I have very mixed feelings with this player. He had a great year for a pretty good team in 1985. He had a good year for a good team in 1986. He was then mediocre for four mediocre to bad teams. He was adequate at best for a .500 playoff team in 1991. I was glad when he lost his job to Browning Nagle because O'Brien hurt the Jets a bit in 1991. It was clear to me that O'Brien was no longer worthy of starting in the NFL. When O'Brien did get some time to play in 1992, he sucked. The Pittsburgh game was funny. He came in late and was absolutely absymal. I don't have his stats from that game in front of me, but if memory serves he may have been 1 of 6 with 2 interceptions. Maybe somebody can post the exact numbers. I voted for favorable only because he was good when the team was good. Aside from a little bit in 1991, I don't feel O'Brien held the team back. That PIT '92 game was Barry (Bananas) Foster's breakout performance. Foster did have 107 yards rushing in the House of Pain the week before in Bill Cowher's debut, but he really made his mark against the Jets. Foster had 190 yards rushing in the game.
Dolphins were taking him next Had we taken Marino, the Dolphins were taking O'Brien. O'Brien did very well with what the Jets gave him. Remember how happy we all were when the forced Walt Michaels out and gave the team to Walton? That was the beginning of the end for both that era of the Jets and for O'Brien.
Who was happy when they forced WALT MICHAELS out? IMO he was an excellent HC! he got the most out of his players and fought for them! OB was a very good QB. If he had MARINO's OL, he would have been GREAT!
Ought to take a poll to see how many know of WM or saw him coach. I would guess if there are 100 active TGGers maybe 10 may have actually seen him coach. For sure the change from WM to pick his nose JW was one of many silly Hess moves.
I am also one of those "oldtimers" on here as far as remembering Walt Michaels. I thought he was an okay coach. I agree that he got the best out of his players. Richard Todd did well under him and Todd had confidence issues. Mike
Couldn't agree more. This franchise started a very slow and long decline when Michaels was forced out. He brought the team back to respectability when he joined the team in 1977 when Namath was waived and went to LA. He was named coach of the year in 1978. I hated Joe Walton, simply a horrible HC. When Walton was a hot prospect as an OC in 1982, the Jets FO didn't want to lose him to another team. So they thought it was better to force Michaels out and keep Walton. One of the biggest mistakes this franchise made. Read Gerald Eskanazi's book or the Klecko/Fields' book and you'll get an idea about how the players respected Michaels and had no respect for Walton.
My thoughts on O'Brien teeter slightly towards the positive. He had strong points, but almost as many negatives. I remember during the Jets winning streak in 86, after the Falcons game. O'Brien had a great game and completed a Jets record 17 straight passes. I read an article in the NY Times that broke down his game and those 17 completions. I thought at that point, we finally have a QB. Well we all know what happened a few games after that. The Jets, O'Brien and Walton fell apart. I don't think the franchise really recovered until Parcells came in.
Yes!! That was a great book, and I too was pissed off when the Jets forced Michaels out. After going to the AFC Championship game and rebuilding the team? Dumbest move ever. There was something behind the scenes though, because Michaels never got another NFL job, not even a look. He later coached the New Jersey Generals in the USFL and went something like 14-4. The funny thing is Michaels was seriously on the ropes and a lot of people wanted him fired 3 games into the 1981 season. Think about this, 5th year on the job, never above 500, coming off a 4-12 season and then we start 0-3. After that, he went 10-2-1 and 6-3 with two playoff appearences before then getting canned. Made no sense. On the subject of O'Brien, as I said earlier, O'Brien's decline can be directly traced to Michaels' players getting old and eventually leaving. Walton lived off that team and never brought in new guys as we went along.
I think the reason he never got another NFL job was because of the way he flipped out over Shula ordering the field to be left uncovered thru 3 days of rain before the AFC championship game in order to slow down the Jets offense... It was like he broke some unwritten rule....
I've heard a number of things, including some kind of phone call he claimed he got from Al Davis at halftime of the playoff game vs the Raiders, people said he was a drunk, all kinds of things. Either way, could you imagine in this day and age a coach like him never getting another chance? Pro and college teams are falling all over themselves and stabbing each other in the back for a good coach.
Add me to the "old-timers" who was not happy when Michaels was forced out, and who agrees that that was the beginning of the long decline of the franchise. Michaels clearly had personal issues (as the post-Mud Bowl lunacy showed), but he was certainly a good coach, and was IMO unfairly blackballed from the league.
You're right... if that happened today he'd be fighting teams off to interview him... Different time, different league
That's kenny's main fault--that he's not marino or elway or kelly. But he had a great 20 yard down the sideline pass.
I loved Walt Michaels. Took the Jets from the doldrums to the AFC Championaship game, and was savaged by Leon Hess for his efforts. Michaels was the DC for the Super Jets in 68, and he invented the 46 defense the Bears used in 1985. Buddy Ryan was a position coach for the Jets at the time, where he learned the defense, and never gave Michaels his due. This is from the Eskenazi book. Walton as OC was definitely a boon for the Jets' offense, but he was a terrible, terrible head coach. It looks like he jsut couldn't handle the job. See the Klecko/Fields book for the details. Michaels had ex Jets such as Bill Baird and Ralph Baker as position coaches in the early 80s. Joe Walton cleaned them out in 1985. To be fair, he did bring in Bud Carson, who's skills probably kept Walton in his HC post 2-3 years longer than he deserved. The defense had fallen apart without Michaels in 1983 and 1984 (Gastineau's sacks notwithstanding).
Was it Hess or Jim Kensil that axed Michaels? I don't remember Hess being involved at that time, but I could be wrong. There wasn't nearly as much coverage of the team back then.
I'm suprised how many people read that Eskenazi book. I tried... I couldn't get thru it... I thought it was poorly written and all over the place... I got thru about 3 chapters... that was years ago though... maybe I'll give it another shot
According to Eskenazi, it was the two of them. Michaels did get drunk and physically threatened Kensil's son on the plane ride home from Miami in 1983. He definitely got ugly from haltime at LA through the Mud Bowl. And he wasn't very good at giving the team farewell speeches after playoff losses. But this underscores one thing: Michaels LOATHED LOSING. Richard Todd said it best to Eskenazi: the NFL has programs to help players with problems...why couldn't the team have helped Michaels?
