Joe is correct on all of the above.....supposedly the Jets front office began watching Michaels during that season noticing his behavior turning a bit bizarre. He was traveling once a week during the '82 season to see his mother in Pennsylvaina who was dying of cancer and he had his own issues with painkillers which he took to ease the pain of inuries from his playing days. Alot of pressure on the guy and you had the Jets in the middle of the playoff hunt too. It got to the point where he would fall down for no reason and was even spotted talking to himself at times. He was cracking up and it was too bad because he was a damm good coach and also knew how to build a team.....he was a bit paranoid and hated both Davis and Shula. It was just his luck those were his two opponents back to back....lousy Shula.
The writer also skipped over some confrontations between Walt Michaels and the media in early 1981, when the Jets were off to an 0-3 start. One incident had Michaels slurring his speech and another had him slamming his Super Bowl ring on the table in front of the reporter screaming "You don't have one of these, cocksucker!" Needless to say, the Jets went on to the playoffs with the Sack Exchange that year.
Ray Handley...... I once met a former NY Media writer who covered the Giants and he told me the real reason Handly was run out of town and never got another look either as an assistant or a college coach. Let's just say Ray liked to walk on the wild side.
They did not go back far enough to summer 69 when we whipped the NYGs in 1st ever NYJ/NYG game & the NYGs fired there HC right after the game :sad:
Ooh.... I had heard something about that and thought the guy at the time was pulling my chain. Guess not.
There was certainly a mind altering side to michaels.... But most players loved him and would do anything for him. Quite the opposite from Walton.
