Coaching follies: for most of the time the Jets have been in pro football, their sideline has been more like a circus

Football Digest, Oct, 2002 by Barry Wilner

IF YOU THOUGHT BILL BELICHICK'S abrupt resignation as head coach of the New York Jets was strange, consider that Rich Kotite didn't quit and wasn't fired yet was not on the sideline for the final game of the 1996 season.

If you thought Bill Parcells could be tyrannical, consider that Bruce Coslet once conducted a conference call with the media from his office ... while the reporters were gathered in the press room downstairs, perhaps 100 yards away.

Maybe Al Groh's announcement--on New Year's Eve, of all times--that he was going back to the college game after just one season on the Jets was memorable. But it wasn't as memorable as Lou Holtz cutting out after less than a year at the helm, admitting he couldn't handle the big time or the Big Town.

All of this--and more--adds up to one conclusion: Few teams have as checkered a coaching history as the Jets do.

Only Parcells (30-20), Groh (9-7), and current coach Herman Edwards (10-6) have winning records. That fact that they are the three most recent coaches shows what a turn this franchise has taken.

Before those three winners, the Jets were mired in decades of disappointing numbers. Yes, even Weeb Ewbank, the first man to coach an NFL champion (the Baltimore Colts) and an AFL champ that won the Super Bowl (the Jets in 1968), had a losing record, 73-78-6.

When the Jets began their life, in the AFL as the New York Titans in 1960, their coach was football legend Sammy Baugh. The team played in the Polo Grounds, which the New York (baseball) Giants had abandoned in 1958 for San Francisco. Baugh immediately went after one player to spark his team: receiver Don Maynard.

"When the AFL was founded, I was the first player signed by the Titans," Maynard says. "I remember Sammy saying, `I know who I want to sign. He beat me three years in college.' I was excited to play for Sammy because I knew he wanted to throw the ball."

In the old AFL, everybody threw the ball. And even though Baugh was an alltime great quarterback, he was mediocre as a coach. His teams went just 14-14 over two years. Baugh was succeeded by another Hall-of-Famer, Clyde "Bulldog" Turner, who lasted one season and went 5-9.

When the Titans became the Jets in 1963, Ewbank took command of the sideline. The next year, they moved into Shea Stadium, but the New York Mets' lease prohibited the AFL from scheduling Jets games in the stadium without the baseball team's approval. For many years, even after Ewbank left, the Jets would open seasons with three or four road games, which hardly was conducive to coaching success.

Despite Ewbank's previous track record, he did not have a winning record on the Jets until 1967. The next year--led by Joe Namath, Maynard, Matt Snell, an excellent offensive line, and a staunch defense--the Jets finally made the playoffs. And went all the way. While not exactly easygoing, Ewbank was the perfect coach for the outlandish styles of Namath and Maynard. He understood the importance of giving his stars some freedom.

"On Saturdays, he'd let you bring your kids to the workouts," Maynard recalls. "He also let you bring your friends to the dressing room after the game. I remember I brought Charlie Pride and Willie Nelson in."

Ewbank quit after the 1973 season, appropriately--for this franchise, anyway--working his last game the day O.J. Simpson reached the 2,000-yard plateau on the frozen turf at Shea Stadium.

After that, things began getting dicey on the team's sideline. Ewbank's son-in-law, Charley Winner, replaced him, and screams of nepotism accompanied Winner's losing record (9-14) before he was canned nine games into the '75 season.

The Jets turned to the college ranks for Holtz in 1976. As evidenced by the fact that he wrote a right song he expected the veterans to sing before practices and games, Holtz treated his professional charges like schoolboys. He also couldn't handle the spotlight in the big city and high-tailed it back to college after going 3-10. "I just wish I'd have been better prepared and more mature at the time," Holtz says. "I made some mistakes."

Of course he did. He was coaching the Jets.

Next up was Walt Michaels, who, despite going 41-49-1, did get the Jets into the postseason twice, including the AFC title game in 1982. But those playoff berths brought more of the same strangeness. During the playoffs in '82, Michaels claimed Raiders owner Al Davis had bugged the locker room at the Los Angeles Coliseum.

"I know you're listening, Al," Michaels shouted at the perceived hidden microphone. "I know you're up there." Michaels also accused Davis of calling the Jets' locker room at halftime of a playoff game in an attempt to distract the coach.

Michaels was fired after a loss to the Miami Dolphins in the AFC Championship Game in '82 and was replaced by Joe Walton. The Jets reached the playoffs in 1985 and again in '86, when they probably had the best team in the NFL but were felled by a series of injuries. Walton's relationship with his players deteriorated during the 1987 strike, even though he lasted until 1989.