We're the same age. My fondest memories of jet games were sitting near an AM radio turned up full blast so I could hear just a tiny bit of the game over the static.
Jets, Jets I loved NFL football but I did not like the Giants. My team was the Chicago Cardinals. When the AFL came around I adopted the Jets and went to many games at Shea. $5 for standing room. It was great. I was hooked and since the games were not on TV I went as often as possible. I bought a ticket at the mid-town office. They were easy to obtain. I parked at Main St. in Flushing and took the train one stop. The team had it's ups and downs but there were some good years. The '68-69 season was wonderful. I remember watching the vs Oakland championship game at a bowling alley in New Rochelle because of a local blackout. The Super Bowl was great and I'm still waiting for the next one. I love the team and am still mad at Shula for not putting the tarp on the field in Miami for the AFC championship game sometime in the 80's. And for Gastineau for that late hit on Kosar in the '84 championship game. The passion on the board is great but some of the nonsense is over the top. Long time fans have trouble relating to the the absolutes of the young fans. Good times are coming and I expect another Super Bowl in my lifetime. Enjoy the ride.
I was only 7 when the Jets signed Joe Willie (so I was newbie to sports), I could still remember my dad coming into my bedroom to read an article from the newspaper to me, it was about the Jets signing Namath for a around a half million dollars (which my father thought was an astronomical amount of money to play a game), I still watched the Giants also, but fell in love with the Jets and their "white shoes QB" my 11th birthday was Jan. 13th, 1969 and everyone there watched SB III, days leading up to the game the papers showed photos of Joe by the pool, saying the Jets would win, it was magical (almost surreal) ...to this day I can't believe that was the only SB we went to or won...thought it would happen again & again...but I have stuck around for 40+ years ...the Cleveland game was extremely painful, but the one that still bothers me the most is the AFC championship @ Denver because I went out there on a "junket" put together by a travel group, it cost me $1,200 and my son was 12 at the time, I promised him that if the Jets won we would both go to Miami for the SB no matter how much it cost, there had to be 10,000 Jets fans out there for that game, Parcells made us truly believe this was the year (Vinny, Curtis, Key, Chrebet...)Belecheat was our DC.....,the Broncos had blown out the Fins the previous week 38-3, but I just felt we were going to beat Elway & Co...... Minnesota was the team to beat that year, when it was shown on the big screen @ the stadium that Atlanta upset the Vikings in OT, everyone knew the winner of the AFC game would have a great chance to win it all. It was cold that day, but the wind was the biggest factor, the Jets had a 3-0 lead at half, then scored a TD to go up 10-0 in the 3rd, Broncos fans were silent and worried, the Broncos scored a TD, to make it 10-7 and the ensuing kickoff was the turning point of the game, Denver kicked off into an incredible wind the ball just died and came straight down around the 25-30 where the Broncos recovered the fumble, the moment em changed and that was it....of course they whooped the Falcons in the SB.....
Reading this last paragraph brought back some painful memories........must have been even worse to have been there live. The Jets were roughly 25 minutes away from being SB champs......ironically it would have been exactly 30 years later and in the same city as their first one.
random Herman comment- I have the 1967 Raiders at Jets AFL Game of the Week film on DVD. In that game, Herman worn a logoless helmet. It was very weird to see his helmet next to his teammates' helmets.
The Kotie years were the worse, especially since my CT license plate is JETS-1, I would get a ton of grief from cars on the Merritt Pkwy or I-95, but I believe we owe Parcells a lot of credit for getting this franchise turned around, and the coaches after him clearly benefited from his restructuring of the organization, ... ...another blown opportunity was the 2004 season with the playoff loss @ Pittsburgh where Brien missed 2 field goals in the last 2 mins of the game to force OT which the Jets lost 20-17, Herm Edwards was content with getting the ball to the Pitts 24 on the 2nd attempt with 2 runs and a Pennington kneel...Pitts was known to be a horrible place to try long FGs in cold weather, I still can remember screaming at the TV for him to get closer after Brien hit the post a minute earlier on a 47 yard attempt...wasted opportunity....
I've noticed newer fans tend to exhibit a certain characteristic that's kind of hard to explain. It's like a lack of suffering which can manifest itself in impatience and other traits.
Been a Jet fan since '66. 3 reasons; A)-My pops; He was a Met fan & luv'd Shea Stadium. He was hyped when the Jets made it thier home in '64. My 1st pro baseball & football games were @ Shea (He was also a Knick fan)! B)-Koolest, smoovest qb ever, Broadway Joe! C)-I was born on St Patrick's Day - Day of Green - Color of the Jet "soul" collective! Most of the coverage back then was mainly centered on those teams who comprised the more established NFLsuch as the Giants. Since the Jets were part of the newly formed AFL, they really did not garner much press until they signed Broadway Joe. With Namath at the helm, simply become a good, competitive team. Yes! Why? 'Cause my pop's said they would! Just as he said he had a "feeling" the Met's would win in '69 (they did) and the Knicks in '70 (they did). That's why I a JET/MET/KNICK fandroid! My pops!
Easily the 1986 Playoffs overtime lose to Cleveland. We had already beaten Denver that year and then we would have had the Giants in the Super Bowl. Instead, Gastineau FUBARed the whole thing. It wasn't like it is now where people knew anything about draft prospects, etc. People only knew a handful of prospects and they were all players that played in New Year's Day bowl games and Heisman finalists. Everybody wanted Elway, but he was a no-brainer lock for the #1 pick - think Peyton Manning or Andrew Luck. As I remember it, everybody believed Kelly would be the second QB taken (justifiably), and that some dumb team would pick Blackledge way too early (because he had just won the national championship). Eason was considered a huge risk/reward pick. And Marino was thought of as the most talented (after Elway), but with off-the-field concerns. Nobody had ever heard of Ken O'Brien before he was picked and if someone says they had they are lying. All my friends (and myself) wanted Elway first, Marino second, and Kelly third ... and believed there was really no chance of any of them falling to where we picked (at the end of the round). And we didn't really want anything to do with Blackledge or Eason in the first round. No, we all thought we had pissed away our pick and were angry we didn't take Marino - we felt it was a gift that he had fallen to us. People thought we were the best team in the league when we beat Denver on Monday night in October 1986. At the halfway point of the season, there was legitimate talk of a Subway Super Bowl. Other than that? No.
I grew up in North Carolina, so wasn't necessarily naturally inclined to root for a New York team. My dad wasn't a big sports fan, but wanted the Redskins to win in football, and liked the Red Sox and Orioles in baseball. At that time in the South, the Washington Redskins and Senators were the closest professional sports teams to home. When I was small (6-7), every Saturday there was the Yankee baseball game of the week on TV. Mickey Mantle became my hero and baseball the first sport I loved. Since my dad wasn't really a big sports fan, he didn't try to shape my fandom for the teams he liked. He was always working and we weren't that close when I was small, so that left me free to choose my own teams. When the Mets were formed they were horrible, so I never became a fan, although I did root for them in the '69 and '86 World Series. My first memories of watching professional football were on CBS, I believe, and my favorite team became the best team of that time, the Vince Lombardi-led Green Bay Packers. They got me more and more interested in football. Then when I was around 9-10 years old, I became aware of the AFL. One Joe Willie Namath was the toast of college football and then was drafted by the Jets. The AFL was televised on NBC. I don't remember exactly how or when I started watching the Jets during that time, but quickly liked the difference in the style of AFL football vs the NFL (It must have been in '64 when NBC started televising the AFL. Thanks for the info!). I liked the gunslinging of Namath, Hadl, Lamonica, and Dawson, but Namath most of all. I think I was at the right age to like the rebelliousness of the AFL and of Namath, with his long hair and white shoew. As I grew older, a deep and abiding love for Namath and the Jets grew. Then at just 14 years of age, miracle of all miracles, the Jets shocked the world and beat the hated Colts in the SB, and the addiction was set. There was no turning back. It was definitely more the persona and personalities, and success of the teams that made me become a fan of those teams (Yankees, Packers & Jets). The Yankees and Jets remained good enough until I was well in my teenaged years, that they became set as my two favorite sport teams. Perhaps if Vince Lombardi had stayed with the Packers longer, they might have remained up there with the Yankees and Jets. I can't speak to how the Giants were covered on TV, as I don't really remember, but think almost all of the NFL games on Sundays were Redskins games where I lived, and I think the Giants may have been awful during that time period). Being only 14 at the time, I wasn't all that attuned to what others thought, plus there wasn't all the coverage and media to discuss sports, but do remember that no one except Namath and perhaps the rest of his teammates thought they could win. I hoped they would, of course, but can't remember if I actually thought they could, but I think I did. I knew I hated the Colts, Johnny Unitas and Earl Morrall with their high top cleats and flat tops (crew cuts). They were older, "square" and not someone who a typical teenager would have liked, plus they were one of the big rivals of the Packers at the time too.
44 and counting, statjeff22 and rickjet, great posts. Thanks for the memories. They help clarify my own.
