Small morsels for Jet fans, but what the heck

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Jets legends Joe Klecko, Darrelle Revis headed into Hall of Fame

It was announced on Thursday that Jets legends Darrelle Revis and Joe Klecko were elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

nypost.com

Jets legends Joe Klecko, Darrelle Revis headed into Hall of Fame​

By Brian Costello

PHOENIX — It was a Hall of a night for the Jets.

Gang Green legends Darrelle Revis and Joe Klecko were both announced Thursday as members of the 2023 class for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. They will be enshrined in August in Canton, Ohio.

The announcement capped a historic night for the Jets, in which current players Sauce Gardner and Garrett Wilson won Defensive and Offensive Rookie of the Year, respectively, at the NFL Honors program.

“Tonight, the Jets organization, we actually stole the show,” Revis said.

Revis and Klecko are part of a class that includes six-time All-Pro offensive lineman Joe Thomas; linebackers DeMarcus Ware and Zach Thomas; cornerback Ronde Barber; senior candidates Chuck Howley and Ken Riley; and coaching candidate Don Coryell. Bills safety Damar Hamlin also gave an emotional speech, recognizing the first responders and doctors that helped save his life on Jan. 2. and the ensuing days after.

Revis, 37, was elected in his first year on the ballot. He was a seven-time Pro Bowler and a four-time first-team All-Pro selection during his career. He played eight seasons for the Jets over two stints. The Jets drafted him No. 14 overall in 2007 out of Pittsburgh. He quickly became a star and “Revis Island” was born with opposing quarterbacks afraid to throw his way.

When Rex Ryan was hired as head coach in 2009, Revis became the key piece of his Jets’ defense. Ryan put Revis on the opponent’s top receiver and then scheme up the other side of the field. Statistics do not tell the story of Revis’ dominance because there was so many games in which teams did not test him. He had 29 interceptions, 832 tackles and 139 passes defended in his career.

Ty Law, who hails from the same hometown as Revis — Aliquippa, Pa. — and has been a mentor to him, was the one who knocked on Revis’ door and informed him he had made the Hall of Fame.

“For me, it was just surreal,” Revis said. “I think in your mind a lot of thoughts play back, just all the hard work, the hours you put in, the highs, the lows, the failures, the successes, coming from the neighborhood that you come from, just really persevering through things. … It’s amazing, man. I never thought I would be a Hall of Famer. For me, it was about winning and trying to win championships, as many as I could.”

While Revis’ wait for his Hall call was short, Klecko had to have patience.

Klecko was selected as one of three senior candidates in August after failing to get voted in by the regular selection committee for years. Klecko, 69, played 11 seasons for the Jets and was a Pro Bowler at three different positions — defensive end, tackle, and nose tackle. There are now 371 Hall of Famers out of more than 30,000 men who played football.

It’s unfathomable,” Klecko said. “It’s very hard to put in perspective. You know one thing — it’s less than one percent and that means it’s awesome. Just to be involved in that group of people is pretty damn good.”

Klecko was a two-time All-Pro selection and he led the NFL with 20.5 sacks in 1981, before the stat was recognized by the NFL. Klecko was a member of the famed “Sack Exchange” defensive line, with Mark Gastineau, Marty Lyons and Abdul Salaam. Klecko’s 78 career sacks are second in Jets history behind Gastineau (107.5). Klecko finished second in voting for the AP Defensive Player of the Year award in 1981 to the Giants’ Lawrence Taylor.

Joe Namath was the one who came to Klecko’s house and informed him that he had made the Hall of Fame. Klecko said after waiting three decades for the honor, he was still processing it.

“It was fulfilling as you can get, very emotional from the standpoint from the awakening, I guess you could say,” Klecko said. “But I don’t think it’s hit me yet as far as a total acceptance.”

 

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Next to Joe Namath Klecko was my all time favorite Jet. A man's man. You don't get tougher than Klecko.

Nice to have the offensive and defensive ROY as well.

Now, just get a QB (easier said than done) and the Jets could be one of the best teams in the NFL.

 

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Joe Klecko’s long-awaited Hall of Fame nod is for the Jets’ fans, too​

By Steve Serby

PHOENIX — He was the baby-faced truck driver who sparred once with Joe Frazier and 34 long years after he retired, Joe Klecko finally sacked injustice.

Joe Klecko is finally where he belongs.

In the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

“It’s us. It’s all about us,” Klecko told The Post. “I was all for the fans, you know that. And I always wanted to win for the fans. I always stayed after for ‘em. And I want them to enjoy it along with me because of the loyalty of Jets fans. They stuck with us through thick and thin, and I appreciate them.

“And I want them to be able to understand that along with being Joe Klecko in the Hall of Fame, that it is also Joe Klecko of the New York Jets in the Hall of Fame. And Jet fans are included in that. I just want them to know that the accolades that come for me for what I’ve done, all because of really great fans. I’m still remembered how many years later in the lore of the New York area? And it’s only for one reason, because the fans made me popular. They made my life a lot easier by rooting for me. So I just want them to enjoy it with me as a member of almost my distant family, if you will. I really appreciate the fans.”

A 6-foot-3, 265-pound rolling ball of butcher knives, he was the most feared and fearsome member of the New York Sack Exchange, a compact game-wrecking machine whose ability to play three positions on the defensive line seemed to be more of a curse than a blessing to misguided Hall voters. Joe Klecko had every right to his own bust in Canton five years after he stopped terrorizing anyone in his path. He is the only man to be voted to the Pro Bowl at three different positions (DT, DE, NT), for crying out loud.

A feared member of the NEw York Sack Exchange, Joe Klecko was a Pro Bowler at three different positions.
AP Photo/NFL Photos

“Hate quarterbacks,” Klecko told Sports Illustrated in 1979. “Well, no. I mean, I don’t hate them as people. They’re probably nice guys who brush their teeth and call Mom once a week. I hate what quarterbacks stand for. They stand between me and success.”

They couldn’t stand sturdily when he was the Jets’ Smokin’ Joe, No. 73. He was a force against both the run and the pass — 20.5 sacks in 1981 and 78 for his 12-year career. Not bad for a sixth-round pick out of Temple. He missed the rest of the 1982 season after rupturing his patellar tendon in the opener and the final six games of the 1986 season (knee) and first seven games in 1987 (knee).

I asked him what physical traits he possessed that made him who he was. “I had two — I was quick and I was strong,” Klecko said. “I was stronger than anybody I played against, just about. I don’t think I ever faced somebody that was stronger than me.”

Klecko — with Mark Gastineau, Marty Lyons and Abdul Salaam — led a Jets revival under coach Walt Michaels. The infamous Mud Bowl defeat in Miami kept him from his greatest chance to play in the Super Bowl.




“When we became the Sack Exchange is when the Jets really started winning,” Klecko said. “Nobody was used to being adored like that. Fans just really went wild for us, and when we would make sacks, it was crazy, they’d almost bring the house down.”

He retired at 35 after one unfulfilling season with the Colts.

“When I came in the league, and even four or five years ago, I remember playing against centers who were 250 or 260 pounds,” he said at the time. “This year, I played against nine guys that were 290 pounds. It’s time for the little guys to move aside.”

Colts owner Jim Irsay was the club’s GM at the time.

“I’m not sure this should be a retirement as much as it should be an ascension to the Hall of Fame,” he said that day.

The ascension never came, and it was shameful. Until Thursday night. When we learned that 69-year-old Joe Klecko was one of three Seniors finalists — Ken Riley and Chuck Howley were the others — and received at least 80 percent approval in the balloting.

“I don’t know who said this,” Klecko said. “I’m stealing it. You do leave football. You retire. Football never leaves you. And now to have that, sitting on my mantel, ’til the day I die, it’s better than all the other accolades you get, Hall of Fame. When you go there and look at all them busts in Canton, yours is there among ’em.”

In high school, Klecko drove dump trucks, and later huge tractor-trailer rigs.

Roadway Joe. Better late than never.