The seeds of the Jets' decline in the 70s were planted when Werblin was bought out after the 1967 season. Weeb Ewbank was a good coach but an abysmal GM. Stingy as hell with no salary cap even.
And the seeds of the Jets' decline in the late 80s were planted when Leon Hess fired Walt Michaels. He needed help, not a pink slip. He won in the USFL for the NJ Generals. Michaels had a SB III ring and had Ralph Baker and Bill Baird from the SB III Jets as assistants. Joe Walton fired them both after 84. Walton was a good offensive mind but terrible at relating to the players.
1 Agree about firing Michaels, but that is only in retrospect. At the time Walt was considered a risk, there were whispers about his mental health and drinking. Plus, Walton was absolutely the red-hot shit as an OC in the league. Hess was afraid of losing him. (Michaels did NOT win a USFL Championship however). The timing of Michaels' departure was odd, but not when seen in this light. 2. Walton was a terrible head coach. He was from Western PA. with a 50s mentality. He didn't relate well to players. He didn't have Walsh's brain, or Gibbs or Parcels charisma. He was always accusing the playing of slacking off or not working. He was not liked, yet he stayed around for 7 years. 3. The Jets had no official GM. Their draft "guru" was Mike Hickey. They always thought they were outsmarting the rest of the league. You don't to want to go back in time and look at who he passed up. It's too depressing. 4. Jets 80s problems coincided with a Giants resurgence, and the foundation of "classy Giants" and "hapless Jets" concepts was laid then. It didn't help then, and it still doesn't today, that everything the Giants did was blessed by the angels on high, while everything the Jets did was greeted with scorn and disgust. It was a self-fulfilling prophecy. 5. Bad OL got the crap kicked out of O'Brien very early in his career. By 87, he was essentially done as a potential elite QB. 6. Hess was not a good football mind (he thought Kotite was a great coach), but every time he tried to right his wrongs, misfortune happened: Steinberg gets sick & dies, Holmgren turns us down Ron Wolfe leaves and goes to the Packers, Holmgren follows him there, essentially capitalizing on contacts made while Wolfe was w/the Jets, Falcons steal Favre out from under us, Wolfe trades for Favre (again using Jet info).
Nope as I said I have a pix of Wberlin & JWN in the NYJs L/room after SB3 which took place 01/12/69 not 67 as U state Also that other NY team (NYGs) U despise will IMHO recover far fastest then us & will again compete for the SB way, way before us because of our sad sack owner our imcompetant HC & GM :sad: ;sad:
That because all of those people KNEW our organization was a sad sack one which is why we have been cellar dwellers for so long :sad:
If he was bought out in 68 explain why he was in the NYJ L/room on 01/12/69 after we won the SB :sad:
b/c he was in the LR meant he was still part owner? no chance he had friends in the organization? everywhere I have read has said he was out in 1968- prior to that season.
Doubtful that was the case because Hess & Wberkin had become mortal enemies after the kick out of the organization by Hess & for sure Hess would not want him there when he himself was not there & at that was the biggest moment for the organization :sad:
So you are saying that Werblin ran the Jets in '68? No this time you are wrong Champ, sorry. There is info about this all over the internet Werblin was out before the '68 season. Its well-documented. Phil Iselin was the lead partner of the Jets during the season, and I have several pictures documenting this, as well as the Super Jets record put out by the Daily News, which has at least one interview, IIRC, indicating that he is the lead owner While there is no doubt that Werblin put together the foundation for the '68 team, and got Namath into the fold, he had nothing to do with running the Jets in the '68 season. There are a lot of reasons why Werblin could have been in the locker room after SB III. He could've been a guest of NBC. ( He negotiated the AFL-NBC deal remember). He could've been a guest of Namath. He could have just walked in. I can't believe that anyone would try to keep him out of the locker room after game, which was only the biggest thing that had happened in sports since at least the Liston-Clay fights in '64-65.
That Werblin was bought out in 68 is historical fact. And then Lillis was trying to fire Ewbank and woo Lonbardi to coach the team (and bring Namath under control) but died before he could do anything. This is in the very book Champ cites as his reference (Gang Green by Eskenazi). In fact Werblin not being an owner was able to make a killing betting on the Jets in the SB.
As I said, the Jets currently stand just $1.5M under the cap...so I don't think signing Keller was ever an option. His $4.25M is just about the total cap number for Garard, Barnes, Goodson, Colon, Landry and Garay combined. So sure, they could have added Keller...it just would have been at the cost of just about every other free agent. Obviously that's not a smart move and it's why they didn't do it. Part of the reason why? Bad contracts like Sanchez.
we had more room in the offseason, we had plenty of room to make some moves. we went cheap(which I agree w/) to save cap room and plan for the future. had mark not been in a sham competition we'd be in the playoff hunt and he'd be earning the contract.
I think KJ you are completely off base here. It is the owners Woody & Leon NYJs who are denigrating us the fans to use your words not me since there is nothing I can do to make the situation better except complain since Woody has not offered me a chance to be a partner. :sad:
