30 YEARS AGO, WHEN THE JETS AND DOLPHINS SET RECORDS AND RUINED PENCILS
By Rich Cimini
"Oh, Jeez, 30 years already?"
The voice on the other end of the phone belonged to Wesley Walker, who scored a walk-off touchdown in the wildest game in New York Jets history. On Sept. 21, 1986, before pass-oriented offenses and fantasy football were the rage, the Jets and Miami Dolphins defied the era with a futuristic display of offense.
It was Jets 51, Dolphins 45, in overtime. Ken O'Brien and Dan Marino passed for a combined 884 yards, an NFL record that stood until 2011. The teams racked up 1,066 total yards between them, still a single-game record for a Jets game. It was such a back-and-forth contest -- we're talking 13 touchdowns -- that Fred Smith, a member of the Jets' stats crew, went through four pencils instead of the usual two.
Yes, kids, there was a time when we survived without computers.
"It was like a track meet," Walker recalled. "It was Marino, (Mark) Duper, me, Kenny, Al Toon -- and we were all on a buzz."
Jets Nation was aglow last Thursday night when the team scored four touchdowns, 37 points, and generated 493 total yards to defeat the Buffalo Bills, but that was a mere bottle rocket compared to the full fireworks display from 30 years ago. The '86 gang also scored four touchdowns.
In the second quarter.
Football has evolved over the decades into a wide-open sport, dominated by high-scoring offenses, which made the 51-45 game a marvel. At the time, it was the third highest-scoring game since the 1970 merger, according to ESPN Stats & Information. Since then, it has been passed by four other games, but the mere fact that it still ranks among the seven highest-scoring games in history is crazy.
Only two future Hall of Famers played in the game -- Marino and his center, Dwight Stephenson -- but so many played at a Hall-of-Fame level, none more than Walker. He scored on the final play of regulation, a 21-yard catch with no time on the clock, and again in overtime, hauling in a 43-yard strike from O'Brien. The Jets' young quarterback was magnificent, throwing for a career-high 479 yards and four touchdowns. Walker finished with six receptions for 194 yards and four touchdowns -- the game of his life.
And he almost didn't play.
Walker was nagged by a groin injury and he was "pissed" because coach Joe Walton wasn't featuring him in the offense. He was so frustrated that he almost bailed out before the game. He learned a life lesson, and he has shared it many times over the years while speaking to students in the New York area, where he lives.
"I always tell the kids, 'Never, never, never give up, because I almost did and it would've cost me the best day of my career,'" said Walker, 61, who enjoyed a terrific career despite being legally blind in one eye.
A funny postscript: Walker almost wasn't in the game on the final play in regulation. Noticing Walker wasn't included in the personnel package, O'Brien barked, "Wes, get in there right now!'" And so he did. Walker hasn't forgotten. Whenever he's asked to pick the best quarterback of that era -- a question that comes up constantly -- he always picks O'Brien over Marino, John Elway, et al. That's called loyalty.
It was a memorable game for so many, including the five-man stats crew. In those days, they recorded everything manually, using pencils, erasers and pocket calculators. The play-by-play was typed on a Smith-Corona typewriter. There was correction tape and a spare ribbon, just in case. And, of course, there was a pair of binoculars.
Smith, who hasn't missed a home game since 1980, was in charge of tabulating the passing and receiving stats, meaning he was on the hot seat that day.
"It was frenetic," said Smith, recalling that he double- and tripled-checked his numbers as the game progressed.
The hunger for stats is greater than ever, especially with the growth of fantasy football, but modern technology has turned it into a key-punching industry. On Sept. 21, 1986, it was all about five people, their pencils, a portable typewriter and two teams that challenged their number-crunching skills.
"When the extraordinary game was over," Smith said, "I believe I heard some cheering in the press box -- and it wasn't only coming from the stats crew."
By Rich Cimini
"Oh, Jeez, 30 years already?"
The voice on the other end of the phone belonged to Wesley Walker, who scored a walk-off touchdown in the wildest game in New York Jets history. On Sept. 21, 1986, before pass-oriented offenses and fantasy football were the rage, the Jets and Miami Dolphins defied the era with a futuristic display of offense.
It was Jets 51, Dolphins 45, in overtime. Ken O'Brien and Dan Marino passed for a combined 884 yards, an NFL record that stood until 2011. The teams racked up 1,066 total yards between them, still a single-game record for a Jets game. It was such a back-and-forth contest -- we're talking 13 touchdowns -- that Fred Smith, a member of the Jets' stats crew, went through four pencils instead of the usual two.
Yes, kids, there was a time when we survived without computers.
"It was like a track meet," Walker recalled. "It was Marino, (Mark) Duper, me, Kenny, Al Toon -- and we were all on a buzz."
Jets Nation was aglow last Thursday night when the team scored four touchdowns, 37 points, and generated 493 total yards to defeat the Buffalo Bills, but that was a mere bottle rocket compared to the full fireworks display from 30 years ago. The '86 gang also scored four touchdowns.
In the second quarter.
Football has evolved over the decades into a wide-open sport, dominated by high-scoring offenses, which made the 51-45 game a marvel. At the time, it was the third highest-scoring game since the 1970 merger, according to ESPN Stats & Information. Since then, it has been passed by four other games, but the mere fact that it still ranks among the seven highest-scoring games in history is crazy.
Only two future Hall of Famers played in the game -- Marino and his center, Dwight Stephenson -- but so many played at a Hall-of-Fame level, none more than Walker. He scored on the final play of regulation, a 21-yard catch with no time on the clock, and again in overtime, hauling in a 43-yard strike from O'Brien. The Jets' young quarterback was magnificent, throwing for a career-high 479 yards and four touchdowns. Walker finished with six receptions for 194 yards and four touchdowns -- the game of his life.
And he almost didn't play.
Walker was nagged by a groin injury and he was "pissed" because coach Joe Walton wasn't featuring him in the offense. He was so frustrated that he almost bailed out before the game. He learned a life lesson, and he has shared it many times over the years while speaking to students in the New York area, where he lives.
"I always tell the kids, 'Never, never, never give up, because I almost did and it would've cost me the best day of my career,'" said Walker, 61, who enjoyed a terrific career despite being legally blind in one eye.
A funny postscript: Walker almost wasn't in the game on the final play in regulation. Noticing Walker wasn't included in the personnel package, O'Brien barked, "Wes, get in there right now!'" And so he did. Walker hasn't forgotten. Whenever he's asked to pick the best quarterback of that era -- a question that comes up constantly -- he always picks O'Brien over Marino, John Elway, et al. That's called loyalty.
It was a memorable game for so many, including the five-man stats crew. In those days, they recorded everything manually, using pencils, erasers and pocket calculators. The play-by-play was typed on a Smith-Corona typewriter. There was correction tape and a spare ribbon, just in case. And, of course, there was a pair of binoculars.
Smith, who hasn't missed a home game since 1980, was in charge of tabulating the passing and receiving stats, meaning he was on the hot seat that day.
"It was frenetic," said Smith, recalling that he double- and tripled-checked his numbers as the game progressed.
The hunger for stats is greater than ever, especially with the growth of fantasy football, but modern technology has turned it into a key-punching industry. On Sept. 21, 1986, it was all about five people, their pencils, a portable typewriter and two teams that challenged their number-crunching skills.
"When the extraordinary game was over," Smith said, "I believe I heard some cheering in the press box -- and it wasn't only coming from the stats crew."
