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Namath: Drinking kicked my butt for long time

Providing a rare glimpse into his legendary life, Joe Namath reveals in a new book how he almost drank himself to death in his post-playing days.

The former New York Jets star says he drank excessively because a voice in his head told him to. To combat the urge, Namath came up with a name for the voice: Slick.

"Every now and then Slick whispers, but having a name for him makes me listen to him differently. And, health-wise, I'd probably be dead by now if I hadn't stopped drinking," he says in the book, "All the Way: My Life in Four Quarters.