Gang Green: An Irreverent Look Behind the Scenes at Thirty-Eight (Well, Thirty-Seven) Seasons of New York Jets Football Futility

1. Which was the first American Football League (AFL) franchise to win a Super Bowl?
2. What is the only team since the 1970 NFL and AFL merger never to win a divisional crown?

The Jets saga is certainly a surreal one. "The Jets I came to write about," Eskenazi observes, "were like life as Kafka or George Carlin might have pictured it--only more so. They led an existence based in the everyday reality so many of us faced, one of small victories offset by large losses." Dubbing them the most famous bad franchise in sports, he makes a fumblerooski of a case. Other than the 1969 Super Bowl miracle engineered by Joe Namath, the Jets have been constantly sacked for losses. They are the only professional sports team without a single coach who can boast a career-winning record as a Jet. They played in the first game ever suspended due to lightening. The longest play in their history--a 90-yard run from scrimmage--failed to produce a touchdown. Their starting quarterback broke his toe--watching TV. Their star linebacker fell for Sly Stallone's wife. And they're the only pro football team to play its home games in a stadium bearing the name of the other team in town.

Of course, the Jets' losing ways could end with the hand-off of the helm to Bill Parcells, a coach Eskenazi intriguingly characterizes as more obsessed with not failing than just winning. Then again, management--just in time for the 1998 season--did decide to bring the old uniforms back. Yes, the Jets won Super Bowl III in them. But they found ways to lose big in them, too. --Jeff Silverman

Product Description

Question: What is the only team dating back to the 1970 AFL-NFL merger that has yet to win a division title?

Question: What is the only team in the four major pro sports that has existed since the early 1960s and never had a coach leave with a winning career record for the team?

Question: What is the only team in sports that plays its home games in a stadium named for another team?

If you bleed green and white, you know the answer to these questions as well as you know the color of Joe Willie Namath's shoes. The New York Jets have a record for futility and self-sabotage that is unmatched in the history of professional sports. And nonetheless, they have been rewarded with a loyal following that has made Jets tickets as hard to come by as Jets winning seasons.

For Jets fans, the bright beacon of promise has always turned into an onrushing train. They reveled in the joy of the Jets' epic victory in Super Bowl III, when their team beat the 18 1/2-point odds to defeat the Baltimore Colts, just as their cocky young quarterback had guaranteed; they then watched as contract squabbles broke up the core of the team, which would reach just one playoff game in the next twelve years. They cheered as their sleek, explosive team roared into the AFC Championship Game in January 1983; the team was held scoreless after overnight rains pelted the uncovered Orange Bowl field, turning the gridiron into a quagmire that favored the defense-oriented Dolphins. They dared to hope when the Jets went on an unprecedented spending spree in 1996, signing a Super Bowl quarterback and adding a host of fleet receivers and experienced linemen; they saw that team go 1-15, as Rich Kotite's Jets career coaching record sank to a jaw-dropping 4-28.

In Gang Green, New York Times sportswriter Gerald Eskenazi details the bizarre history of this remarkable team. From the poor decisions (drafting Ken O'Brien instead of Dan Marino) and bad luck (Joe Namath's knees, Dennis Byrd's near-tragic neck injury) to the horrendous leadership (see Kotite, above) and outright strangeness (team practices held in an open area alongside the Belt Parkway, leRoy Neiman's presence as team artist-in-residence, the Richard Todd/Matt Robinson quarterback duel that wasn't) that have typified the Jets' mystifying approach to football, Gang Green captures the history of this most unusual franchise in a funny, rollicking, nostalgic tale. If you can name the Jet who is the only man in NFL history to run more than 90 yards on a play from scrimmage without scoring; if you remember the glory days of the New York Sack Exchange, when practice was often disrupted by the distracting presence of Mark Gastineau's inamorata, Brigitte Nielsen; if you can still hum the fight song coach Lou Holtz made the team sing after victories -- not that there were enough for them to memorize the lyrics; or if you know which Jets coach told which Jets punter that his flatulence traveled farther than the punter's kicks -- then Gang Green is the book for you.

You'll enjoy the stories of the early years. Recounting the selling of season tickets from the apartment of one of the original owners, Walt Michaels finding a "good practice field" while flying home from a game (it was located on the grounds of a NYC prison), the press' examination of Joe Namath's knee in the restroom of a local restaurant and many others.

Those who were at that dreadful Miami comeback at the Meadowlands in 1994 will relive that sick feeling in the pit of their stomachs.

Parcells has come and gone and we still don't have another appearance in the Super Bowl. This book might expain why.

But we return each season with high hopes of reaching the big game. Reading Mr. Eskenazi's book will remind all of us of the pain we go through to have some fun on a sunny Sunday afternoon in the Meadowlands (NJ).


Now more than ever   October 19, 1999
2 out of 4 found this review helpful

Along came Bill Parcells and New York thought its troubles were over. Last year we were a half hour from the Superbowl and now we're in the cellar again. If you find yourself scratching your head and asking why. This book has the answers--the history of the Gang Green struggle and where we went wrong.


superb writing...and oh, the pain of being a Jet fan   December 5, 1998
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

Well written, exciting and very difficult to relive all the abysmal moments in Jets history. END