From the business end, yes. Namath gave the AFL teams credibility and showed they could play with the big boys. All of a sudden, the AFL wasn't a minor league any longer. It was a lot easier to convince the Steelers, Colts and Browns to be realigned to the AFC to balance out scheduling once Namath put the AFL teams on parity. Lenny Dawson helped to cement it with the Chiefs the next year, true, but Namath got most of the credit.
BTW, much of what he did in that game was hand off to his power back (Matt Snell) too
Little trivia--Namath is the only QB to win a SB without throwing a TD pass.
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