Yes, Leahy cost us the '82 regular season Dolphins game.....the Jets should of won. Bobby Jackson could have bailed him out but he dropped a game ending INT right in his chest with :50 to go. Had the Jets won they would not have been playing the AFC Championship in Miami that's for sure. The seedings would have been different but the Jets would have been 7-2 and the Dolphins 6-3. Who knows what could of transpired.... Also as far as the 1981 tie game went I remember Leahy missing a long attempt at the end of OT...very long for any kicker, may have been 52 yards or so. That was a great game, both teams deserved to win...
The horrific 1995 season ending loss to the Saints (12-0) came the day after the infamous snow-throwing incident in the stands during the game between the Chargers and Giants on Saturday. I remember ESPN reporting how nervous the stadium crew was and that they stayed up all night between games making sure there was no snow left in the stands to avoid a similar incident for the Jets game. One fan held a sign during the Jets game: "Giants fans throw snowballs - Jets fans throw up!" LOL
I remember being thankful the giant fans did it b/c Jet fans would have if the giant fans hadn't. There was not snow on the seats it was ICE. I don't think it rained it was just really cold.
That's what it was. I remember Michaels getting some heat for running the clock down and not trying to get closer, but I don't remember the down and distance. The criticism was if he makes it the game ends anyway because it's OT, but of course on the flip side if he missed, which he did, there was no time left for Miami. What a horrible season that was. I still think that's the most miserable season ever, worse than the 1-15 year that followed. At least by 1996 we knew Kotite would be gone, we had a #1 pick coming (again) and it could only get better. In 1995 we had no hope and no direction. Funny how in those kind of years the last few games are always cold and wet. It was like that in 2007 too, the Cleveland and Kansas City games at the end were just cold, soggy and pointless.
I agree '95 was worse than '96, at least we could score and found entertaining ways to lose in '96. I don't remember the '95 saints game being rainy, just really cold esepcially w/ ice piled up under the seats and under our feet.
I could be confusing it with the 1992 game, the similarities you pointed out are pretty eerie. Keyshawn made 1996 more fun for me, plus the idea that we'd finally hit bottom and only had one way to go. By the time it was over we had some good young players and the feeling that help was on the way.
Plus '96 ended w/ the throught we could be getting Parcells so we knew the losing could be over soon.
Another bad one was the 1980 opener against the Colts. I was in the upper deck behind the end zone and had a crystal clear view of Leahy's kick hitting the upright with a chance to tie the game at 17.
There was some thought that we would get Don Shula to be our next HC following the 1996 season although Shula denied the report.
One more point to the Leahy thread. Anyone remember that Leahy was injured early in the 1979 season. Having to put up with Rich Szaro, Toni Linhart and Dave Jacobs although Jacobs did pretty good had everyone begging for Leahy to come back.
That's pretty funny.....everyone couldn't wait for Leahy to return in '79 and then he goes out and misses his first big kick in 1980....
I was going off of memory so I don't remember how serious the rumors of Shula coming to the Jets were.
Wow I have the exact same memory. As soon as Leahy missed the kick and the game was over, I switched to the Giants game, and the Pisarcik fumble occurred almost instantaneously ( yes it did ease the pain I'll admit :wink:, and if SNY post game existed then, I probably would've missed football history!) The posters who remember this game as being the first home game televised in a long time are correct (maybe since Jets -Falcons in '73?) In the 70s, with the futility of both the Jets and the Giants home games were not automatically shown. Believe it or not, the Jets last home game of the season in '78 vs. Cowboys was not shown. (there may have been a conflict with the Giants) Only the road games are mandatory. That may still be the practice today, but beginning with the '79 season, every home game of the Jets was shown, with he exception of the Saints game in '80, as previously mentioned. Eventually, the league began to schedule the Jets and Giants in alternate timeslots.
OMG Was it Szaro or Linhart who missed both extra points in a 14-12 home loss that year, I think to Buffalo? Talk about a bad loss. Anyone would clamor for Leahy after that game. We took the NBC Sports banner home with us that game too. Actually, that was the first time we did it. Obviously, being young and stupid, we were going to do it until we got caught. That happened in '84 during the first Meadowlands season.
That was a brutal game. We were on the cover of SI before that season, expected to contend for the Super Bowl and that game got us off to an 0-5 start. Jacobs came to camp the following year to challenge Leahy and Leahy of course won the job. Jacobs ended up kicking for the New Jersey Generals of the USFL a few years later. I wish that was still around, we'd have a football season getting started this week. I don't remember that at all. I do remember once Kraft bought the Patriots the rumors started about Parcells coming back to NJ. I started watching in 1974 and there were a bunch of home games on TV during the last few years of Namath, 1974-76. I distinctly remember the Miami home game in 74 on TV, Namath hit Richard Caster with a late TD to win the game. Also Pittsburgh in 1975, for some reason the Jets wore white jerseys at home. Looking at it now that game probably sold out because it was the great Steeler team, in 74 we won our last six to get to 7-7 and Namath was Comeback Player of the Year, so maybe that's why those games sold out. There was also a home game where Namath threw 4 or 5 TDs that was on TV, maybe vs New England? That one I'm not sure about, may have also been 1975. I just remember it was a nice day and only my mom and I were home watching it. After Namath we weren't on TV until that 1978 New England game. The Dallas game was the last game of the year and we'd been eliminated in Cleveland the week before. Dallas went on to win the Super Bowl so my guess is they had the division wrapped up and there was no reason to show the game. Plus it was CBS again who didn't seem to value the Jet TV audience.
That was around the time they really wanted him out of Miami. He had set the all-time wins record in 1993, thankfully not vs us, and they were frustrated with him. He got a lot of heat for losing that 16-15 game to us in 1995 when he didn't go for 2. Could have been one of those passing ideas, I remember someone called up Russ Salzburg on WFAN and suggested we hire Tom Landry around that time, too.
I don't doubt it was out there, I just don't remember it. Didn't he have a place in one of the Trump Towers in Manhattan? I think I remember a Generals rumor about Shula but maybe it was the Jets. Damn, that would have been worse than Brett Favre coming here as far as people I hate.
