The Miami Orange Bowl welcomes two franchises who are both looking for their first ever title. The New York Jets got here as one of the top teams in the AFC, stifling opposing offenses with top-5 finishes in most defensive categories, and establishing dominance early with an effective ground game, as Emerson Boozer and Matt Snell are one of the most effective duos in the NFL. Head coach Weeb Ewbank is hoping to culminate years of building up this upstart team after already having won titles with the Baltimore Colts in the late 1950s; this would certainly be a feather in his cap. And star QB Joe Namath, who was the center of a bidding war between the AFL and NFL that ended up contributing to their eventual merger, will get a chance to give the AFC the lead in Super Bowl victories, taking up the precedent set by SB I winners Kansas City.
As for the San Francisco 49ers, they got here thanks to the wild card format, which allowed the Niners to qualify despite finishing 3rd in their division behind the established Green Bay Packers and the hit surprise Minnesota Vikings. However, San Francisco has proven they belong here by avenging their loss in the 1966 NFC Championship to Washington with their first round win, and then taking down the #1-seeded Packers when it mattered the most. Finally, they enter the Super Bowl after surviving a duel with the Pittsburgh Steelers who were riding a wave of momentum up to that point. The 49ers have a solid defense but they are susceptible, as evidenced by last week's 4th quarter. Similarly, the reason they were 3rd in the NFC West was partly due to their offense having off days. Head coach Jack Christiansen will surely do all he can to prevent that, and this would be a nice bonus for when the next round of Hall of Fame voting comes around.
The Jets are totally healthy coming into this, while the 49ers, who have already been coping with no Kermit Alexander for most of the season, lost cornerback Zeke Moore to an injury in last week's game. Fortunately their secondary is relatively deep with talent and Moore was mostly used in special teams and dime packages, so we should be mostly seeing these teams at their complete capacity.
All this comes out to the Jets being a very slight favorite over the 49ers in this game, especially now that the AFL has already proven themselves as capable against NFL competition and that the Jets were fairly dominant in the regular season. Joe Namath was asked about his team's chances and he went as far as to say he guaranteed a Jets victory. Initial media reaction is that it fits with Namath's rowdy reputation but that it puts the Jets in a tougher spot than if they were, say, a massive underdog since now if they lose, they'll be ridiculed for having blown it as a slight favorite.
