Sports Then and Now

Will cosmic forces decide which teams will play in Super Bowl XLIV?

Something cosmic is about to happen.

The New York Jets, a wild card team, continued to play over their heads, lead by a gangly, tall, brown-eyed, brunette quarterback, a strong running game, and a punishing defense, they surprised everyone winning two playoff games on the road in order to play the Colts.

Does that sound about right? Of course. It is the 2010 New York Jets.

Wrong. And right. It is also the 1969 New York Jets. Same description: wild card, tall dark and young quarterback, strong ground game, strong defense, wild card, playing over their heads as momentum builds.

In 1969 the quarterback was Joe Willie Namath. While lounging on Miami Beach in the week leading up to Super Bowl III, the kid couldn’t keep his mouth shut. He guaranteed a Jets victory.

In the first two super games, the NFL, represented by Vince Lombardi’s Packers, totally dominated their AFL opponents: Kansas City the first year, Oakland the second. Everyone just assumed that the Baltimore Colts would make it three in a row. This, especially because the Jets were a wild card. Most of the pundits had them at either the third or fourth best AFL club. Everyone expected the Jets to be dragged across the field and trampled at the Orange Bowl. Read the rest of this entry →

Sunday will be the biggest game between the Colts and Jets since Super Bowl III.

Okay, be honest. How many people had the New York Jets reaching the AFC Championship Game in their preseason predictions? Other than maybe ESPN’s resident Jets cheerleader Mike Greenberg, I seriously doubt there were many folks giving the Jets much of a chance.

The general consensus is that their improbable playoff run will end this weekend in Indianapolis, but the more I look at this Jets team the more I think they might have karma on their side.

First off, can you pick a more appropriate opponent for the underdog Jets to beat and earn their first Super Bowl trip in 41 years?

When the Jets beat the Big, Bad Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III it forever changed the game of professional football.

A win by the current Jets over the Indianapolis Colts wouldn’t have quite the impact to the history of the sport, but it would certainly make the short-list of all-time playoff upsets.

That game represented the changing of the guard with young and boastful Joe Namath taking the reins from aging veteran Johnny Unitas.

In the quarterback battle of 2010, Jets youngster Mark Sanchez is not as loud and glamorous as Namath, but he has the same kind of dark good looks that made Namath a star. Sanchez has yet to display the same kind of passing ability as Namath, who was the first quarterback to pass for 4,000 yards in a season, but he has made a great start and has time on his side. Read the rest of this entry →

After 33 years, the final games have been played at the Meadowlands.

Some called it Giants Stadium.

And some (namely, Jets fans) called it the Meadowlands.

Come April, you can call it rubble.

The former home of the Jets and Giants (and Generals and Knights and Hit Men and Red Bulls, too), a concrete monolith in an asphalt jungle, and a beacon to New Yorkers and New Jerseyans traveling State Routes 3 and 120 and the New Jersey Turnpike, is slated to be torn down the spring (but is living long enough to see this year’s impressive, improbable Jets playoff run). The Jets and Giants will remain New Yorkers as New Jersey tenants when Meadowlands Stadium opens just next door in East Rutherford.

Opening in 1976, it was the first “major league” venue built in the state of New Jersey, and the last of a wave of “multi-purpose stadiums” erected in the era that included Three Rivers Stadium, Veterans Stadium, Riverfront Stadium and Busch Stadium. Appropriately, it is the last of that group to remain as it awaits the wrecking ball. (And when they dig it up, there’s been no confirmation that they’ll look for Jimmy Hoffa.)

When the Jets moved from Shea Stadium and across the Hudson River into New Jersey after failing to negotiate a new lease, the Meadowlands, thanks to hosting two teams for over 25 years, passed Wrigley Field in 2003 for the most NFL games hosted. Read the rest of this entry →

Until the fourth period of the final game of the weekend, it appeared that the four top seeds were going to hold serve in the second round of the playoffs.

Then, the upstart New York Jets sparked the most hope among their fans in more than 40 years with a shocking comeback to defeat the San Diego Chargers and advance to the AFC Championships Game.

Ironically, the Jets will face the team that was their opponent in the greatest game in franchise history, the Colts (the Baltimore Colts in 1969 and now playing in Indianapolis).

With the exception of the upset by the Jets, the divisional round games were surprisingly void of excitement or competition. The three top seeds claimed victory by an average of 26 points.

Entering the weekend, there had been an over abundance of discussion about whether the teams with the best records would be hurt by playing conservatively during the last weeks of the season and then rusty following a bye. Surprisingly, that really didn’t seem to be much of an issue.

Instead, the Cardinals looked worn down following their track meet with the Packers a week ago while the Cowboys and Ravens were dominated by superior teams.

With the NFC title game matching the top two teams in the conference and the upstart Jets looking for their second win over the Colts in a month, the conference title game promise to be very exciting and intriguing. Read the rest of this entry →

I wonder why there is so much fuss about a team that has reached the halfway point in

Rex Ryan and the Jets have their work cut out for them.

the season and has gone four and four. It must be a New York state of mind. Perhaps I’ve been away from the Big Apple too long to remember that all New York sports fans want to and expect their team to win every game no matter what. That’s what makes them New Yorkers.

There are many fans out there before the beginning of the season who would have been very satisfied with a .500 record before the bye week. The fact that the team started 3-0 including a huge win against the New England Patriots raised their expectations through the roof.

Well the Jets have backed down to earth despite the fact that they totally out played the Dolphins on both sides of the ball in their 30-25 defeat. Somebody, however must have forgot to tell them that Special Teams also need to be on the same page.

This is what Special Teams Coordinator Mike Westhoff said, ”This was the absolute worst performance by any of his units in his 27 NFL seasons.” Ouch!

When a return artist like Ted Ginn Jr returns one for 100 yards and a score that’s a pretty good deal. When he does a second one for 101 yards in the same quarter that’s certainly great for him and the Dolphins, but an unimaginable for Jets Special Teams Unit.

This was the first time in my memory that this achievement has been accomplished during my football watching days.

Now Head Coach Rex Ryan has beaten himself up and down and behind the barn, he has given his team the next 6 days to get away from football. He expects that the rest is a good thing and his team will come back invigorated and ready to make a run at the playoffs in the second half of the season.

The Jets have Jacksonville, Carolina, Atlanta and Cincinnati at home and New England, Buffalo, Tampa Bay and Indianapolis on the road.

A 4-4 record seems to be achievable but Ryan and his Jets expect more. They will need to go at least 6-2 and possibly even 7-1 to get tho this years dance. Based on the first eight games, the odds of the Jets getting to the playoffs this year are slim to none.

Jet’s fans will have to demonstrate a little more patience with their patient. He is right now in stable condition with a pretty good chance for a full recovery. How long until fully recovered remains to be seen. Consider this however, they are not on life support and in many areas showing marked improvement every week.

That’s okay by me.

Each week, Sports Then and Now picks one NFL matchup and looks through the history books to find an intriguing past meeting between the two teams. We recap the game and hopefully help reintroduce (or introduce for you younger readers) you to some of the greats (and in some cases not so greats) from the history of professional football.

As rivals in the AFC East, the Miami Dolphins and New York Jets have played some memorable games through the years.

Many of those memorable games, including the game we will feature, included Dan Marino firing passes for the Dolphins.

In 30 career games against the Jets, Marino connected on 58.3% of his passes for 8,651 yards and 72 touchdowns. Those numbers are by far the most of his career against an individual opponent.

Marino passed for 521 yards and three touchdowns in a 1988 game against the Jets, but also had five interceptions as the Jets won 44-30.

The two squads have met in the playoffs only once, with Miami posting a 14-0 shutout in the 1982 AFC Championship Game.

Our Classic Rewind looks at a matchup in 1986 when both Dan Marino and fellow member of the 1983 quarterback class Ken O’Brien were both at the top of their games. The result was an offensive explosion that still ranks among the greatest in NFL history.
Read the rest of this entry →