As soon as I read Oct 23 1983 - the Falcons, I stopped right there. You're good. Our seats were above the Shea dugout in the Green, so you know I had a good view of him high stepping it into the endzone a few times. Bruce Harper, again what a memory! Amazing you just jogged my memory about Todd falling out of favor with Walton, who I was never a fan of. I was at his final game at Giants Stadium which actually was the coldest Jets game I've ever been to, except for maybe old Foxboro with the metal benches. I didn't even want to go, but my brother came back from college and wanted to go, so I went and drowned myself in hot chocolate. The only good thing was we got to choose any seat in the house since the stadium was half empty with chants of pick your nose Joe over and over again. We moved down to the bench area to be a part of the "fun." What a sad ending and looking back I feel bad for the guy the way he was treated that day. I have other games I went to that I need to quiz you on. LOL This one would be almost impossible for most to remember but probably easy since I have to tell you the game. My grandfather took me to the Jets-Dolphins game at the Orange Bowl in 1980. I think the Jets won 24-17 but the game really wasn't the story. What was?
LOL. I can't say that I was as I was only 13 at the time and didn't have beer. Now that you mention it I do remember Jets fans throwing beer at the Bills after Cribbs scored. I just watched it again on youtube.
I was at that Atlanta game. Billy White Shoes Johnson went nuts in the 2nd half. The Jets had a 21 point lead, and lost 27-21. We drank a lot of brandy that day. +++++ EDIT: More - https://elitesportsny.com/2017/10/28/shea-stadium-memories-white-shoes-wears-new-york-jets/
The Atlanta game was the only Jets home at Shea game I missed from '79-'83. A friend of mine arrived so late to pick me up, I knew we'd miss the 1st quarter so I refused to go ; ) Good call on my part. However, I made up for it for being at the infamous "Aints" game about a month after the Oilers game that started this thread.
By the way, the game of the week Oilers video was great. I was at this game, and my buddy at the time insisted Stabler purposely threw the interceptions in order to appease gamblers for the point spread, then tried to eek out a victory and have it both ways. Haha. Geez, I didn't remember Rich Caster playing that large of a role. It must've been huge for him to return to Shea against his old team and come up big. Leahy! Man, in today's NFL he would have been gone early in his Jets career. What saved him was the year he got hurt and missed games, the Jets brough in a revolving doors of shlubbs who couldn't even hit extra points. At least Leahy hit those consistently. Maybe his miss at the end of this game would have sealed his doom as a Jet if not for them winning the OT coin toss.
Another thorn in the Jets history. Todd scores to take the lead in the fourth quarter and the defense allows the 0-14 Saints to march down the field in the wind and score the winning TD. The Jets as always had numerous other blown opportunities during the game to pull away and didn’t.
It was only one of the few I saw at Shea. We were on the waiting list for season tickets when the team was at Shea, but it was a long list. We didn't get the seats until the team moved to the Meadowlands. After that, I didn't miss a game until 1996. What I remember most about the Atlanta game is that it was a cold rainy miserable day, capped by a lose-from-ahead Jet loss.
But ultimately the joke was on the Aint's when they took George Rogers with the first pick in the draft, allowing a fellow named Lawrence Taylor to play elsewhere.
Back to that Oilers game: It's been discussed in various "old time Jets" threads how Johnny Lam Jones was as a player, with many saying he was terrible etc. He wasn't terrible, but he had major flaws and was a huge disappointment because of what the Jets gave up to move up in the draft to get him in the first round. Myself and others have pointed put that the major flaw in his game was how he'd leave his feet to cradle a catch, rather than trusting his hands to make the catch on the run. Obviously, defenders closed in while he returned to the ground after jumping. His game was elite speed, which then did not matter. There is a video example of this exact thing in this Oiler video. It occurs at 6:14. Yes, the throw was high, but Lam Jones jumps ridiculously high for the throw, and gets destroyed by the defenders. Watching Jets games back then, he'd do this time and time again, especially over the middle on crossing routes. He'd even do that with no one around him. This probably scarred me as a fan for life since to this day I prefer WR's with hands over speed. (Cotchery) Speed means nothing if you can't efficiently catch while running. I wonder if Lam Jones would have been as big of a prospect in 1980 had video scouting been then, what it is now. Probably not. He'd be a 4th or 5th rounder.
Well.....not exactly. 1982 was a horrible year for him and in the end it cost the Jets home field seeding for the playoffs. I will say playing at Shea did him no favors. He improved as he got older after the move to NJ.
You are correct. And I loved Freeman but what if the Jets tanked the announcer less game in Miami the following week? I don’t think Michaels would of passed on LT. Imagine him backing up the sack exchange??
In regards to blackouts I remember reading they were common for the Jets up until the last game in 1978 against Dallas. I wasn’t into it yet I don’t remember but apparently that game did sell out in time to be broadcast locally. Since then every home game was on local tv EXCEPT the 1980 Saints game (CBS) and it’s my understanding it was a network decision not to show in NY despite all tickets being sold. With todays’s broadcast rules they wouldn’t be able to get away with that. Meanwhile I remember watching the famous Browns Vikings Ahmad Rashad game on NBC instead - a game with playoff implications for both teams.
Even with your great memory, I know you looked that one up. Thankfully that was one Jets game I missed on TV. I miss the old Orange Bowl.
When I was a kid we would always visit my grandparents in Florida in December. The Dolphins even when good always had difficulty selling out their games. I remember always praying they would not sell out so they would put the Jets game on. Every day I would read the Sun-Sentinel newspaper and they would give a running tally of how many tickets still needed to be sold in order for the game to be on TV. I think they had until noon Thursday to sell out, but sometimes they would push the deadline back a day. Ugh. Full panic mode as a kid. LOL
LOL No I didn’t ....believe it or not I remember all the scores from those 1980s games I even play games with my friends 11 year old son. He’ll look up games on his phone and say OK who did the Jets play week 4 1988 and I’ll tell him they beat the Lions 17-10 in a Detroit and he’ll just shake his head in amazement lol