Countdown to Camp: 68
As we look ahead to training camp in late July, we're going to take a daily retrospective look back at some random people, moments and games from Jets history...
The Current 68
Kelvin Beachum had a solid first year with the Jets, bouncing back from a rocky season with the Jaguars as he was coming off a serious injury. Hopefully he can go from strength to strength in his second season. He's still under contract for 2019 too, unless he makes the pro bowl this year.
The Greatest
Kevin Mawae is one of the most successful Jets of all time, spending eight of his 16 years in the NFL with the team and earning five of his seven all-pro seasons and six of his eight pro bowl appearances while he was a Jet. Here he is leading the way for Curtis Martin:
The other 68's
Reggie McElroy, Matt Slauson, Breno Giacomini...
The '68 season
This was the year the Jets won it all with a stunning 16-7 upset over the Colts in Super Bowl III. MVP Joe Namath passed for over 200 yards leading the Jets to the win he had guaranteed a few days beforehand. On defense, the Jets intercepted four passes, including two by Randy Beverly. Matt Snell rushed for over 100 yards and the Jets' only touchdown, while George Sauer caught eight passes for 133 yards.
Often overlooked is the 27-23 AFL title game win over the Raiders, where Namath's three touchdown passes included the winning score to Don Maynard in the fourth quarter.
In the season itself, the Jets went 11-3 behind all-pros Namath, Sauer, Dave Herman and Gerry Philbin. Maynard, Jim Turner, Emerson Boozer and linebacker Al Atkinson were AFL all-stars too as the Jets responded from a shaky 3-2 start to win 10 of their last 11 games.
68 to the house
Here is extremely rare footage of Jeremy Kerley not only returning a punt but running it all the way back for a touchdown:
A shout-out to 68
Also it would be remiss of us not to give a shout-out to one of our favorite JetsFixers, TSJC68. His ability to bounce back from 0-for-18 performances in the draft picks contest and overcome a lack of knowledge of certain types of history are unparalleled on this site. Aaaaand scene...
Let us know if there's any connections to 68 that we missed...