Like the Cleveland Rams in LA or the Houston Oilers in Memphis or the Portsmouth Spartans in Detroit?
Yes, but his full-blown nervous breakdown was after the Miami debacle. And he was thrown to the wolves as I see it. Story goes he was on pills to sleep, pills to stay awake and function during the day. FO knew he was burning out and going off the rails even before the Raiders game. Greg Bubbles tells it (we all know that guy can talk, and he doesn't say as much as he could on it) Michaels would shake and cry, have horrid mood swings, say completely irrational things. Even a layperson would know he was crumbling. Say what you will about Michaels, but he was the best chance the Jets had for another SB since 01/12/69 - as our team was constituted - and he was sandbagged. I kick Parcells in his azz, thanks. But I won't REALLY go there, lest I hear 'respectability' and have to start shooting.
I loved Michaels. The two ugliest NY sports incidents for me was how Joan Payson of the Mets treated Cleon Jones after being cought in a van with a girl during the off season and how Walt Michaels was treated by the Jets in order to keep the bum Joe Walton.
Michaels had been crossing the line for some time prior to the Mud Bowl. He had a team that was divided along racial lines. He was (as we found out later) addicted to prescription pain killers from his playing days - and also drank profusely - and those two things affected his judgement and temprement. He had a temper to begin with. When he was passed over the first time as HC in favor of Weeb's son-in-law Charlie Winner, Michaels' changed from what I've heard. When Holtz got the job in 1976, Michael's fumed even more. When he finally got the job he became very very paranoid - in some ways understandable...but he made his own bed. Walton was a terrible HC - but wasn't he Todd's big supporter?
He made his own bed, sure, but management didn't have to kick him off a cliff when he was hanging by a thread, either. We'll never know the 'full' story, but I don't feel particularly comfortable gawking at other people's emotional trauma, so it's just as well. Heavy implications suit me just fine, but I always felt I knew just enough to feel he could have been done better by. Michaels was also under tremendous 'image' pressure. Hess et al were unhappy with our scrubby and 'bad boy' reputation that was developing. Long hair. Unshaven. As if Namath wasn't 'scrubby' and bad boy..? Meh, it was why Landry didn't take Namath, and aren't we all glad that stuffed shirt didn't have the b*lls to do so.
Michaels completely came apart on the team's flight home from Miami. Understandably frustrated, Walt became violent after a couple of drinks, he cursed at a stewardess, began cursing loudly at Walton for failing to adjust the game plan, and then had to be physically restrained from going after Richard Todd. The problem was Todd wasn't even on the plane -he chose to fly home alone after his terrible performance. His behavior shook team officials up and with Walton being hunted by both Atlanta and Kansas City to be their head coach, Hess and Kensil - believing Walton had as much to do with the Jets turnaround as Michaels - went ahead and made the change. Very sad IMHO......
Michaels wasn't a great coach but Walton was absolutely awful. Amazing how he was a decent coordinator, very good player but couldn't head coach a lick.
Michaels was a dam good coach and had the team quietly put him in rehab he might well have been a great HC.
He was being ridiculous again. We are both well aware that that particular poster frequently makes factual errors regarding football history. I pointed out his mistake. Instead of admitting his mistake (which was a honest mistake- not really a huge deal), he decided to be cute.
