Dec 16th 1973 vs Bills, OJ broke the single season rushing record (2000 yds) Cold snowing and Jets lost, I don't think they had a good season that year. I remember watching Namath on the sidelines and Weeb Ewbank huddled together and Jerome Barkum with the big green poncho. I loved Shea back then the walls around the field were painted dark green, the field was muddy and covered with snow, this was the Jets home. I never saw a game in the old Meadowlands simply because I refused to accept this was a home for the Jets, as a Flushing Queens kid, Shea was the the holy grail of learning to love teams that were underdogs and for the most part sucked. Boy that is when football was football, today's players with no pads, no jocks, dreads, long goldilocks streaming from their helmets, skin art, ceremonial names, stage names...LOL it's actually a bit of a circus. Buuuttttt I still love the Jets and Hate the Pats it all really hasn't changed that much.
1984 vs the Colts in the "Cold November rain" Cold, pouring rain, and no TDs scored. JETS lose 9-5 I think..... Welcome to the JETS kid....... :jets:
I don't remember the opponent, but there was still the red NJESA seal in the middle of the field and Al Toon was on the team. The place looked huge.
My favorite Shea story: December 12, 1982, Tampa Bay vs. NYJ. I was thirteen and I get to go to my first Jets game. It was snowing and there was lots of snow in the stands. The Buccaneer players were miserable because of the cold and blustery wind, but even worse for them, every time the Jets drive down to the goal line at the open end of the stadium, Jet fans eager to help the offense pelted the Buc defensive backs with snowballs. The activities in the stands were even more amusing. We were on the upper deck, and drunks rained snowballs down on the people below. I may have tossed a couple myself. Fans set fires - big fires that engulfed individual seats - with the cardboard trays that you got at the concession stands plus any other trash they could find to keep warm. The best part was when I went to the bathroom. The whole restroom smelled like piss. The lightbulbs had been knocked out so it was very dark and drunks were pissing in the sinks rather than waiting for a urinal. I couldn't believe it, and I have to confess that I loved all of the mayhem. And the Jets won! Who wants to tell the story of what happened to the bleachers during the final game at Shea? (Jets-Steelers, IIRC).
I was at that Pittsburgh game . The crowd was nuts !! They were ripping apart the bleachers , piece by piece . Some knuckleheads were throwing pieces of the stands into the bottom of the scoreboard, which was very close . Pieces of bleachers were sticking out of the scoreboard. There were fights everywhere . Me and my buddys were hanging out with one of the security guards ,watching one of the fights . The security guard said that he has never seen a more rowdy crowd . And he was NOT going to break-up any fights . What for ? The Jets were leaving . It was a very sad day . I loved tailgating at Shea . It sure beats the lousy trip to Jersey every home game .
First game for me was just this past November in Buffalo. In my defense I live in Toronto in Canada so it's the closest place to me. Went with a bunch of Bills supporters. It was dicey for a little while but didn't get stabbed or punched at least.
Jets vs Patriots 1973 at Shea Stadium don't really remember it though. Most memorable Jets game was a Halloween game vs the Giants circa 1997 or so. Me and my buddy having lunch at a diner in Hoboken overhear some people trying to unload their extra tickets. Next thing we've borrowed another friend's car and on our way to the Meadowlands. Jets won in overtime, it was tremendous.
First and last, for the moment, against the Patriots when Favre was a Jet, even though we lost, it was an amazing experience, hoping to repeat sometime in the future.
Also remember Jets v. Buffalo in 1968 I sat way up in what was the left field corner around the 30 yard line Jets were losing and Turner kicked 3 straight field goals Jets won 25-21 I think he had six on the day
The first only Jets game I ever went to was the Jets(away) vs. Cardinals on November 28, 2004. Live in Arizona so it was the only time I had to see a Jets game in person. Cardinals were still in that piece of shit called Sun Devil Stadium (I go to U of A). Jets Won 13-3
I would have loved to see a football game there (I can't stand the new Yankee Stadium they just built). I just read in the Times there was only about 10,000 people there for that game. Due to a scheduling mixup, they also played the Giants there 2 days earlier and lost in the last minute, this time in front of about 30,000.
Yeah, that mix-up was due to a hurricane which hit the NY area over the weekend the Jets and Giants were supposed to play. It forced the Jets to play the Giants the following Wednesday and then the Raiders two days later. It threw a wrench in Lou Holtz's training camp schedule and pretty much was a sign of things to come for Holtz.....
The First Jet Game I attended was 2 yrs ago vs Miami. It was raining like no other day and we lost ... But only a couple of weeks later I went to the Bills game we won and all was better in life.
I was at that miserable Denver game getting soaked in the upper deck wondering the whole time why I even left the house.
Most of us wondered why we liked sports that day. I see there've been replies to my Jets Raiders at Yankee Stadium '76 post. I did not recall those details regarding the hurricane and playing two days earlier! That's crazy. I was thrilled just to see Namath in uniform, and I remember the place being pretty empty. Now I know why. In those days, the preseason games back then had decent attendance, not great, but decent. Odd, considering there were so many.
