Old School NY JETS fans..is this true about Walt Michaels?

It was the previous game against the Raiders that I thought was the nail in the coffin. He made accusations to the owner Al Davis about a phone call from someone pretending to be Hess. It was very odd, to say the least. Walt was a very direct and very much a disciplinarian type - very old school. But I liked him.

 

Yea Walt was in the midst of a nervous breakdown unfortunately. Not unusual, it's happened and will continue to happen to coaches. Burnout.

People forget Miami had our number that year. They beat us twice going into the Mud Bowl. Yes Shula cheated and escaped any sort of discipline (he sat on the rules committee and was a darling within the league) and remember it was the Jets who severely embarrassed the NFL by winning Super Bowl 3. Even thoug the league was forced to encorporate us and others, it's no surprise how often we get screwed over.

Would we have won if Shula had convered the field? Who knows. It would've been tough. But people are nuts if they think the league was ever going to discipline him or the Dolphins

 

There was also a playoff game in Pittsburgh believe where the Rooneys made sure only the middle pat of the field was tarped over. The outside of the astroturf remained uncovered during an ice storm and completely froze over into a skating ring. Thus the Raiders speed guys were totally neutralized. All Rozelle did was give AL Davis the finger and say "hey it's the same for both teams" that's the kind of stuff the NFL's golden franchises are allowed to get away with

https://www.behindthesteelcurtain.c...-controversey-in-75-afc-championship-lives-on

 

The NFL is the proverbial Goose that Lays the Golden Eggs. The league’s management has really done it’s best to eat that goose but that goose is indestructible. I’d hire the captain of the Titanic before I’d hire someone from NFL HQ.

 

I never heard about this but I knew Shula left the field uncovered. I posted earlier this week about a similar Walt Michaels incident but this time it was the Raiders. He wanted a piece of Al Davis after a game.

 

I never heard about this but I knew Shula left the field uncovered. I posted earlier this week about a similar Walt Michaels incident but this time it was the Raiders. He wanted a piece of Al Davis after a game.

 

I have always read that Michaels got drunk on the plane home and had drinking issues. That would be almost understandable that Hess would have reacted the way he did. Michaels had every reason to be pissed beyond reason. Whether Michaels had a drinking problem, a nervous breakdown, or became severely depressed (I have also read that somewhere), it's a shame that Hess didn't stand by him. He was a great coach. If Hess had stood by him, then we may have won another SB or two.

 

Go back and watch the Bengals/Raiders playoff games from that year.
By the time we got to Miami, that team was firing on all cylinders.
Fuck Don Shula.

 

It's true except I don't think Hess blackballed him out of the league. Walt lost it and he had to step down.

He basically accused both Shula and Al Davis of cheating. Shula had a reputation of getting even.

I loved Michaels. He was nuts and all in. He snapped but at the end of the day Davis and Shula where both known cheaters. Davis didn't mind the reputation because it gave his teams an edgy reputation which Davis loved. Shula protected his phony reputation as Mr. Clean. It wouldn't surprise me if Davis laughed about it and Shula tried to blackball him.

 

Yes it is all true .

Michaels was very knowledgeable . Was the DC for the SB III team and was also the best Jets coach since Ewbank. He built the team from scratch and had them poised for a SB run. He was also very old schooled and was known for having an explosive temper .

The 1982 season was Michaels breaking point . There was the players strike . He was known to drink. His back began to give him problems so he was constantly taking pain killers . His mother was also dying and in fact did die in December of that year . He was under an enormous strain.

Of course most of us know the Raiders story. Before becoming the Jets DC Michaels worked for the Raiders and was fired by Al Davis. Obviously he took it personally. He also was aware of the Raiders penchant for cheating . During practice the week of the Raiders game Michaels began acting strangely staring at planes flying overhead shaking his fists and commenting about Davis and his spys. The players figured it was a motivational tool but several Jets staffers took notes and reported his behavior . Michaels fell down on the field one day for no apparent reason other than “ a knee locking up “.

Then With the Jets leading the game 10-0 at halftime a phone in the locker room rang. When Michaels got on the phone a person identified himself as Leon Hess and began berating Michaels telling him to bench Gastineau . Michaels assuming it was Al Davis pretending to be Hess responded by shaking and threatening to kill him. The team having witnessed all of this came out flat and nearly blew the game . During a post game interview Michaels mentioned the phone call and began tearing into the Raiders and the city of Los Angeles . Hess personally witnessed all of this and knew nothing about the phone call. It turned out the phone call was made by a bartender back in Queens who had bet the Raiders to win .

Then the following week Michaels turned his attention to his hatred of Shula and of course the whole tarp incident and lousy performance by Todd exasperated his strange behavior . Michaels was drunk on the plane ride home, loudly berated a stewardess , cursed Todd ( who shamefully refused to fly home with the team ), and had to be restrained from attacking the son of Jim Kensil the team president . The next day at Hofstra Michaels was pacing around the building and was heard talking to himself about the NFL and people breaking rules.

He was then asked by Hess and Kensil to meet them in a hotel room away from the team facility and the media and told he wasn’t coming back and to sign a resignation letter . They knew OC Walton was being courted by the Falcons and didn’t want to lose him with all the progress he had made with Todd ( excluding his last horrible game of course ). They figured they could promote him and keep the team headed upwards .....

A sad ending for a damm good coach . A superior organization may have simply gotten the man some help .....

 

Its all true but if we had a component QB that day and not Richard Todd we would have gone to the Super bowl. I hate Don Shula, he was the head of the rules committee and the refs were very intimated by him. When you played the Dolphins at home you played the refs also. I will never eat at his Steak house and I will not cry when he vanishes from the earth. My hate is deep for that man, he caused us a possible super bowl, fucking low life piece of shit. He's the reason I hate the Dolphins more then any sport team in the world... and there fans

 

Yes, all true. Michaels had a mental melt down/break down. He was also suffering from insomnia, and we all know what sleep deprivation can do to a person. He was also drinking a lot and popping black beauties. Drink to sleep, speed to stay awake on top of burnout. Rumor has it that Joe Walton The Nose-picker (also a former Jet) was also actively stabbing him in the back - behind his back. Michaels became extremely paranoid in general. Rumor also has it that Michaels stabbed Walton in the back before he got the HC job. Who is to say.

@Peebag, someone took a dump on Don Shula's first wife's grave in the early 90s shortly after she died. I'm not making that up. Someone actually took a shit on it, and it was confirmed that it was human feces. People in FL were clamoring and carrying on that it had to be a Jets fan, it made the news, the whole magilla. I guess the world will never know, but that's really bad even by my own oft times questionable standards. The pooper was never caught. And in case anyone is wondering, I haven't been to Florida since 1980.

 

I couldn't agree with your last paragraph more if I tried. I've also said it many times on here before myself. I forgot about the painkiller thing, though. That was before synthetic opiods, I do believe. Michaels 'behavior', it was obvious he was in peril. I'm actually surprised that he didn't off himself.

Who can forget the 1979 season. The Jets wound up going 8 - 8. Matt Robinson lied to Walt Michaels about how he got his thumb injury - or that he was even injured at all. Two stories about it. Robinson messed up his thumb on a door knob in a hotel room horsing around with Joe Klecko. The other one is that Robinson was drunk and hurt his thumb on his throwing hand in a bar thumb wrestling. I've always thought the second scenario was the more plausible one. Anyway, Robinson had to come clean to Michaels the night before, and had his thumb taped up before the opener against the Browns. This was all after Richard Todd was leap-frogged in favor of Robinson and Robinson had his shot at being the legit #1 QB for years to come.

Robinson, stupidly thinking the game was in the bag, took the tape off. His thumb ballooned to the size of Antarctica, and he threw a hospital ball to Wesley Walker in OT that was intercepted, game winning FG Cleveland. Michaels was so infuriated by all of it, that he benched him for the rest of the season. I hate the Jets.

 

How much do you love the fact that a "Bartender/Bookie" could call an NFL head coach during half time of a playoff game from a bar in Queens and get through? Not coincidentally the Raiders are moving to Las Vegas and NFL officials routinely change the course of games with penalties that have virtually no impact on the actually game.

Maybe Michaels wasn't bat shit crazy?

 

Not only did Shula cheat by not covering the field, the refs made a terrible call during the game which turned the game around. It was a 0-0 slopfest for one half, but in the 2nd half Miami was driving when their FB Franklin fumbled after a hard hit and Gastineau recovered. Incredibly, the refs ruled Franklin somehow was down by contact when he was straight up when hit and lost the ball. As the jets celebrated the fumble recovery, the bumbling officials somehow ruled Miami maintained the ball. Miami kept the ball and finished the drive with the game's first TD. All of which led analyst Merlin Olson to comment on the air "The MVP of this game should be the refs" (implying they turned the game around for Miami). The NFL later put out a statement trying to justify the "non-fumble" call.

 

I actually had a tee shirt made up that said, “Tarp You Shula”. Still to this day, a bitter memory.

 

My recollection is he got drunk and belligerent on the plane returning from Miami after the Mud Bowl championship game.
Its a shame because we were young and loaded with talent, had he stayed I believe we would have won. Joe Walton sucked.

 

They still try to justify things and always will. While I feel theoretically guilty (only a little) about Vinny Green Balls clearly not getting into the EZ vs. Seattle (which brought back instant replay), probably one of the worst robberies that I've ever seen was Mike Renfro with a circus catch, two feet clearly in (Oilers vs. Spittburgh ). He dragged his second foot a bit, but he was so clearly in. CLEARLY. The Oilers probably wouldn't have won anyway, but the was beyond the pale awful.

Anyway, instant replay essentially doesn't add up to a hill of beans for the most part because the refs are still idiots. The tuck rule, lol. Cunts.