I loved this guy as a Jet. Voted team MVP in 1993 and was second in the NFL in total yards from scrimmage that year. Sad that his career lasted only 4 seasons.
It would be nice if the Jets and Snell could patch things up after all this time. He really was the MVP in SBIII. I do think whatever happened has left Snell bitter and unwilling to accept any apology at this point... sad. Matt retired at age thirty-one, ready to move on with his life, which he had every reason to believe included a direct association with the Jets. “Sonny Werblin promised in presenting the five-year plan that if we won a championship, there would be a place for me with the team for life,” explains Snell. “I was a local boy, from Long Island, who made good. I don’t think that Sonny forgot our understanding; he came into our locker room after Super Bowl III, gave me a big bear hug, and kept telling me, ‘We did it. We did it.’ Two weeks later, I got a call from a New Jersey Cadillac dealer, who told me to come over and he gave me the keys to a 1969 mint-green Cadillac. ‘This is from Sonny Werblin,’ I was told. ‘He thinks you were the Super Bowl MVP.’ “I don’t know if Sonny ever communicated what he had promised me to the other owners. I know there were people around the organization that were not happy that Sonny and I were friends, and some of them jumped on the opportunity to say bad things about me when Sonny was gone. It may be that no one in Jets management knew about Sonny’s promises to me, but in 1974, there was a recession and I was in line for a construction job. I asked the Jets for a reference. They told me they didn’t do that for players. They said they couldn’t do it! Can you believe that? I can’t prove it, but I don’t think any of that would have ever happened if Sonny were in charge. That’s why I don’t get along with the organization now.”
Thanks for sharing this. I can't click "like" because I hate so much that things got screwed up between Snell and the Jets. I don't know why the other owners would have had a problem with Snell and Werblin being friends. The fact that they wouldn't give a reference for him is ridiculous, unless there's something about his character that we don't know, and they just told him that they didn't do that for players. It wouldn't surprise me if Leon Hess was responsible for that. I despised him! I don't know how he ever built a petroleum empire, because he was totally clueless and stupid when it came to the Jets. So it sounds like both sides are at fault. The Johnsons weren't around back then and neither was JD or Saleh. Someone ought to reach out from the team and make things right if Snell will let them. I guess that I shouldn't be surprised considering how dysfunctional this team was under Hess' ownership, and even beginning when he started buying the other partners out.
My family's seats were right down in front of the owner's box.. Hess was always getting berated by the crowd when things were bad (which was all the time)... Lots of birds were flipped in his direction... sometimes I felt bad for the old fucker...
It's funny...he doesn't look that big to me now, but when I was 11 and watching the Jets, he looked HUGE! I didn't see how anyone could ever tackle him.
