Since I started doing some writing for JetsTwit I have been asked numerous times what happened to HolyJoeNamath.com, my former website. From here, we will stop the speculation and tell it like it is.
As a die hard Jets fan and a few connections to the journalism world I found myself in the know on a ton of Jets news before it broke to the “mainstream” media, with this knowledge I decided to put my web design/SEO knowledge to use and create a little blog about it. The only problem was that I could not think of a name. Finally, while watching an old Batman episode one night I heard Robin say “Holy Geewillikers Batman!” and it hit me, “HOLY JOE NAMATH!” Clever huh?
The site took off faster than I thought it would going from about 500 visits our first month to 10,000 the second month and inching close to 1,000,000 our final month. The site was growing at a very exciting rate, unfortunately, for the most part it was just me running the site. Towards the end, I had help from the E Man himself and a few others, but still, it was a ton of work. With work getting busier and me just buying a home at the time, it was already getting tight. I did get some new great writers which really helped take the load off of me.
The sites success was a mixture of great news, smart Internet marketing, and of course, links to the site on ESPN.com, Sports Illustrated, Yahoo! Sports and AOL Fan House. I was contacted a few times to do major advertising on the site and also conduct some other ventures, some of which I took. I had a few deals in place to make HolyJoeNamath.com be streamed on a few much larger sites and everything looked to be going great for the site as I got ready to head to Houston with my media pass for the Jets first game of the year. The day I was leaving, I received a phone call from someone in the NFL legal department letting me know that using “Joe Namath” in the title of the site was copyright infringement and to take it down immediately. This was not possible as I was nowhere near my computer and was getting ready to board a plane. I asked them to give me until I got back and I would change it immediately and would not post anything the entire weekend while away in Houston. The next morning as I woke up in my hotel room the day before the game I attempted to log on and the site was locked, but not gone. I called the number back and spoke with the person, arguing that they cannot copyright a name, for instance, I could not sue if someone created a site called “HolyAdamGreenbaum.com” (Nice ring to it). Unfortunately I found that they own the rights to names, likenesses, and logos representing any player to ever play in the NFL. After some arguing I dropped it for the weekend and went to the game and enjoyed myself having great conversations with Jerricho Cotchery, Shaun Ellis, Marquice Cole, Jay Feely, Mark Sanchez’s dad and some other guys before the game. The Jets won, life was great.
When I got home, the site was gone. GoDaddy had been ordered to take it down immediately and it was frozen to me and eventually taken down. Holy Joe Namath was gone.
I never started another site because of the time it takes to build a site, let alone rebuild what Holy Joe Namath was. Also, work intensified, football season had started, the holidays got closer and I just did not have the time. I missed it, which is why I’m here on JetsTwit, thanks to Erik, who also did great work on HolyJoeNamath.com. I appreciate the support I got from everyone, it meant a ton. Also the support from the great people at JetsNation.com, an awesome Jets forum.
For now, I’ll write here when I can and I’ll always be on Twitter @Adam_Greenbaum , so come say hello.
