“The History of the New York Jets: From Sensational Super Bowl Victory to Heidi Game Infamy”

Today it’s about a team that even non-football fans should know because of a courier driver from a great comedy series. This team once caused the biggest sensation in NFL history, but otherwise also had many difficult years to survive. In addition, this team involuntarily caused one of the biggest TV excitement in history.

Here’s the story of the New York Jets!

The history of the Jets begins on August 14, 1959. The founding meeting of the AFL takes place and broadcaster Harry Wismer is also a guest. He is supposed to represent the city of New York and then explains that the city of New York is ready for a second football team. The team will be called the Titans, and will later be called the Titans of New York. The reasoning is curious: Wismer clarifies that the name is used because Titans are bigger than Giants. I can already imagine how every woman reading this will think, men and sizes..

The Titans then enter the game in 1960. Sammy Baugh becomes first HC. The first two years each ended with seven wins and seven losses. Baugh will be replaced by Chicago Bears legend Bulldog Turner. However, he manages only five wins in 14 games. The Titans aren’t doing very well financially either. Even the end of the team is definitely under discussion. This is prevented by Sonny Werblin. Together with four partners, he buys the team for one million dollars. As the stadium is close to an airport, the name will be changed to Jets. A new head coach will also be installed. Weeb Ewbank is supposed to bring the team forward. In the first few years, this only succeeds very moderately, in the first three years there are always five wins, eight losses and one draw. In 1966 they managed 6, in 1967 8 victories.

In 1968 something strange happened: in the game on November 17, 1968 against the Oakland Raiders, the Jets led 32 to 29 shortly before the end. The broadcasting station NBC then simply stopped the transmission shortly before the end and showed the family film Heidi. The Raiders are still shooting the game, but nobody who isn’t in the stadium sees anything of it. This led to football games in the USA having to be shown to the end. The game went down in history as the so-called Heidi Game. The Jets and Raiders would meet again, however, in the AFL Championship Game. This time the Gang Green prevails. It’s actually clear that the Jets can’t do any more. Because in Super Bowl 3 the opponent is called the Baltimore Colts. This is the absolute uber team at the time, and besides, AFL and NFL teams are not considered equal. Maybe you can put it this way, that at that time the NFL teams considered the AFL to be a kind of second division.

But there is one man who actually believes in victory. Quarterback Joe Namath. Picked number one in the draft in 1965, he easily says: We will win. Guaranteed.

And he will be right. Because the Jets manage a 16:7 victory and provide perhaps the biggest sensation in football history. Nemeth becomes MVP and SBMVP. Curiously, despite being one of the sport’s greatest legends, he will only make one Pro Bowl appearance in his career (1972). Other heroes of this period include OT Winston Hill (4 times Pro Bowl),WR Don Maynard (4 times AFL All Star).

A year later, Namath becomes MVP today, but loses to the Kansas City Chiefs in the playoffs. After four years without a playoff, Weeb Ewbank’s time ended in 1973 after 10 years. Charley Winner is his successor, but can only win seven games. From 1975 to 1977 only three victories were achieved per season. Things got better under Walt Michaels from 1978 onwards. Michaels leads the team to the playoffs in 1981 but loses to Buffalo. A year later, the team even made it into the AFC Championship Game, but lost 14-0 to the Miami Dolphins. Michaels is then fired. The biggest star at this time is DE Mark Gastineau. He makes the Pro Bowl five straight years and becomes the first player in history to win the sack statistic in two straight years.