Matt Snell, Jets Super Bowl III hero, dies at 84

He was a college star whose signing with the Jets was a publicity coup for the fledgling AFL.

He was the star of Super Bowl III, leading the Jets to their first (and only) victory in The Big Game.

He remained in the pop culture spotlight after his playing days for his work in television advertising.

Joe Namath? Him, too.

But the above also describes his teammate, Matt Snell, who remains a part of Jets lore.

Snell died Tuesday in New York at age 84, the team announced.

"I'm really sad to hear that he passed," Namath said. "Matt was not only a hell of a player, he was a terrific teammate and without, him we wouldn't have had a chance to win a championship."

At the top of Snell's contributions is what Snell did in that Super Bowl III upset of the Colts, in which Namath was named MVP but Snell was the real star, rushing for 121 yards and the Jets’ only touchdown.

"Matt Snell will forever hold a special place in the history of the New York Jets," said Jets chairman Woody Johnson. "He was the embodiment of toughness, selflessness, and belief — traits that defined our organization's proudest moments. His performance in Super Bowl III was nothing short of legendary. Against the odds, Matt set the tone with his physical running, delivering the Jets' lone touchdown and helping secure one of the most important victories in sports history."

Adding to the accomplishment was a bonus: Snell did it for his home-area team. Snell, an alumnus of Carle Place High School, won Newsday’s Thorp Award in 1959 as the best football player in Nassau County.

That decade’s Thorp winners included two future Pro Football Hall of Famers in Jim Brown (1952) and John Mackey (1958), and Snell’s teammate with the 1968 champion Jets, Paul Rochester (1955), who died in 2020.

Coach Joe Coady convinced Snell to try football despite the initial unease of his mother, Annie, who told Newsday she feared for her son’s safety. Snell himself twice had to be talked out of quitting the sport by Coady.

But it ended well, with Snell scoring 21 touchdowns in his two varsity seasons, capped by a three-touchdown day in a 34-6 rout of Bethpage for the 1959 North Shore Division III title.

Newsday called Snell that day “a fast-moving freight train in a white helmet.”

Coady called him “probably the most coachable boy I’ve ever had.” Snell also excelled academically.

Upon receiving the Thorp Award that December, he said he was leaning toward attending Syracuse, and “after college, if I’m good enough, I’d like to play pro football.”

Snell ended up not at Syracuse but at Ohio State, where he was a two-way player as a back on offense and an end on defense. He was named to Ohio State’s All-Century team in 2000.

The following year was the Jets’ first after changing their name from the Titans and moving to Shea Stadium, and owner Sonny Werblin wanted to make a splash.

He took Snell third overall in the AFL Draft, then outbid the Giants, Snell’s favorite childhood team — who took him in the fourth round — in what was viewed as a key moment in their bid for attention in the New York market.

Snell did not disappoint, totaling what would be his career highs in rushes (215), rushing yards (948), receptions (56) and receiving yards (393) and adding six touchdowns overall en route to being named AFL Rookie of the Year. But the Jets were only 5-8-1 that year.

In 1965, everything changed. Werblin lured Namath to be his quarterback, and now everyone knew there was an AFL team in town.

They went 5-8-1 again in ’65, then 6-6-2, then 8-5-1, then 11-3 in 1968, eventually winning it all on that fabled afternoon at the Orange Bowl.

The Jets ground out a 16-7 victory over the Colts, with Snell rushing 30 times for 121 yards and opening the scoring with a 4-yard run around left end. Namath was a modest 17-for-28 for 206 yards but was named MVP.

By then, the wear and tear of the NFL already was taking a toll, confirming Annie Snell’s fears.

Snell was limited to seven games in 1967 because of a knee injury, then suffered Achilles tendon, knee and spleen injuries that limited him to a total of 12 games from 1970-72, his final season.

He finished with 1,057 rushes for 4,285 yards and 24 touchdowns and 193 receptions for 1,375 yards and seven TDs. By the end, he mostly was a blocking specialist — that always had been a strength of his — who helped on special teams.

In 1974, when he was toying with a return to playing with the new WFL, he spoke to Newsday about his longtime ambivalence toward the sport and league, saying: “I quit because it wasn’t fun anymore. Too much of a business. Your money wasn’t enough to make it worth it, the beating and the punishment.”

Even though Snell was done in football, he hardly was done on the public stage.

In 1973, he was the first retired player to appear in a commercial for a new beer called “Miller Lite,” which used the 6-3, 230-pounder described in a caption as “Super Bowl hero” to show that real men could drink light beer.

It was the start of a campaign that morphed into an iconic series featuring ex-jocks and others arguing over whether the beer’s best attribute was its great taste or that it was less filling.

In the original script, filmed at a bar in New York, Snell referred to the beer being low in carbohydrates. That later was changed to “less filling,” which became part of the long-running campaign that followed.

Snell was inducted into the Jets’ Ring of Honor along with  backfield partner Emerson Boozer in 2015 but did not show up for the ceremony.  For decades, he held a grudge against the franchise and refused to be a part of its alumni activities.

For many years, he refused to say publicly what had upset him. He finally explained in the 2018 book, “Beyond Broadway Joe: The Super Bowl Team That Changed Football.”

Snell was quoted saying Werblin had promised him when he signed that if the Jets won a championship, “there would be a place for me with the team for life. I was a local boy, from Long Island, who made good.”

But when Werblin was bought out and Leon Hess increased his stake in the team, Snell believed that what he had been promised was forgotten.

“It  may be that no one in Jets management knew about Sonny’s promises to me, but in 1974, there was a recession and I was in line for a construction job,” he said. “I asked the Jets for a reference. They told me they didn’t do that for players. They said they couldn’t do it! Can you believe that?

“I can’t prove it, but I don’t think any of that would have ever happened if Sonny were in charge. That’s why I don’t get along with the organization now.”

Regardless, Snell was in the team’s Ring of Honor to stay, forever a key part of securing that first championship ring.

Snell is survived by his wife, Sharon, son Beau and daughter Jada, grandson Donte, as well as great-nephew Benny Snell Jr., a former running back for the Pittsburgh Steelers.