Walt Michaels and Joe Klecko are the two people I most associate with the late 70's early 80's Jets as they turned things around and became a good team again. Firing Michaels and replacing him with Walton was basically the same thing as the Rams firing Vermeil and replacing him with his OC Martz. A good to great OC is no guarantee to be better than the good HC who got you to that point.
You’re right about hoodie but to this day Shula will not talk to Jets fans period. He has admitted this ...
I agree regarding giving the '98 offense the edge. Freeman didn't have a great year, neither did Walker or Barkum. Todd didn't help any.
Freeman had an incredible year in 1982. It was a strike shortened season of 9 games with no training camp. He had 786 yards on 151 attempts, 5.2 per. Arguably the best year any Jet back has ever had. He was All Pro in 82. Walker went to the pro bowl. Again 9 games 620 yards and 15.9 per and 6 TD's. Not all pro but pro bowl. The Jets that year had the No. 4 O in yards and No. 3 in points. The 98 team was better because Vinny Testeverde played well above his norm. Vinny has almost as many INTs as TD if you look at his career stats. In 98 he had 28TD and 7 Int's. It was an aberration which he never came close to before or after.
Absolutely correct on all counts. Great year for McNeil - the Jets rode him in the playoff march. I gave the nod to the 1998 offense due to better QB play. Unfortunately that was Vinny’s pinnacle season never to be replicated.
The 98 team had an all time great coaching staff. It was arguably one of the best in NFL history. They still couldn't overcome the altitude and Terrell Davis. If you want to give the edge to the 98 team it was coaching. That's not a knock on Michaels.
I remember NBC's PAUL McGUIRE hating the jets in 1986 calling them "the worst 10-1 team ever." McGuire (ex-buffalo bill) was always badmouthing the jets that year.
I missed that there was only 9 games in '82. I forgot about the strike that year. I was in Dallas that year in grad school and don't think I ever saw the Jets once, and heard little or no Jets news. From '82 to the spring of '86 (the years I was in Texas) was a black hole for me in terms of Jets news and seeing the Jets. It was made all the sweeter when I moved to NYC in April '86 where I got lots of Jets news and saw every game, either live or on TV. Yes, Vinny played waaaaaaaaaaay over his head in '98. I give Parcells credit for that. My name for him otherwise was Interceptaverde. I couldn't stand him.
Walt was the head coach and GM of a semi pro team in 1990 with the Scranton/Wilkes Barre Stallions. Walt and Lou Michaels were from Swoyersville in Luzerne County and so that was not far away. The team office was in downtown Scranton and was a block from where I worked then. I had business one day in the building where the team office was and when I got in the elevator, Walt Michaels was there waiting to go up. I thought it would be a good time to tell him as a lifelong Jets fan, I appreciated all he did as Coach of the Jets so I told him that. After I did, I immediately regretted it. He looked at me and his eyes got wild and big. He appeared to get angry and told me sharply that you would think they would stand behind someone and support them when someone needed help. He also mentioned something about Leon Hess (I actually don't remember what he said, unfortunately) I was stunned by his reaction. His voice was getting louder and angry and I just wished the elevator would go faster and for the doors to open up. I just listened to what he said and never said another word. I remembered when he "resigned" after the 1982 playoffs. I remembered reading the newspapers then and the stories about how mad he was when the Orange Bowl field was not covered and how the week before he was convinced the Raiders and Al Davis had bugged the locker room and he was yelling to Al Davis at the walls in the locker room at halftime of the Jets-Raiders game. I remembered the story that the Jets had promoted Joe Walton to Head Coach to prevent him from losing him to the Washington Redskins, who were looking to hire him because he had worked well developing Joe Theismann. I always thought there were always mental health overtones implied in Michaels leaving but never expressly stated. Never knew that rest of the story about Kensil's involvement or that Todd didn't return home on the team plane after the game. May also explain why Jets took O'Brien with the first pick in the 83 draft too.
What's odd is this is really the only story you ever hear about Leon Hess being a bad guy. Not the greatest owner or anything, but people universally praise him otherwise.
WOW. The man was still pissed obviously. All the stories you read were true...he basically had a slight nervous breakdown late in the season and during the playoff run. Al Davis and Don Shula were his two biggest antagonists in the NFL. During practice leading up to the Raiders game he started screaming at planes flying overhead thinking it was one of Davis's spies. The following week after arriving at the Orange Bowl the morning of the AFC title game and seeing the condition the field was in he began screaming at the maintenance workers and of course carried on during the plane ride home. Several players recalling the game claim Michaels was actually unofficially escorted into the locker room to keep him away from Shula. Then during the week after the Miami game leading up to the Pro Bowl ( which he coached ) he was walking around the hallways at the Jets office talking to himself out loud about the NFL and rules being broken. He probably would have been let go earlier except for the Pro Bowl..... Todd was so ashamed of his own performance he took his own flight home from Miami.....a real shame such a fun, exciting year ended in that fashion.
The killer was passing on Anthony Munoz in favor of Lam Jones because the Jets medical team KO'd the pick.
You had to remind me ? I remember that game just a bit. Trying to erase it. Seattle ALWAYS gave us trouble from 1977 through the mid-1980's. We could NEVER beat them !!!