New York Jets can't seem to catch a break

Mike Burrows, Denver Post:

Carl McAdams was feeling pretty good for a guy who has had seven surgeries on his left ankle. Then the truth came out, and the truth has been known to hurt.

"The real story of how I got hurt," McAdams said. Now it can be told, with McAdams' permission. That ankle the former Oklahoma star broke the summer of 1966? The injury the Jets thought was an accident all these years?

Yes, it involved a misstep off a curb. But the fight McAdams had with a member of the Chicago Bears played a bigger role. "A little street brawl outside a bar," said McAdams, who grudgingly came clean. "I did fall off the curb, but I had help. I can still feel the embarrassment."

In the AFL/NFL bidding wars of the 1960's, New York would not be outspent by the notoriously cheap St. Louis Cardinals' owner, Bill Bidwill. The Jets would not disappoint McAdams with his first contract, signing him for $300,000, the most ever given to a lineman at the time.

"It just boiled down to money, and at that time I got more acquainted with the Jets people than I had with the St. Louis Cardinals at that time," McAdams said.

The All-American LB from the University of Oklahoma was in Chicago for the college all-star game against the Green Bay Packers. The game was not as close as the 38-0 score would indicate. The Packers crushed the college squad, avenging a 20-17 loss from 1963. In that contest, Running back Paul Hornung had been suspended for the 1963 season for gambling, and the Packers played disinterested.

"I can't even remember what the fight was about. It was so long ago," said McAdams, who retired after the 1969 season. "But I do remember having words with a Bear, and the two of us taking it outside. I never played my rookie season, and I never was the same player. "I'm still disgusted with myself. The story the Jets put out, that I was accidentally injured stepping off a curb, was done off what I told them.

The white lie by the New York Jets in 1966 to coverup the injury to rookie LB Carl McAdams is just one of many missteps made in team history.

1. 2012 Butt fumble by QB Mark Sanchez against New England Patriots
2. 1994 Dolphins QB Dan Marino's fake spike in 28-24 loss
3. 2000 Bill Belichick's stunning resignation at press conference
4. 1995 Mandatory practice on Thanksgiving Day by owner Leon Hess -
“Let’s go out with dignity and show ’em we’re not horses’ asses.’’ - Season record 3-13
5. 1994 Leon Hess at press conference - “I’m 80 years old and want results now.’’
Hess hires Rich Kotite and fires Pete Carroll. - Season record 3-13.
6. 1996 Jets 1-15 season rated as worst team ever in New York sports history.
7. 1995 Jets' K Nick Lowery slapping Patriots' ballboy over cold footballs.
8. 1990 Jets' head coach Bruce Coslet refused to attend press conference. Coslet claimed he didn’t have time to walk downstairs because he was working a short week after a 30-7 Monday night loss to the Bills.
9. 1990 Jets' head coach Bruce Coslet off the record rant on QB Ken O' Brien. “You know my quarterback sucks, I know my quarterback sucks, everyone knows my quarterback sucks.’’
10. 1986 Roughing the passer call on DE Marc Gastineau in double OT loss to Browns, 23-20.

The one bright spot in the New York Jets history would be the memorable win in Super Bowl III over the Baltimore Colts, 16-7. There have been many accusations that the game was fixed, and that Colts owner Carroll Rosenbloom bet against his own club. There is the conspiracy theory that the NFL “needed” the high-profile, glamorous New York team to be champions in order to solidify the merger of the rival leagues.

Palash Ghosh, IBTimes:

Baltimore Colts DE Bubba Smith claimed for much of his adult life that the 1969 Super Bowl between his Baltimore Colts and the New York Jets was “fixed.”

Reportedly, Smith’s credibility was given a boost by some questionable decisions by Colts quarterback Earl Morall and coach Don Shula in the game. After a spectacular MVP season in 1968, Morall performed poorly in the Super Bowl – among other things, he threw three interceptions.

In one particularly controversial play, in the second quarter Morall failed to see receiver Jimmy Orr who was wide open in the end zone and instead threw a short pass down the middle which was picked off by a Jet defender.

New York Times:

A county supervisor today asked the Justice Department to investigate charges that Carroll Rosenbloom, then the owner of the Los Angeles Rams, may have been murdered in 1979 in Florida and did not accidentally drown.

Supervisor Kenneth Hahn also asked Attorney General William French Smith to look into implications that organized crime figures had fixed a dozen National Football League games between 1968 and 1970.

Mr. Rosenbloom's body was cremated in Hollywood, Fla., two days after the April 2, 1979 drowning, and the case was never reopened.

Even when the New York Jets win, nobody will believe it.


Paul Murphy is a freelance writer from New Hampshire. .

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