Sounds about right. Guy was a total schmuck....totally unfriendly, got the feeling he was doing me a big favor and treated me like some wealthy Park Avenue snob treats a domestic. My friend worked in the NY Jets scouting department and was real nice. So were most of the Jets scouts and coaches I met later on, including Pete Carrol who used to play pickup basketball with us on Long Island.
Well to my way of thinking there is no "technically". in sports you are either winners or losers. There is nothing in between. So even if the regular season record was 8-7-1 I do not remember them being issued a VLT for being a also ran. Do you remember such a presentation? Since they were not the VLT winner for that year that makes them losers just like all the other teams that did not win the VLT that year.
You must belong to the 99% of the posters that inhabited this board that live in NYJ la la land. Wearing those green glasses & drinking that green lemonade. If you do not win the SB you are LOSER & that is what the NYJs have been doing for over 40 years now losing! Last I saw you do not get a VLT for not even playing in the SB which makes them losers. Instead of beating me up you should be beating up on the owner, FO & HC who are the people responsible for the continued losing up until last year at least :sad:
I hate anyone that replies "dude, I wasnt even born back then!" Back in '88 the only access to games I had was trying to listen to them on a shortwave radio via Armed Forces Network broadcast to US troops in Germany!!
What made that game really great was that most thought the Giants would win, that was a very good Giant team with that great defense and Kenny O led them right down the field at the end after the Giants came back and looked like they were gonna win... Best part of that game that never gets shown is after the Jets won,, good guy Simms showed absolutely no sportsmanship,, just started racing off the field, looking like an absolute nut. No good game, none of that. And the Jets yelling at him as he's running past them,,, later found out they were yelling "Merry Christimas," to him.
What I liked about this game was that the Jets were given no chance. Everyone ( at least in my world) was a Giant fan If you think Sanchez gets no respect, you should've seen how everyone regarded O"brien Giants had won 3 or 4 in a row and thought the play-offs were their destiny Jets were up by 13 points late in the 3rd Giants scored two TDs, including one by Manuel late in 4th The last drive was surreal. Jets completed a 4th down play to Shuler. I can't remember if it was 4th & long or 4th & short and it went for long yardage Someone named Ken Rose had 3 sacks! (Jets had 8 or 9 on the day) Of course, the worst thing, from a Jets perspective, was that the win gave them a winning record, thus guaranteeing that Joe Walton would be around another year. The last time they changed coaches after a successful season ( '82 Michaels to Walton after the Mud Bowl) it set them back two years.
And most Jets fans were in favor of that switch. Walton was The Hot Name that year and Jet fans didn't want to lose him. When Leon Hess (RIP) came up with that idiotic excuse to get rid of him -- actually, Jim Kensil did -- fans applauded and so did most of the media (except Steve Serby at The Post, who got it right). The Jets started out the 1983 season by beating a powerhouse Charger team in San Diego and they looked like world beaters. But Walton was a very good OC but probably one of the first well-known OC's (or DC's) who would show they had no business being a HC. He alienated many players on the team, including leaders like Richard Todd, Gregg Buttle, Chris Ward, etc. The Jets finished 7-9 that year in what was one of the most disappointing years in team history. Next year, they moved to Giants Stadium.
You are right. Walton was the hot assistant and Michaels seemed lost. I was an anti-Michaels guy, too. We were wrong about Walton. He was not cut out to be an NFL head coach in the 80s ( he would've been more at home in the 50s) We should use this as a lesson for anyone who wants to pull the trigger on Rex if this season ends ugly.
I hated the Michaels firing, or "retiring" as they put it. Made no sense to me that after taking years to finally get good, they fire the coach off of the AFC Championship Game, the next year trade the QB and move out of their home stadium. They fixed it then they broke it again and it stayed broken for a long time after that.
I met Walt Michaels years later at a pre-season game. He was sitting high up in the 300's. Despite his ties to the SB3 1969 team and his having coached the Jets as HC for 6 years (asst for more years too), he was persona non grata around the Jets. He had trouble moving so I offered to get him his coffee and he was most appreciative. We chit-chatted later and when I mentioned I had 100% opposed him being forced out -- all for that stupid rant against Al Davis (I supported the rant even if Davis was 100% innocent on the hoax halftime call to the Coliseum) -- he thanked me and said something about that "SOB Kensil." I told him if he had gone to Hess directly and/or rallied his players -- who liked him immensely -- he probably would have been able to keep his job. He nodded but also said you don't have time to plot all the options when you are under the gun (I took that to mean the Jets would pay off his contract but if he fought it and they lost they would fire him "WITH CAUSE" and he'd get nothing). I firmly believe that NY Jets team would have gone to the SB that year. Instead, the Raiders -- of all the f****** teams -- won the SB that year. Leon Hess and Jim Kensil didn't realize it at the time, but in trying to appease Al Davis, they wrecked the team most likely to beat them AGAIN in the playoffs. Shameful.....
Walton was the hot name and had a good relationship with Richard Todd. Ironically, the Jets thought that since Michaels had initially sided with Matt Robinson in 1979 that he would be happy with the switch to Walton. But Todd and Michaels had patched things up and even though Todd was initially happy that Walton was HC, their tight relationship went sour in less than 1 year. I cannot recall a strong relationship between a QB and an OC/HC going to pot faster than that between Todd and Walton -- and it was all a result of Walton being the HC. When he was the OC, they were all buddy-buddy. Exactly....and this is what fooled the Jets higher-ups and Todd and the team. Remember, even thought Walton had helped Todd and the Jets to his 2 best years after his 30-interception 1980 season, the big improvement was just having ANY OC. In 1980, the Jets DID NOT HAVE AN OC -- THAT IS WHY TODD HAD SUCH A LOUSY YEAR (John Idzik had had a falling out with the FO and/or Michaels and left after the 1979 season. Reportedly, he had been a Todd supporter in the Todd-Robinson QB Showdown). Rex isn't going anywhere this year...or next...and maybe not until 2013, if they miss the playoffs the next 2 years. If you saw Woody on CNBC today, he loves Rex. Not only does he think he's a good coach but he is a great sales tool for all the PSL's and other things the Jets are doing to raise money. SNY gets nice $$$ for Rex's press conferences -- you think Belichick or Coughlin would command $$$ for their 30-minute weeklies ?? Rex will need multiple non-playoff failures and/or a push from Goodell to get Woody to fire him. I think Rex will coach here close to or more than 10 years. You heard it here first.
I was there, section 315 with my dad and uncles. I was about 10 at the time. I'll never forget my uncle dancing down the stairs taunting every Giant fan he saw. Still can't believe nobody kicked his ass. That was the 1st and only time I saw the Jets and Giants play, I saw the Giants a few times living in Arizona as a friend was a Giants fan so I saw the great Dave Brown play for the Giants. I went to a few games that year, I was at the Steeler game as well as the tie against the Chiefs but we left when it became obvious the game was going to end in a tie. Pretty awful stuff.
