I was 8 and it was my first real Jets heartbreak as a kid, as I was just really getting into football at that time. I remember it being muddy, but I was a little too young to know the circumstances of it. I also remember growing a very quick hatred for AJ Duhe and some other Dolphins. Who knew that I'd eat at a restaurant owned by Bob Baumhower countless times after I got to college? I remember that my aunt (a lifelong Jets fan) and my uncle (really a Browns fan, but Dolphins fan for a day just to piss her off) made a bet for the game. The loser had to cook dinner every day the following week, so I guess my aunt made a lot of casseroles in the days that followed.
I can always admit when I am wrong, what am I wrong about here? Why do you have to make this out to be you vs. me? It's just whining b/c we lost, we didn't lose b/c of the field. Miami lost a game earlier in the year when NE sent a snowplow on the field to clear a spot for a FG. That's life, it didn't help us but it certainly did not cost us the game and if it did we weren't as good as we thought we were. Miami earned the right to host us that day b/c they swept us, had we beaten them the game would have been at Shea and we wouldn't hear any whining.
Well, the point is that the Jets fan can complain about Miami breaking a league rule. You say we can't, I guess we can't. Olsen did say in his opening though that Michaels complained to league officials about it BEFORE the game, showing that it wasn't just the fans and it wasn't based on the outcome.
That game was one of the biggest travesties in the history of the NFL. The Jets were flying, off two road playoff wins against very good Bengal and Raider teams. Their offense was clicking on all cylanders and they were a speed defense. Shula left the field uncovered, in a total monsoon. The fact that he got away with that and is looked at in such a high regard, is an absolute joke. This broke almost every sportsmanship rule in the book. As for the game, neither team did much of anything cause the field was unplayable. The game was not a blowout, like some want to pretend. It was tied at the half, 0-0 and while Todd was awful that game, Woodley was almost as bad because once again, the field was unplayable. Jets then got absolutely screwed on a Woody Bennett fumble, that somehow the refs called not a fumble. Instead of the Jets getting the ball, which would have been the right call, Miami kept the ball and scored later on that drive. It wasn't bad enough that the Jets got shorted with field conditions, then a major call went against them also. After that, the Jets really did nothing offensively and Todd got frustrated, tried to get a screen thru and Duhe picked it off and that was the game. Shula was so totally in the wrong. He was probably still pissed off that Walt Michaels and the Jets beat him in Super Bowl III, didn't care for Michaels anyway (they both played on the Browns, Michaels a real solid player, Shula a backup) and he completely got away with screwing the Jets. And while the Jets were peaking at that point in the season, there was no reason for Shula to have to resort to that. The Dolphins beat the Jets twice that season. Todd later said that he didn't blame the field conditions, that the Dolphins adapted better then they did and that the Jets offense, didn't. Kinda implied that Joe Walton didn't change the offense to fit the conditions, that they didn't put Walker in motion to change things up, etc. That Jet team of 1981-1982 was my favorite Jet team ever. Even though, if you watch some of those games now, you just won't believe how many penalties they get each game. To me, they seemed awfully coached.
yes they did. They didn't water down the Jets side and leave their side clean, bot teams played under the same conditions. It happened to rain all week in Miami and they practiced in it- that's homefield advantage. In 2003 Pitt whined about us not covering the field when it snowed, we had homefield. We made the call, if the league allows it then it is ok. The field did not cost us that game.
I didn't say you can't, you can complain about whatever you want to complain about it but the field didn't cost us the game. It sounds like Michaels did a poor job of coaching, allowing the players an excuse w/ the conditions. He should have been worried about getting his team to play in any conditions.
Never shouldda gotten rid of that guy. He's kinda like Rex in that we would complain on Sunday about his moves, but he was a real football man and knew how to build a D. Our D went to crap after him.
So if a team has home field, they can do anything they want to a field, because both sides play on the same field. Got it. And no, the Jets weren't expecting to play in slop, because league rules say that the field should be covered. It wasn't the rain, it was the flooded field, that changed the outcome.
Clearly, the league didn't allow the Fins to leave the field uncovered. It was done without league permission. And what could the league do that morning when the field was saturated? Nothing, the game had to be played, and Shula knew that he would get away with it - meaning his cheating.
I agree w/ you there. The league allowed it, instead of wasting our energy whining about it we should have been mentally prepared to play in any conditions. We weren't and we lost, the better team won unfortunately. Did we have a tarp on the field prior to the '81 WC game? That game was played in slop, in conditions as bad, if not worse, than the '82 title game. The league has ways to make sure it's covered if they really cared. belichick did the same thing in '03 or '04 and the league didn't stop him. Both teams played on the same field, I was much more annoyed w/ the bad call on the fumble than the lack of a tarp.
Bills-Jets at shea? No way those conditions were worse. See here: http://news.google.com/newspapers?i...,5581975&dq=buffalo+jets+wild+card+rain&hl=en The NYT reported that there had been "light rain." Hardly comparable to days of rain in Miami, with the field uncovered. So the league wants certain teams to have an advantage, or to game the outcome of its playoff games by not covering fields. Really? Now that's a conspiracy theory for the ages. I think its more likely that league officials had no idea Shula had left it uncovered, but you're welcome to think whatever you'd like.
I have that game on DVD, the field was completely torn up early in that game. The field conditions were terrible. I think the league didn't care as both teams would be playing on the same field. If they did care they would have done something about it.
The 1981 game at Shea, it was raining during the game and of course was a worse field because it's a baseball field, even though they cover the dirt after baseball ends it still wasn't any good. The Orange Bowl, had it been covered, shoudln't have been what it was.
Along with the clear violation of NFL league rules by not covering the field (btw Shula's served as head of the NFL rules committee-) what's overlooked in Shula's blatant cheating is that other ugly little secret that's often forgotten: one of the water mains in the Orange Bowl Stadium that burst on the Thursday leading up to the game and which somehow took 'forever' to fix....i.e. rain aside, the muddy wheels were already in motion days in advance..... nyjunc, sorry but this was a major "stack." Don McNeil (who John Riggins embarrassed a week latter at the end of the Super Bowl) wasn't going to hang with either Walker-Lam, Freeman McNeil was the league's leading rusher (slash/cutback style rendered useless) and a threat to throw the HB option pass--he gashed Cincinati for over 200+ yards in a previous playoff win. But more to the point: the Jets were clearly hitting their stride and owned a clear speed advantage coming into that game. And while they played on the same field, the Jets had the more balanced offense. Miami (behind Stevenson and Kuchenberg) were ground and pound while the Jets could both run and air it out, i.e. Jimmy Ceffalo was no Wesley Walker. This game was like watching a man tangle with a shark (in this case, a gay shark) and an 'objective' observer trying to make the case that "they're BOTH getting wet." And least anyone forget, the late David Woodley had a lousy 3-INT game himself. Yes the Jets shot themselves in the foot, but it was more about Shula playing rope-a-dope by "loosening up" (i.e. slowing down) the field. Rules Committee heads (such as Shula) KNOW about these 'cover with tarp' rules. This wasn't a Wildcard game nor a Division game; this was the AFC Championship Game, the game to decide who was going to the Super Bowl. With what was at stake, a case can not be made about this being a mere oversight.
Sure I was Poor Richard Todd I guess the mud made it it difficult for him to ID who were NYJs & who were Phins :jets:
Actually Junc as I remember while the field was not tarped the night before the game there were severe thunder storms in the Miami area that turned the field to goo The contention always was that Shula did it because we had the speedier receivers so it was a way of slowing them down vs a much slower Dolphin team. In Shula eyes according to another contention it was pay back for beating him in SB3 :jets:
More here: The football field at the Orange Bowl on Jan. 23, 1983, was still "worse than anyone could have imagined," said former Jets linebacker Greg Buttle. "The water went up on top of my shoelaces. We're up on a field of grass that's really a field of mud." http://www.newsday.com/long-island/nassau/ex-jets-recall-mud-bowl-one-that-slipped-away-1.1719636
