Alabama football fans who love TV might have hoped FX made a new series about their legendary Crimson Tide football coach when the network announced “The Bear” would premiere in 2022. Instead, they got an anxiety-inducing, behind-the-scenes look at restaurant culture starring an actor who bears a resemblance to one of Paul “Bear” Bryant’s best players.

Jeremy Allen White, the Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild-winning actor who plays Carmy Berzatto on the FX show, is our pick to play Joe Namath in a future film or TV project.

Why would Namath warrant a famous actor to play him in a movie or show, you may ask? Everybody loves the former Alabama and New York Jets quarterback who transcended football to penetrate the pop culture world with his unique crossover appeal during the 1960s and ‘70s.

The NFL Hall of Famer’s performance on the field, lovable personality and sex symbol status made him a fan favorite across America, making him a go-to pitchman for companies in need of a major endorsement or a leading man or guest star on big or small screens. Besides hosting his own talk show (“The Joe Namath Show,” which lasted 13 episodes), he appeared on TV shows like “The Brady Bunch,” “The Waverly Wonders” and “The Love Boat” and in films like “C.C. and Company,” “The Last Rebel” and “Avalanche Express.”

READ: These epic Joe Namath commercials will send you back in time

Namath was voted No. 1 on the NFL’s 100 Greatest Characters list, highlighting players’ and coaches’ on-field exploits along with their personalities. “Not only was he a great player, but it was like he was one of us,” author George R.R. Martin said in the NFL Network piece. “A young, hip, kind of almost hippie with sideburns and long hair. He was such an exciting presence.” NASCAR legend Richard Petty said Namath had “a different attitude” than other quarterbacks: “He was like a ‘rassler.” NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar said, “Joe was more movie star than quarterback at times, just in his lifestyle.” Talkshow host Jerry Springer said, “He became such a big personality that he became, in a sense, bigger than the sport.” Actor Alec Baldwin took it one step further: “Namath was a god.”

But Namath’s football and pop culture exploits only further make the case for why the larger-than-life QB needs a biopic — and someone talented enough to take on the sports icon. Enter Jeremy Allen White, previously best known for his stint as Phillip “Lip” Gallagher on the Showtime series “Shameless” and now the budding superstar appearing in Vanity Fair’s Hollywood Issue, as part of “a new power generation” who are “endlessly compelling both onscreen and off.”

Born in Brooklyn, White has the New York part of it down. Namath was from Pennsylvania before famously playing his college football in Tuscaloosa and then returning to the Northeast to play for the New York Jets, with whom he won a Super Bowl.

White has the eyes, the sideburns and the athletic posture to pull it off. He also has the needed magnetism to capture Namath’s particular mystique. But does he have the charm? Back in the ‘70s, you didn’t cast someone to play Namath for a role, rather, you’d cast the actual quarterback. He had personality to spare, either to sell aftershave or date Raquel Welch.

And while larger-than-life in personality, Namath was also a physically imposing football player at 6-foot-2-inches. White stands at a reported 5-foot-7-inches, but if we did a deep-dive comparing the specs of every actor who played a given athlete, the disparity would ruin the illusion for many of your favorite sports flicks. Also, White recently bulked up to play Kerry Von Erich in the upcoming 2023 film “The Iron Claw,” centered around the famed Von Erich family, a dynasty of wrestlers who found their share of success in the ring and tragedy outside of it.

And what Namath story do we want to see told? Do we want a feel-good Disney bio like “Invincible” or “The Rookie?” Maybe a gritty look at what it took to rise up from his humble beginnings to become one of the best in the world like we saw in “Rocky” or “The Fighter?” What about a satirical, loose-with-the-facts HBO series like “Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty” that frivolously dives into Broadway Joe’s personal and professional lives? However Hollywood chooses to tell the story of Joe Namath, they have their leading man.