NY Post is reporting Walt Michaels has died at 89. Former Jets head coach 1977-82. Also DC from 1963-72 and 1976. Very underrated coach . He almost got them to the SB if not for Shula and his tricks in the mud bowl. Another part of my childhood gone.... Thoughts from any of you old timers ?
He & his scouting staff built arguably the best roster w an actual identity/prototype in team history excluding Ewbank & he was the DC of thise teams.Those teams played like JETS for better or worse. Shula really F’d this franchise w his underhanded crap much like Bellicheat does today(ironically shula gave him that nickname).Walt went crazy after that game & cant say i blame him. RIP
Yes unfortunately the anger of the loss caused him to blow his fuse on the plane ride home exposing his penchant for alcohol . Upper management had already been watching him privately. A real shame. Simply help the man in private and let him continue coaching - Michaels was a man’s football coach didn’t take any BS.
You know the Jets had played Miami in the Orange Bowl a month earlier in sunny and dry conditions. Only a bad day by Pat Leahy and a dropped INT by Bobby Jackson prevented them from winning. The AFC Championship game under normal conditions really would of been interesting. I think the Jets would of beaten them hands down.
Underrated with non-Jet fans but not BY Jet fans. His 'retirement' is probably the biggest what-if in Jet history...a generation later a guy with his issues (drinking, painkillers) would just be sent to rehab although maybe him telling off the bosses as much as he did would still have been enough to get him bounced at the first sign of trouble. Shameful really that he got blackballed after.
Oldtimers !! Wow...I'm in my 50's, didn't realize I was that old.... I thought Walt was a good coach. I thought he got a raw deal after the Mud Bowl. Leon Hess was convinced by Jim Kensil to let Michaels go after his rant against Al Davis. The Jets were happy because they thought they were preventing Joe Walton from leaving -- he was the #1 coaching candidate for 1983 -- by making him head coach. So they got to keep the guy who turned around their offense (and Richard Todd) rather than see him leave. Of course, Walton The Great OC was Walton The Terrible Coach. Players he bonded with as OC (like Todd) he burned bridges with as HC. I met Walt Michaels maybe 15-20 years ago. It was a game at the Meadowlands and he was seated up in the 300's in my section. Clearly didn't have any great comp tickets or didn't want them. He walked with a cane and was noticeably slow; I offered to get him some refreshments for which he thanked me. R.I.P.
Walt was a throwback. Today there is professional collegiality between most coaches. Walt didn't look at football as a competition. It was a death cage, grudge match. The alcohol abuse played into it and probably made him seem a bit crazy. He was a really good defensive and head coach. The 82 playoff run was very different than the runs we had with Rex. Freeman was healthy and when he was healthy he was an amazing back. We had a very well balanced team and it really looked like we were heading to the SB with that team before the disaster in the mud bowl. I still think that was the best team we ever took into the AFL Championship game with the exception of 68. RIP
Old-timers includes myself of course ! LOL Yes I can remember the Jets were worried that the Falcons and Chiefs were going to steal Walton away for their respective head coaching jobs. He was a hot candidate . Ironically it was Walton who failed to adjust the offensive game plan for the AFC Title game after finding out how bad the field conditions were going to be. But hindsight is always 20/20 of course. Walton and Todd were not even on speaking terms by November of the 1983 season and Todd was shipped out the following February. The face of the team basically changed in a blink of an eye along with the move out of Shea. I recall a post here from years ago with somebody mentioning seeing Michaels at a Jets game in the Meadowlands at some point in the 90s and offering to buy him hot coffee or something like that because he was having trouble walking around. I also recall that person or maybe it was another person asking him about the whole Idizk/Robinson fiasco on Opening day in 1979 - the whole thumb incident - and him saying something along the lines of he “didn’t want to go there.” Was that you ? There was a weekly Jets newspaper called Jets Confidential in the early internet days that I subscribed to where Michaels was a guest writer from time to time . He mentioned going to games. This was probably the 1996-97 time frame.
For me it would be a draw between 1982 and the 1998 teams. Both very balanced . The 1982 team had a better defense the 1998 team was slightly more explosive offensively. The Rex teams were not nearly as dangerous no matter what he said ....good teams but not of that quality.
It also didn't help that the refs somehow, amazingly called forward progress after a bone jarring hit on Miami RB Franklin was not called a fumble (recovered by Mark G.). It occurred during the third quarter of a scoreless game. The embarrassed NFL had to put out a press release/explanation DURING the game trying to justify the non-call. It was such an obvious fumble/recovery by the jets that NBC analyst Merlin Olson who was calling the game claimed that the MVP from the game should be "the officials."
Another example of the jets getting too cute for themselves by dismissing michaels and making walton coach. management certainly didnt have the feel of the players - and the jets had some veterans that should have made a difference. barkum, klecko, fields, buttle, etc etc. and the cuteness continued in april of 83 with obrien. not a great offseason that year and the hangover from that was in full effect during the 83 and 84 season.
"Idizk/Robinson fiasco on Opening day in 1979"......... holy smokes - idzik really played QB back then??
RIP Let's win a SB for WMichaels ..a part of my childhood and NYJ Any Memorial planned by the Johnsons?