Jets legend Joe Namath is accused of allowing child sex abuse by well-known prep school coach to take place at his football camp

New York Jets legend Joe Namath has been accused of covering up sexual abuse at his football facility, according to a man who claims he was assaulted there.

Philip Lyle Smith, 64, has claimed in a Brooklyn lawsuit that famed Brooklyn Poly Prep Country Club football coach Philip Foglietta sexually assaulted him 51 years ago during a Joe Namath Instructional Football Camp.

Foglietta, who died in 1998, sexually abused boys at New York’s top private school for 20 years. The Brooklyn high school was accused of covering up the abuse and settled a landmark lawsuit filed by former students in 2012.

It is now alleged that the former football coach was allowed to repeatedly abuse Smith in a series of attacks that began when he was just 12 at the camp, Smith alleged in court filings.

Smith initially outlined his claims in the lawsuit under “John Doe,” but has now spoken publicly. He is now a married real estate agent in Florida, he claimed The New York Post that Namath and other suspects named in the lawsuit were “enablers and the pedophile protectors.”

Philip Lyle Smith, 64, alleged that well-known Brooklyn Poly Prep Country Club football coach Philip Foglietta sexually assaulted him 51 years ago during a Joe Namath Instructional Football Camp

Foglietta, who died in 1998, sexually abused boys at New York’s top private school

His lawsuit claims he received special treatment, including perks such as eating meals with Namath, ex-Jets defensive back and camp partner John Dockery and other NFL players who visited the facility, while he was allegedly groomed and abused by Foglietta at the camp.

“It was a dream come true for a 12-year-old,” Smith told The Post. ‘[Foglietta] always made sure Joe Namath threw me at least one pass and said hello to me almost every day.

“I felt very special,” he said.

The preferential treatment went so far as to cause other campers to believe that Smith, who was a student at Poly Prep at the time, was Namath’s cousin because of the special recognition, the lawsuit alleges.

He claimed Foglietta used the special treatment to justify the sexual abuse.

‘Every night he said, “See what I did? … You have pictures with so and so… Joe talked to you… How can you do that without me?’” Smith said, via The Post . “That was part of his preparation to abuse me.”

Smith praised Namath as “one of the greatest athletes in the world,” but his opinion of the former quarterback quickly soured.

“At that time, Joe Namath was my idol,” Smith told The Post. “And he went from being my hero to being a zero in my life.”

Smith claimed he received special treatment, including perks such as eating meals with Namath, while he was allegedly groomed and abused by Foglietta.

Other campers believed that Smith was Namath’s cousin because of the special recognition

Accused of covering up Foglietta’s abuse, Poly Prep settled a landmark lawsuit filed by former students in 2012

Smith claimed the former quarterback ‘went from being my hero to being a zero in my life’

Namath imagined himself teaching at one of his camps during an ABC series in 1974

He also claimed that because of Namath’s profile and reputation as a great player in the NFL, Smith’s mother believed he would be safe at camp.

‘It was a place where my mother was [thought] would create wonderful childhood memories for me,” he said. ‘Unfortunately that didn’t work out that way.’

Smith had attended the camp as an invited guest of Foglietta, who “sponsored” his attendance, and the football coach allegedly insisted he sleep in his room, the filing said.

The lawsuit alleges that Namath and Dockery should have known about the sleeping arrangement but “failed to take steps to protect plaintiff from Foglietta, despite knowing of Foglietta’s unusual and exceptionally close relationship with the plaintiff.”

Smith’s lawsuit further alleges that he was forced to sleep in the same bed as Foglietta, despite a camp counselor delivering a cot to the room. Foglietta would never have brought the crib into the room.

Namath pictured with ex-Jets defensive back and camp partner John Dockery (right)

In the room, Foglietta forced himself [Smith] to ‘undress for full body inspections’, show him ‘soft-core pornography’ and be ‘fondled’ [Plaintiff’s] penis and anus…” under the guise of “this is what people who love each other do.”

Foglietta regularly brought his Poly Prep players to the Namath summer camps in Vermont and Massachusetts, but the other students slept together in a few rooms, depending on the suit.

Smith said Foglietta seemed to take a liking to him after his father’s death, with the abuse beginning in 1972 at Namath Camp and continuing during visits to the camps in 1973 and 1975.

The defendants’ request to dismiss the case was denied in June 2022. DailyMail.com has contacted Namath’s attorney, Dockery and the camp and is awaiting comment.