Well, here we go again. This guy over in Cranberry, PA has his 1979 Cadillac Coupe deVille he claims was once owned by Joe Namath up for sale just like he did last spring. "Joe Willie" grew up in Beaver Falls, a good twenty-five-minute drive south. Asking price is $15,000.
The seller says the car comes with the original Florda registration that may or may not prove it was owned by Mr. Namath. The seller doesn't say this trunk load of memorabilia goes to the buyer either. As a long-suffering New York Jets fan of a certain vintage, I'm intrigued. Although, frankly, I'm intrigued more so by the car than who once owned it. And to know me is to know I love Joe Namath.
If Joe bought this new, he would have purchased it in the year or so after he retired after the 1977 season. After an injury riddled and abysmal 1976 season where Joe threw only four touchdown passes and sixteen interceptions, the Jets attempted to trade the Super Bowl III MVP to the L.A. Rams, but the deal fell through. The Jets placed on him waivers which he cleared making him a free agent. He then signed a one-year-deal as a backup QB behind Pat Haden with the Rams.
If this was in fact Namath's car at some point, I find it interesting he'd purchase such a relatively modest vehicle. Light yellow on brown? Joe, seriously? At least it's a loaded, "Phaeton" model.
He wasn't necessarily known as a "car guy" although his taste in some things tended to be rather ostentatious. For instance, he drove this 1974 Cadillac Eldorado, during training camp at least, at Hofstra University on Long Island prior to the 1975 season.
Because of his bad knees, it's said he preferred large and spacious cars; to that end, the 1979 Cadillac Coupe deVille, despite being smaller or "less large" than previous models, more than sufficed. The front seating area is so cavernous, a carpeted trash bin for your Twix wrappers and smokey treat boxes could fit under the glove compartment in the right side of the passenger footwell; I don't see it here, though.
Being a top-of-the-line "Phaeton", this car is equipped the way I'd like mine with a power-adjustable passenger seat. My father's '79 Sedan deVille had a manually adjustable front seat and sat way too low. Like my father's car, "Joe's car" has a "60/40" split front seat; 60-percent of the front seat is the passenger side. You could, in theory at least, sit three across there. The arm rest being the "back" of the middle passenger's "seat". Cadillac did not offer 50/50 seats, buckets or a center console.
These 1977 to 1979 Coupe deVille's are getting harder and harder to find in this kind of condition. to that end, it's priced reasonably. They never really grabbed the attention of Cadillac cognoscenti like even the big bumper, "colonnade" 1974 to 1976 models did. They were the first deVille's to be all but mere appliances that well-heeled buyers, like Joe Namath supposedly, and those wanting to appear well-heeled bought, drove and simply disposed of.
Why that is the stuff of "car guy" lore. You either get it or you don't. Shame that was, though, because over time, the nefarious reasons for the Cadillac-nation not taking to these like they did to the elephantine barges these replaced has long since passed. These cars, while still gigantic, were far more maneuverable than those big boats were.
Sadly, the passage of time has not been kind to one of my early childhood heroes. Once heralded as being one the greatest NFL quarterbacks of all time, Joseph William Namath is now known for being merely famous as opposed to being a great quarterback.
Joe Namath owned a 1979 Cadillac Coupe deVille (often cited as a Phaeton edition) after his football career, which he favored for its roomy, comfortable ride. The car was in the Namath family for over a decade, and it has been described as a well-maintained "time capsule" with over 90,000 miles
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