This article hits the nail on the head. Maybe what's cursed about this team is the way it has ignored it's champions. Time to rectify Woody! F--ing disgraceful. Sports of The Times; Today's Jets Need a Link to the Jets Who Made It All the Way By DAVE ANDERSON Published: July 16, 2006 FOR nearly four decades, the Super Bowl III Jets have represented the only glorious moment of a pro football franchise mostly muddied in frustration, if not despair. Since that 1968 team justified the American Football League's existence with a 16-7 upset of the Baltimore Colts and altered the history of the National Football League, the Jets have never been closer to another Super Bowl than two losses in American Football Conference championship games, at Miami in the 1982 season and at Denver in the 1998 campaign. Of the other pro football franchises that existed in 1968, all but four -- the Cardinals, the Lions, the Browns and the Saints -- have either won or reached a Super Bowl, while the Jets have remained on a treadmill. You would think that, through so many dismal years, the Jets organization would have often extolled, if not exploited, those Super Bowl III champions. Yes, the team retired Joe Namath's No. 12 and Don Maynard's No. 13. A stadium banner honors Coach Weeb Ewbank's bronze bust in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. And the Jets hired Namath to stump for the West Side stadium that never materialized. But what about all those other players with Super Bowl III rings? ''Our 25th anniversary was the last time any of us got a Christmas card from the team,'' tight end Pete Lammons said. Lammons was referring to their official reunion late in the 1993 season, but since then it's almost as if the Jets organization has disowned its only championship team. ''Tradition, that's the core of a sports franchise,'' defensive end Gerry Philbin said. ''But with the Jets, there's no tradition.'' With the Super Bowl III trophy perched in the current Jets locker room, you would think the organization would want the current players to mix with the men who earned it. Instead, it's as if those Super Bowl III Jets don't exist, as if Philbin never had 64 1/2 sacks, still third on the Jets' career list, or Lammons never caught one of Namath's three touchdown passes in the 27-23 victory over Oakland in the A.F.L. championship game at Shea Stadium. ''I've never met Woody Johnson,'' Philbin said, referring to the Jets' owner. To the Jets' shame, the only time the Super Bowl III players get together officially is at the Freedom House-Larry Grantham Celebrity Golf Classic, as they did here Thursday at Fiddler's Elbow Country Club in the New Jersey farmland, about as far from the Jets' complex on Long Island as you can get in the metropolitan area. Freedom House, founded in 1986 and based in Glen Gardner, N.J., is a nonprofit substance-abuse center that has treated more than 1,000 men and women in a halfway-house setting. The connection with the Jets developed when the Freedom House chief executive, Fred Reihl, happened to meet Grantham, the outside linebacker who was the Super Bowl III Jets' defensive captain, at an Alcoholics Anonymous convention in 1998 in Kansas City, Mo. Reihl asked if Grantham could round up his old teammates to enhance Freedom House's annual charity golf tournament. ''This was our ninth,'' said Grantham, who added proudly that he had not had a drink in 20 years. ''The guys love it.'' Fifteen of those Super Bowl III Jets were here Thursday: Al Atkinson, Bill Baird, Ralph Baker, Emerson Boozer, Mike D'Amato, Cornell Gordon, Winston Hill, Bill Mathis, Carl McAdams, Babe Parilli, Paul Rochester and Mike Stromberg, as well as Grantham, Philbin and Lammons. ''Joe was here in 2003,'' Grantham said, referring to Namath, ''but his football camp in Massachusetts keeps conflicting with us.'' Congratulations to Freedom House for taking advantage of what the Jets have mostly ignored: putting those Super Bowl III players on display, if not hiring their expertise. ''They should've put Emerson Boozer in the front office as a players liaison,'' Philbin said. ''Wellington Mara and the Giants always tried to do things like that.'' Boozer, whose 64 career touchdowns are still the most for a Jets running back, was never far away. Now retired, he was the director of parks and recreation in Huntington, N.Y., for more than 30 years, but he always monitored the Jets. He agreed with installing Mike Tannenbaum as general manager and hiring Eric Mangini as coach after last season's 4-12 record eased Coach Herman Edwards's departure to the Chiefs. ''They had to shake it up, turn everything upside down,'' Boozer said. ''I thought Herm had lost control of the team.'' Atkinson, a thinking-man's middle linebacker, bemoaned the absence in the Jets' front office of someone like Sonny Werblin, who in 1965 signed Namath to a record $427,000 contract. He also wondered why the Jets continued to depend on quarterback Chad Pennington. ''The last three years,'' Atkinson said, ''they've tried to live and die with one quarterback coming off shoulder surgery.'' But that's to be expected of a Jets franchise that, for nearly 40 years, has occasionally lived but mostly died with its neglected Super Bowl III champions.
wow the guys who won it all have some great ideas, so why aren't employed like the Championship Giants Owners employ old SB winners? I also lost a fraction of my fanaticism for this team after reading this article... this makes me sick. Not even a Christmas card every year? If I was a casual Jet fan I'd be finding another team to root for right now, and that team just so happens to play in the same stadium. I'm ashamed to be a Jet fan right now. I wish I knew this when I was younger. I'm really ashamed of this.
this article is ridiculous, if we keep living in the past we wont make any future, while i respect the 68 team, we need to make our own idenity, dont get me wrong, a christmas card every year w/a thank you for the 68 season would be nice, but if they were to show there faces all the time people would say , is that all the jets have [the 68 season] even more
This truly sucks, but they are not the only New York team to do it. The Rangers totally ignore their past greats as well, they are planning on retiring Adam Graves' number next season while pioneers and great Rangers like Lester Patrick, Harry Howell, Andy Bathgate and Ron Greschner do not have anything to represent them and they well deserved something. Makes me sick, Owners like Woody and Dolan show just how much they have their heads up their asses when they let stuff like this happen.
They still should be honored, hell they honored Martin and Chrebet who did not even win a championship nor a record breaking one to boot. If they were on almost any other team they would get the respect they deserve it is a shame that they don't get it from the Jets.
its not about living in the past, its about honoring it. Your missing the point. Its one thing to tip your cap every now and then to the one team that gives this franchise any fraction of credibility , but to neglect them altogether is wrong and classless.
I have been a Jet fan my whole life and for these guys to think they have been neglected is pathetic. Don't compare Woody to the Mara's. They have owned the team since 1920! They are just sticking their hands out for some more money. As a Jet fan, It's sad that this is our only Championship team and really don't want to be reminded every day. It was 40 YEARS AGO! Woody is the 3rd owner of this team and has spent more tham any other. Tell them go yell at Leon's grave.
martin and chrebet were the most recent jets, we couldnt just let them leave w/out saying goodbye the proper way, let me also say AGAIN, i respect that 68 team, and if the jets wanted to do something for them every year, i wouldnt have a problem w/that, also, martin does hold a record, the most consecitive seasons w/at least 1,000 yards, tied 1st all time w/barry sanders, also, the new stadium already has designs for a jets hall of fame, and a wall honoring past jet greats, so be patienced ex jets your history will be honored
What the f**k do you want the Jets to do..march thease old bastards out every week and wave to the fans..have them in for pre game pep speeches..Namath shows up a couple times a year and is treated like God..move on
You guys really need a reason to bitch dont you, they wont 40 years ago, what do you want them to do, throw a party for them every year? First you guys say Woody sucks he doesnt spend any money in FA, so he spends a boatload to make this team better and you guys bitch because he's not "honoring" them enough, what do you want them to do? The point about how if you were a casual fan you would be jumping ship is ridiculous. If you were a casual fan you wouldnt have even read the danm article. Its the offseason, the casual fan is watching baseball or basketball.
hmy: those players got the respect that they deserved the old fahioned way - THEY EARNED IT! they did almost all their talking ON the field. last time i checked, they are the ONLY jets team with rings and a lombardi trophy......:beer::jets:
Nobody said they should be celebrated every week, I was not looking for something to complain about, I do not bitch but those guys should be honored in some way. I am glad they will have something to feature the past greats in the new building, I hope Madison Square Garden gets that right some day too.
The Jets won probably the most storied Super Bowl in the history of the league, and most of the players on that team haven't even met the current team owner who is cashing in on the fans who were inspired enough by that team to stick with the Green and White through almost forty years of failure. That's pathetic.
Agreed and I would say, THE most storied Super Bowl in the history of the league. Broadway Joe opened the door to athletes becoming superstars, every player in every sport owes him some respect, IMO.
That's exactly what I got out of that article... Let's face it, most Jet fans over the age of say, 18-20 years old were either inspired personally by Broadway Joe and the SBIII Champs and became Jet fans, or became Jet fans because of an older relative Jet fan, who was inspired by Broadway Joe and the SBIII Champs.... This isn't a case of, "We won a championship, so we need to be respected" This is a case of a team that one arguably the most influential championship in league history, and singlehandedly formed a fan base that today is one of the most loyal in the league.... Every member of that team deserves to be recognized by the ballclub as often as possible, because without them- why on Earth would any New Yorker have become a Jet fan?
Not quite. The record they share is for most consecutive 1000 yard seasons at the start of a career (10). Emmitt Smith holds the record for most consecutive 1000 yard seasons (11).
your missing the point. ever achieve greatness only to never get the congratulations you deserved? Thats what's going on here. When its the only shining light in a dark losing franchise, wouldn't you want to say thank you to those who are the only reason why you can be proud to be a Jet Fan. They only achieved the most impossible SB victory ever, and yet its forgotten by not only the ownership, but the NFL. And the pompous controversial QB guaranteed the win, and everyone laughed at him. So fuck everyone who thinks that the past is the past, when this is the only reason why you can smile when wearing a Jet logo.
