knows will be the biggest game of his life.
Joe Namath paces the sideline during team warmups, tossing a football to himself as the crowd noise builds. Coach Weeb Ewbank (John Goodman) walks up beside him, quiet but firm. “You’ve got the arm, Joe. You’ve got the swagger. But none of it means a thing if you don’t go out there and back it up.” Ewbank pauses, looks out onto the field. “It’s your huddle now.” Namath nods, suddenly still. Namath turns to the camera: “Weeb wasn’t one for speeches. But when he handed me that team, it felt like he handed me the whole damn city.”
Namath jogs out of the tunnel as the crowd roars. The Super Bowl is shown in the style of NFL Films footage, in hyper-stylized slow-motion. Namath leads the Jets to victory, and he is hoisted into the air by his teammates as green and white confetti falls, including Winston Hill (Quincy Isaiah), the team's left tackle who protects the quarterback's blindside, making him a quarterback's best friend. "They said we couldn't do it. But I knew. I always knew."
Following the Super Bowl victory, Joe Namath quickly becomes the toast of the town and a pop culture icon. We see a montage of his famed commercials - Namath rubs shaving cream on his face with Farrah Fawcett. Namath slides pantyhose up his legs with a wink. Namath chugs Ovaltine in slow motion. Between shoots he is spotted in nightclubs with Randi Oakes (Madilyn Cline), laughing and dancing under strobe lights. "Football was just the beginning. Now I was Broadway Joe."
Joe Namath becomes such a nightlife fixture in New York that he opens his own night club, which is quickly populated by fellow athletes, celebrities and organized crime figures. NFL Commissioner Peter Rozzelle (Bob Odenkirk) arrives at the club to confront Namath about the image problem his association with mobsters presents the league. Rozelle demands Namath divest from his nightclub. Namath, defiant, says he'll retire instead. Rozelle goes from demanding to pleading with Namath to sell his shares. Namath, pleased that he managed to make the head honcho of the entire league grovel, agrees to sell the club, but not until after one more big party. Disco lights flash at the nightclub. Joe leads the dance floor in a glittery suit. Celebrities and dancers twirl around him in a highly choreographed dance number as Rozzelle looks on in disgust.
Hollywood, California - 1970.
Joe Namath tries his hand at acting, having been cast as the lead in a Hollywood biker film called C.C. and Company. He's clearly out of his depth and his natural charm is unable to get him through a scene. He struggles with remembering his lines. As the production screens dailies for the day's shoot, Namath becomes embarrassed. "They said I had the look, but maybe not the chops."
New York City, New York - 1971.
Namath stumbles into his penthouse, clothes disheveled, tie half-off. Randi Oakes is waiting for him, calm but resolute, her suitcase already packed. “You don’t want a partner, Joe. You want an audience.” Namath tries to spin it, charm his way out. She walks out, and the sound of the door closing echoes through the apartment. Namath: “Randi was right. But at the time, I thought losing her was just the price of fame. Turns out, it was one of the receipts I never read.”
Medical graphics show damage to Joe Namath's knees. On the field, each hit Namath takes is shown with distorted sound as if his body is slowing down. Namath lies on the operation table, groaning in pain. Numerous quick flashbacks of every brutal hit Namath has taken to the knees play. Post-surgery, Namath winces getting out of bed. "You can only take so many hits before you break."
It’s freezing cold. The Jets are losing. Namath, sidelined with injuries, stands in a full-length white fur coat and sunglasses, sipping from a thermos. The cameras zoom in. The commentators chuckle. Fans grimace. Namath turns to the camera, “What can I say? If I was gonna sit the bench, I was gonna do it in style.” But as the boos roll in from the stands, the grin on his face flickers.
Back with the Jets, Namath throws picks, gets sacked, limps off the field. Fans boo. Reporters speculate he's finished. In the locker room, he snaps at a rookie. His friend Winston Hill pulls him aside and reminds him who he used to be. Joe looks in the mirror, silent. "I used to light this place up. Now I just flicker."
Los Angeles, California - 1977.
In a Rams uniform - the Jets released him due to his injuries - Namath walks the sideline. His team trails. Coach Chuck Knox (Will Patton) looks over. Joe begs for a shot to stay in the game. Knox gives him one more series. Namath throws an interception, collapse to the turf, and doesn't get up right away. In the locker room, Namath quietly hands over his pads to the training staff.
Joe Namath is at home, drunk, muttering at the TV. His mother Rose shows up, tired and angry. She pleads with him to stop wasting himself. Joe erupts, then breaks down. "All I ever wanted was to be somebody. But what do you do when you’ve already been him?"
In a quiet bar, Namath nurses a drink when Deborah Mays (Emma Mackey) sits beside him. Their conversation is light but warm. They laugh, but she doesn’t fawn. Later, she invites him to a dinner party. Namath’s out of his element. Artists and activists talk Camus and climate. Namath smiles and nods. Later that night, she calls him out gently: “You’re not stupid. You’re just used to playing the fool.”
Cue a montage:
- Joe doing yoga and falling over.
- Joe handing out flyers at a community event.
- Joe reading a book, confused, then smiling.
- Joe turning down a drink - for the first time in his life.
“For the first time in my life, someone saw the man behind the legend. And weirdest part? I liked him better too.”
Namath walks along down the street, glancing at former billboards of himself, now faded. He decides to stop trying to be "the star" and meets with Deborah for coffee like a "Regular Joe."
Canton, Ohio - 1985.
At his Hall of Fame induction, Namath walks up to the mic in a white blazer, hair slicked back. He chokes up during his speech, recounting the wins, the women, the injuries, the pain. Flashbacks of his career play behind him. He ends simply: "It wasn’t perfect. But it was mine."
New Jersey - 2003.
A grainy TV clip flickers on the screen. An older Joe Namath sits on a sideline set for Monday Night Football, visibly drunk, eyes glassy. “I wanna kiss you,” he slurs to Suzy Kolber. The moment goes viral. Cut to Deborah in the kitchen, watching on a tiny screen. She shakes her head — not in anger, just that kind of exhausted disappointment you save for someone you’ve loved longer than you’ve trusted. “Old habits die hard,” Namath says. “Some never do.” Cut back to 1980s Namath, walking alone on a quiet beach, sun setting, the tide washing at his feet. “I had my moment. A damn good one. But even legends can slip up. Doesn’t mean they weren’t legends.”
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