Namath Spoke His Mind, Jets Delivered : Super Bowl III: Colts were 18 1/2-point favorites, but brash quarterback rallied his troops.

If all else fails, Broncos, there’s always the Joe Namath approach to propping up underdogs in the face of monumental Super Bowl odds.

“Not only do I think we’re gonna win it,” Namath proclaimed days before Super Bowl III, “I guarantee it.”

Namath never said how he was going to guarantee it. Gift certificates for panty hose maybe? But then, legends aren’t built on such trifling considerations.

Namath took his cockeyed idea and turned it into the prediction of the century by taking his 18 1/2-point underdog New York Jets and leading them to a 16-7 victory over the Baltimore Colts, the NFL, the Establishment and everyone else over 30.

Namath’s braggadocio turned into a triumph for youthful arrogance, for shaggy hair and white football shoes, for upstart football leagues that had no business sharing the same chalk marks as Johnny Unitas. What the Denver Broncos represent is less clear--a reason to preempt Super Bowls, perhaps--but Denver would do well to follow the Jets’ lead on that Miami afternoon in early 1969.

The Broncos have a shot if:

--Joe Montana fails to spot a wide-open receiver, jumping and waving in the end zone, and forces a pass instead into heavy coverage. That happened to the Colts’ Earl Morrall, who must have blacked out when Jimmy Orr camped out beyond the New York secondary. Orr went neglected and Morrall went over the middle, the football winding up in the arms of Jet safety Jim Hudson.

--The 49ers decide to change quarterbacks. The Colts tried this, too, sending in the aging warrior Unitas to bail out Morrall in the fourth quarter. Unitas, injured for most of the season, didn’t have the time to shake off the rust or shake up the offense, leading Baltimore to its only touchdown but nothing more.

--Sammy Winder has the game of his career. The Jets got that kind of effort from Matt Snell, a 220-pound fullback who had netted 747 regular-season yards as a sideshow to Namath’s passing. Against Baltimore, however, Snell was New York’s main man, gaining 121 yards in 30 carries and scoring his team’s only touchdown.

An outrageous guarantee might help, too. If Namath was crazy enough to say it, he was one-upped by a team crazy enough to believe it.

“He guaranteed we would win and that’s the way he really believed,” said Jet rookie defensive back John Dockery after the game. “He not only made me believe, he made us all believe.”

For his part, Bronco owner Pat Bowlen has attempted to stir things up, claiming it “would be an upset” if his team lost to San Francisco Sunday. Nice try, but Bartlett’s can wait.

If anyone else in the Denver camp has something to say, let them step forward now. Oh for four is only a moment away.