Those Guys Have All the Fun - James Andrew Miller [277]
But no sideline reporter had ever encountered what ESPN’s Suzy Kolber did on December 20, 2003, when she did what was supposed to be a quick interview with New York Jets legend Joe Namath.
JAY ROTHMAN, Senior Coordinating Producer:
This is the God’s honest fucking truth, I promise you: Namath was my idol growing up. I had white Riddells. The whole deal. So we were doing this Jets game, and they were celebrating their forty-fifth year, and they asked us if we wanted anybody on the sidelines. So I looked at the list, saw Namath’s name, and told them I would love Namath right before halftime. I’m thinking this could be a really fun thing. So now the game’s going on and it’s freezing. I mean, it’s so fucking December nighttime cold at the Meadowlands that the wind is whipping and I could tell from a report that Suzy did earlier in the game that her jaws were, like, locked shut. It was so cold it was hard to talk. So we get a phone call from the Jets in mid-first quarter that Namath’s on his way down, and I’m saying, “No, no, no. It’s too early. We haven’t even developed the game.” I have a little speaker that Suzy could use to communicate with me during the game and she’s like, “Hey, Namath is down here. Do you want him?” And I said, “No, I don’t want him. Not now. I told them right before halftime.” Now I’m getting communication from her that Namath’s hovering. “He’s kind of hovering all over me. Can we just do it and be done with it?” So I decide “What the fuck, let’s just do this interview.”
Now I have Mike Patrick throw it down to Suzy. Now, I swear to you. I don’t know if you’ve had one of these surreal moments, you know, in your life like it’s a bad dream that you have no control over. I swear to God, that’s what it felt like. She starts interviewing him and he starts talking and I’m sitting to the right of my director, my partner in crime for many, many years, Chip Dean, and I’m leaning in watching, and I said, “Did he have a fucking stroke? Or is he cold?” And then Suzy throws back. At the same time, Mike Patrick says on his callback to me, “Jay, do I throw back?” You know, in other words to follow up the second question. And I said, “Fuck it, yeah. Go back for one more.” So he throws back and then as Mike throws back, and she starts asking the question, Joe Theismann hits his talkback button and says to me, “He’s fucking drunk!” But it was too late.
SUZY KOLBER:
The only thing that I felt was odd at the start was that we never had a chance to really chat before we went on air because he kept walking away. At one point, I even said to the PR guys, “Is everything okay?” and they said, “Yeah.” When Jay said he was ready for him, I grabbed him and was holding his arm because he wouldn’t stand still. I asked the first question, and his speech was very slow and deliberate. I was wondering if it was because it was really cold. Something didn’t seem right, but nobody in the truck was saying anything: nobody said, “Stop, there’s something’s wrong with Joe,” and Jay said to keep going. The second question was about the Jets struggling, and Namath just looked at me and said, “I want to kiss you. I couldn’t care less about the team struggling.”
At the time, I thought, “He’s embarrassing himself.” People in the crowd were cheering for him; Jay is this huge fan of his, and I’m thinking, “How do I get him out of this?” I just handled it sort of like I was at a bar and getting hit on by somebody I really didn’t want to get hit on by; it’s late, and I’m trying to excuse myself. All I remember saying was, “Thanks for the compliment,” before throwing it back. As soon as we were off, I just rolled my eyes and thought it was over forever.
JAY ROTHMAN:
As soon as he started with the whole “Can I kiss you?” thing I just went, “Ohh, fuck.” It was just one of those huge disasters. I just died. I got a deathly feeling