National Football League
New York Jets
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Jets History
One of the original 7 teams in the upstart American Football League, the NY Titans and played their first game September 11, 1960 against the Buffalo Bills. A very small crowd watched as the Titans beat the Bills 27-3. The team finished their inaugural season 7-7. The ’61 season the Titans continued to pay .500 ball as they again finish 7-7.
In the 1963 season, the Titans were bought out by Sonny Werblin for $1 Million and moved the team to a new stadium near La Guardia Airport. The team then changed the name from the Titans to the Jets. What a difference a name makes.
Five years later, in the 1968 season, the Jets found themselves with an 11-3 record and in the playoffs for the first time in franchise history. During the season, the Jets would take on the L.A. Raiders in what would become known as the Heidi Bowl. With 1:05 left, the Jets take a 3-point lead over the Raiders and NBC cuts to a commercial and after commercial break, the network put on the highly advertised movie Heidi, much to the NY fans dismay. Calls flooded the NBC Studios so much that the switchboard crashed. Executives at NBC decided to continue carrying the game but the order failed to reach the broadcast booth and the game ended with a 43-32 Raiders victory. The two teams would see each other again for the AFL Championship in what would be known as the “Heidi Game Rematch”. The Jets would get revenge in the thrilling game as they beat the Raiders 27-23 (Prompting a guarantee from QB Joe Namath that “We will win Sunday, I guarantee it.”) to go against the NFL Champion Baltimore Colts in what was referred to for the first time as the Super Bowl (and in retrospect is now known as Super Bowl III).
The Namath guarantee infuriated NFL purists and they took the quote as brash, arrogant and disrespectful while AFL fans were all pulling together and praying for the upset. After one quarter of play the score was Jets 7, Raiders 0. The 2nd quarter saw the Jets extend their lead to 10-0. The 2nd half would see the Jets continue to frustrate the Colts and would go into the 4th quarter with a 13-0 lead. Colts Head Coach Don Shula then takes QB Earl Morrall out replacing him with legend Johnny Unitas who had been sidelined all season with injuries. Unitas would lead his team down the field and got them on the board bringing the score to 16-7. The Colts would onside kick and would recover the ball. Unitas however would throw a costly interception into coverage and the Jets would become the first AFL team to win the Super Bowl. To date, this is the only Super Bowl the Jets have win.
1970 brought the merger of the AFL and the NFL into one league and the Jets would not have a great year finishing a weak 4-10 and in 1971, Joe Namath would injure a knee in preseason and the team struggled as a whole finishing 6-8. The mediocrity would continue throughout the 70’s. Some highlights of that decade included a 1972 game where QB Joe Namath torched the Baltimore Colts for 496 passing yards, an October 15 game where Jets RB’s John Riggins and Emerson Boozer became the first RB tandem in history to each hit the 150 yard mark in a game (Riggins 168, Boozer 150).
The decade of the 80’s proved to be just as tough for the Jets as the 70’s with a combined decade record of 73-77-2 (.480) making the playoffs 4 out of 9 seasons (.300) but what they thought was a tough decade was remarkably good compared to the decade of the 90’s where the Jets were a combined 65-93 (.411) and made the playoffs only twice.
The new millennium opened with the Jets going a respectable 9-7 but failed to make the playoffs. The next couple of seasons proved a little better as the Jets went 10-6 and 9-7 and made the playoffs but failed to go deep. The franchise would see-saw for the next 6 seasons as the Jets would post records of 6-10, 10-6, 4-12, 10-6, 4-12 and 9-7. Eight seasons into the new decade and the Jets have a combined 71-73 (.401) record but managed to make it into the playoffs 4 times but never getting past the Divisional Playoffs.
The Jets have made the playoffs 12 times in 49 seasons and have won their division 4 times (1968, 69, 1998 and 2002). They have won the AFL Championship 1 time (1968) and have appeared and won in their only Super Bowl appearance (1968).
The team has had 6 Hall of Famer on their rosters: Coach Weeb Ewbank, Ronnie Lott, Don Maynard, Art Monk, Joe Namath and John Riggins.
The Jets have retired 3 Jerseys: #12 Joe Namath, #13 Don Maynard and #73 Joe Klecko.
Team Awards include 2 AFL Rookie of the Year Awards (1964 Matt Snell and 1965 Joe Namath), 3 Defensive Rookie of the Year Awards (1988 Erik McMillan, 1995 Hugh Douglas and 2004 Jonathan Vilma) and 1 AFL Player of the Year (1968 Joe Namath)
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