Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis recreates iconic Joe Namath SI cover

Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis recreated two iconic Joe Namath images for this week's Sports Illustrated—a 1965 cover shot in Times Square and a photo of the quarterback sitting poolside and guaranteeing a win in Super Bowl III.

Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis marks his return to New York on this week's Sports Illustrated cover, recreating an iconic image of Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Namath that appeared on the cover 50 years ago. 

This week's cover was shot in Times Square, the site of Broadway Joe's "Football Goes Show Biz" cover in July 1965.

“I see a lot of similarities between Darrelle Revis and Joe Namath,” said senior writer Greg Bishop, who wrote the cover story. “They’re both kind of the stars of the league, they’ve both made great impacts on teams, they’ve both won a Super Bowl ring. I think what Darrelle wants most is to bring a Super Bowl to the Jets, which is something that hasn’t happened since Joe was playing.”

Before: James Drake for Sports Illustrated
After: Gregory Heisler for Sports Illustrated

“It was a pretty spectacular shoot,” director of photography Brad Smith said. “I mean, we got to recreate a cover from 50 years ago that we did on Joe Namath on Broadway. It was a terrific cover then, it’s a terrific cover today with Darrelle Revis. It was a really good cover to recreate because it’s iconic. You just have to get the right player to go along with it, and Revis was that guy.”

Revis also recreated another famous image of Namath—with the former Jets quarterback's help. The duo traveled to Miami to remake the classic 1969 photograph of Namath, sitting poolside and guaranteeing the Jets would win Super Bowl III. 

Walter Iooss Jr. for Sports Illustrated

Lounging in a bathing suit with an iPad in tow, Revis was a natural being photographed with an entourage surrounding him and mirroring the moment of Namath’s 1965 guarantee.

Walter Iooss Jr. for Sports Illustrated

"When Darrelle re-signed with the Jets this year, along with some other changes the Jets made, I think it’s given all of us Jets fans some enthusiasm,” Namath said. “We’re looking forward to this season.”

	1965	2015
President	Lyndon B. Johnson	Barack Obama
Median cost of new house	$21,000	$275,000
Average cost of new car	$2,650	$33,560
Average cost of gas per gallon	$0.31	$2.75
Top song on Billboard’s Hot 100	July: “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” by The Rolling Stones	July: “Cheerleader” by Omi
Top movie at box office	The Sound of Music ($163,214,286)	Jurassic World ($611,174,000 as of July 20)