109 Fun Facts About New York Jets

Where did the Jets franchise play its first seasons, as the Titans of New York, before moving to Queens in 1964?

Polo Grounds: the Titans were a box-office disaster in the ageing Manhattan ballpark and went bankrupt within three seasons; a year after being sold and renamed, the team left for a new stadium.

Why were the New York Titans renamed the Jets in 1963?

Its stadium sat between two airports: the ballpark going up in Queens lay between New York's two biggest, the reason the team's own announcement gave; the name is also said to have appealed because it rhymed with Mets.

How much did Sonny Werblin's five-man syndicate pay for the bankrupt Titans of New York in 1963?

$1 million bought the whole bankrupt franchise; within weeks its new owners had renamed the team the Jets and dressed it in green and white.

Which Flushing ballpark did the Jets share with the Mets from 1964 to 1983?

Shea Stadium: the Mets' lease came first, so the Jets could not play at home until baseball was over; in 1969 they opened with five straight road games while the Mets went to the World Series.

Which New Jersey stadium became the Jets' home when it opened in 2010?

MetLife Stadium opened in 2010 as New Meadowlands Stadium, beside the old Giants Stadium, which was then demolished; the Jets share it with the Giants, as they had shared the old one.

The Jets' stadium staged the first Super Bowl held outdoors in what?

A cold-weather city: earlier Super Bowls in such cities had all been played under a roof, yet the feared freeze never came, with a mild 49 degrees at kickoff and snow arriving hours after the game.

Which team did the Jets beat in Super Bowl III?

Baltimore Colts. The 16-7 upset in January 1969 was the first Super Bowl won by an AFL team, proof that the younger league could compete shortly before the two merged.

Which backup quarterback led the losers' only touchdown drive in Super Bowl III?

Johnny Unitas. Hurt for most of that season, he replaced the struggling Earl Morrall with his team still scoreless, and his fourth-quarter drive came too late to stop the Jets' 16-7 upset.

Where did Joe Namath make his famous guarantee that the Jets would win Super Bowl III?

The Miami Touchdown Club. Namath was at its dinner three days before kickoff when a heckler needled him, and he shot back that the Jets would win, guaranteed.

Which Jets running back scored the team's only touchdown in Super Bowl III?

Matt Snell. He carried 30 times for 121 yards, while Joe Namath was named MVP without throwing a touchdown pass.

Through the 2025 season, the Jets and which other team had won the only Super Bowl they ever reached?

New Orleans Saints. In their lone trip, Super Bowl XLIV, they opened the second half with a surprise onside kick, recovered it and went on to win 31-17.

Joe Namath's record-breaking rookie contract in 1965 lured him to the Jets from which college?

Alabama. The NFL's Cardinals drafted Namath too, but he signed with the AFL's Jets the day after the Orange Bowl, the upstart league's biggest win in the bidding war.

Joe Namath's 4,007 passing yards in 1967 stood as the record until which quarterback topped it in 1979?

Dan Fouts. He threw for 4,082 yards with the Chargers, but he had a 16-game season to do it, while Namath set his mark in only 14.

Joe Namath modelled which women's product in a 1974 TV commercial?

Pantyhose. The Beautymist ad panned slowly up a pair of smooth legs before revealing that they belonged to the Jets' quarterback.

Joe Namath was born in which Pennsylvania steel town?

Beaver Falls. Several baseball teams tried to sign Namath out of high school there, the Cubs offering $50,000, but he chose college football instead.

In 1968, NBC cut away from a Jets-Raiders game with about a minute left to start which children's film on time?

Heidi. Oakland scored twice in the final minute to win 43-32 while the eastern half of the country watched the film, and later TV contracts required games to be shown to the end.

Don Maynard, the Titans' first signing, retired as pro football's all-time leader in what?

Receiving yards. Released by the Giants and back from a season in Canada, Maynard gained 11,834 of them, nearly all for the Titans and Jets, and retired with the record for catches too.

What nickname did the Jets' feared defensive line earn in the early 1980s?

Sack Exchange. The name is a pun on the New York Stock Exchange, and in 1981 the four linemen were invited there to ring the opening bell.

Which future Super Bowl-winning coach did the Jets fire after a single 6-10 season in 1994?

Pete Carroll. His Jets stood 6-5 until a fake-spike touchdown pass beat them, never won again that season, and he was gone after one year.

Whose 22 sacks in 1984 stood as the NFL record until 2001?

Mark Gastineau. That March the NFL had passed a rule against planned celebrations, aimed mainly at his sack dance, so he set the record without it.

Which Jets lineman made the Pro Bowl at three positions: defensive end, defensive tackle and nose tackle?

Joe Klecko. No one else has made the Pro Bowl at all three spots on the defensive line, yet he had to wait until 2023, more than 30 years after retiring, to enter the Hall of Fame.

Which team beat the Jets in the January 1983 AFC title game remembered as the Mud Bowl?

Miami Dolphins. Their field was left uncovered through days of storms, and in the mud Richard Todd threw five interceptions, three of them to the same linebacker.

Which head coach went 3-13 and then 1-15 with the Jets in 1995 and 1996?

Rich Kotite. He announced he was stepping down two days before the last game of 1996, and under Bill Parcells the same franchise reached the AFC title game two seasons later.

Which quarterback led the 1998 Jets to a 12-4 record and their first division title since the merger?

Vinny Testaverde. Released by the Ravens that summer, he opened 1998 as Glenn Foley's backup, then went 12-1 as the starter and threw 29 touchdown passes.

Which running back, brought from the Patriots by Parcells in 1998, became the Jets' top rusher?

Curtis Martin. Parcells pried him loose with a poison-pill offer sheet the Patriots declined to match, and the Jets gave up first- and third-round draft picks for him.

Which Jets lineman, paralysed in a 1992 collision, walked again within a year?

Dennis Byrd. He broke a vertebra in his neck that November, yet less than a year later he walked to midfield as honorary captain at the Jets' 1993 home opener.

Who quit as Jets head coach after one day in 2000, writing 'I resign as HC of the NYJ'?

Bill Belichick. He turned his own introductory press conference into a resignation, and the Patriots then had to give the Jets a first-round draft pick for the right to hire him.

Which Jets coach delivered the 2002 press-conference line 'You play to win the game!'?

Herm Edwards. He snapped it out the week a loss left his team 2-5, and the Jets went on to win seven of their last nine games and take the division.

Which undrafted Hofstra receiver made the Jets as a walk-on in 1995 and became their 'Mr. Third Down'?

Wayne Chrebet. He opened camp 11th of 11 on the receiver depth chart, and a security guard at the gate would not let him in on his first day.

Former Jets quarterback Chad Pennington was the first player to win which NFL award twice?

Comeback Player of the Year. Pennington won it in 2006, a year after two operations on his throwing shoulder, and again in 2008 with a division rival, months after the Jets released him.

What did the Packers receive when they traded Brett Favre to the Jets in August 2008?

A conditional fourth-round pick. That modest price bought a single season: the Jets started 8-3, lost four of their last five with Favre nursing a torn biceps tendon, and missed the playoffs.

Which quarterback did the Jets trade for in March 2012, then let throw only eight passes all season?

Tim Tebow. Denver had just signed Peyton Manning, so the quarterback who won it a playoff game two months earlier went to the Jets, who cut him after one season.

Which HBO series followed Rex Ryan's Jets through training camp in 2010?

Hard Knocks. Rex Ryan swore so freely on camera that former coach Tony Dungy criticised him publicly, and the two later met in person to settle their differences.

Which Jets cornerback, drafted 14th overall in 2007, had his side of the field nicknamed an 'Island'?

Darrelle Revis. The Jets traded him away in 2013, he won a Super Bowl with the rival Patriots the next year, and then he came straight back to the Jets.

Which Jets quarterback ran into his own lineman's backside and fumbled on Thanksgiving night in 2012?

Mark Sanchez. He slid into guard Brandon Moore, the Patriots ran the loose ball in, and it was one of three touchdowns they scored in 52 seconds on the way to a 49-19 win.

Which ESPN show's viewers voted the Butt Fumble 'Worst of the Worst' for 40 straight weeks?

SportsCenter. Its 'Not Top 10' reel pitted the play against each week's worst blooper for nearly ten months, until producers retired it in September 2013 to start fresh.

Which Jets superfan, leader of the J-E-T-S chant, walked out of the 2012 Thanksgiving loss and quit the role?

Fireman Ed. Ed Anzalone, a New York City firefighter, left at halftime and gave up the role, saying confrontations with other fans had become too common, then came back in 2015.

Which Hall of Fame running back played his final two NFL seasons with Rex Ryan's Jets in 2010 and 2011?

LaDainian Tomlinson. Released by San Diego after nine seasons, he ran for 914 yards in 2010 as the Jets fell one win short of the Super Bowl.

Which 2018 Jets third-overall pick was caught on a mic saying he was 'seeing ghosts' against the Patriots?

Sam Darnold. ESPN aired the remark during a 33-0 loss in 2019, and six seasons later he beat the same opponents in the Super Bowl as Seattle's quarterback.

Which Jets cornerback in 2022 became the first rookie at his position since Ronnie Lott named first-team All-Pro?

Sauce Gardner. He was Defensive Rookie of the Year too, yet in November 2025 the Jets traded him away in mid-season for a receiver and two first-round picks.

Which Jets receiver won 2022 Offensive Rookie of the Year with 83 catches for 1,103 yards?

Garrett Wilson. He set the Jets' rookie records for catches and yards even though three different quarterbacks started for them that season.

Aaron Rodgers tore his Achilles on which snap of his Jets debut on September 11, 2023?

Fourth. Leonard Floyd's sack ended Rodgers's season minutes into the game, yet the Jets still beat Buffalo in overtime on Xavier Gipson's 65-yard punt return.

After the Jets released him following the 2024 season, Aaron Rodgers signed with which team?

Pittsburgh Steelers. Rodgers kept the number 8 he had worn with the Jets and led his new team to the AFC North title in his first season there.

Who became Jets head coach in 2025, returning to the franchise where he once played cornerback?

Aaron Glenn. The Jets drafted him 12th overall in 1994 and he made two Pro Bowls with them, but his first season back as head coach ended 3-14.

The 2025 Jets made unwanted NFL history by becoming the first team to go a whole season without what?

An interception. Every team had managed at least one each season since the NFL began recording them in 1933, but all four of the Jets' takeaways in 2025 were fumble recoveries.

Who outbid Charles Dolan to buy the Jets for $635 million in 2000?

Woody Johnson. The Johnson & Johnson heir later left his brother Christopher to run the team for four seasons while he served as US ambassador to the United Kingdom.

In which New Jersey town have the Jets trained since 2008?

Florham Park. The Jets had played their home games in New Jersey since 1984 but kept training at Hofstra University on Long Island until this base opened.

Who gradually bought out his partners in the Jets to become the team's sole owner in 1984?

Leon Hess. The oil-company founder moved the Jets to New Jersey that same year, and his will directed that the team be sold after his death, which came in 1999.

Which center did the Jets draft from Ohio State in the 2006 first round?

Nick Mangold. The Jets spent both of their first-round picks on linemen to rebuild their blocking, and Mangold started all 16 games as a rookie in place of the released Kevin Mawae.

Rex Ryan's 2010 Jets won road playoff games at Indianapolis and where before losing the AFC title game?

New England. Six weeks after losing 45-3 on the same field, the Jets went back and beat the top-seeded Patriots 28-21.

In the 1983 draft, the Jets took Ken O'Brien while which future Hall of Fame quarterback was still available?

Dan Marino. He went three picks later to a division rival, so the Jets had to face the quarterback they passed over twice a year for 17 seasons.

What were the original colours of the Titans of New York?

Navy blue and gold. The syndicate that renamed the team in 1963 dropped both for kelly green and white, and the Jets brought the old colours back only as a throwback uniform in 2007.

Which businessman founded the Titans of New York, the AFL charter franchise that became the Jets?

Harry Wismer. A well-known sports broadcaster, he explained the name by saying that titans are bigger and stronger than giants, a dig at the city's NFL team.

Which Hall of Fame quarterback coached the Titans of New York to 7-7 in each of their first two seasons?

Sammy Baugh. He had coached against Don Maynard in college, so he made the Giants castoff the new franchise's first signing, and both men ended up in the Hall of Fame.

Which Jets linebacker's 2001 hit on Drew Bledsoe opened the door for Tom Brady's career?

Mo Lewis. His sideline tackle sheared a blood vessel in Bledsoe's chest, and the sixth-round backup who took over never gave the job back, winning six Super Bowls with the Patriots.

Which future Super Bowl MVP running back spent his first five seasons, 1971 to 1975, with the Jets?

John Riggins. He left as a free agent straight after running for 1,005 yards in 1975, when Washington offered him $1.5 million, far more than the Jets had paid.

Which college coaching great quit the Jets with one game left in 1976, his only NFL season?

Lou Holtz. He walked out at 3-10 with one game left to take the Arkansas job, and twelve years later he won a national title at Notre Dame.

Joe Namath briefly retired from football in 1969 rather than sell his share of which Manhattan nightclub?

Bachelors III. Commissioner Pete Rozelle ordered Namath to sell because gamblers drank there, and he quit football over it before giving in and selling weeks later.

The Jets' failed West Side stadium plan of 2005 was the centrepiece of New York's bid for which event?

The Summer Olympics. The stadium was voted down a month before the vote on the 2012 host, London won the Games, and the rail yards the Jets wanted became the Hudson Yards development.

Which team has shared a home stadium in New Jersey with the Jets since 1984?

New York Giants and Jets have been co-tenants ever since, and they became equal partners in 2010, each owning half of the stadium that replaced their first shared home.

The New York Jets have played in which division since the 1970 merger, winning it in 1998 and 2002?

AFC East has been the Jets' home since the two leagues merged, and it is a reunion of old sparring partners: all four of its teams came from the AFL's Eastern Division.

Which coach lost Super Bowl III to the Jets, then won back-to-back Super Bowls with another team in the 1970s?

Don Shula changed teams a year after the upset and went on to coach the only perfect season in league history, a 17-0 run in 1972.

Which running back became pro football's first 2,000-yard rusher in the 1973 season finale against the Jets?

O. J. Simpson gained 200 yards that afternoon to finish on 2,003, and he remains the only back to reach the mark in a 14-game season.

Which coach, hired by the New York Jets in 2021, became the first Muslim head coach in league history?

Robert Saleh, a Dearborn, Michigan native of Lebanese descent, arrived from San Francisco, where his defence had reached a Super Bowl; the Jets fired him five games into 2024.

The New York Jets' principal owner handed the team to his brother in 2017 to become US ambassador to which country?

United Kingdom was the posting, and he served in London until January 2021 before returning to take charge of the team again.

Which USC receiver did the New York Jets take with the first overall pick of the 1996 draft?

Keyshawn Johnson was the first receiver taken at the top of a draft since 1984, and when the Jets traded him four years later they got two first-round picks in return.

Which team hired Rex Ryan as head coach two weeks after the New York Jets fired him in December 2014?

Buffalo Bills fans got the brash coach on a five-year contract, which meant facing his old team twice a season; he lasted two years, the second with his twin brother Rob on the staff.

What nickname followed Bill Parcells, who took over as New York Jets head coach in 1997, throughout his career?

The Big Tuna dates from his days as an assistant, when he would ask players who tried to get away with something whether they took him for the gullible cartoon fish in a StarKist advert.

What name is given to the October 2000 game in which the New York Jets erased a 30-7 fourth-quarter deficit?

Monday Night Miracle is the name: the Jets scored 30 points in the final quarter, drew level on a touchdown catch by an offensive tackle, and won 40-37 in overtime.

Which stadium hosted the Jets' only championship win, the January 1969 upset of a team favoured by 18 points?

Orange Bowl seats were sold out for the game, yet local viewers could not watch it live: both leagues' blackout rules kept the telecast off screens in the host city.

Which 1968 league MVP threw three interceptions against the Jets as the losing starter in Super Bowl III?

Earl Morrall never saw a receiver standing alone in the end zone on a trick play just before half-time, and his third interception of the day kept the favourites scoreless.

Which Hall of Fame safety rejoined his old coordinator Rex Ryan at the Jets for the final weeks of his career?

Ed Reed signed in mid-November 2013 and made a late interception in each of the Jets' last two games, both wins, which helped his coach keep his job.

Which Jets head coach's complaint to the league in 2007 about illegal sideline filming set off the Spygate scandal?

Eric Mangini had coached for nine seasons under the very man he reported, having first caught his eye as a 23-year-old ball boy.

Jets fans at the 1995 draft chanted for which defensive tackle while the team instead took tight end Kyle Brady?

Warren Sapp slid three more places before Tampa Bay took him, and he went on to the Hall of Fame; the crowd booed the Jets' choice and his mother when they walked on stage.

What name did the New York Jets give the new team colour unveiled with their 2019 uniform redesign?

Gotham Green arrived alongside black trim and the first black alternate uniform in team history; when the Jets changed kit again in 2024 they kept the shade but renamed it.

Which Jets receiver, a three-time Pro Bowler from Wisconsin, retired in 1992 at age 29 after repeated concussions?

Al Toon had suffered nine concussions, five of them in his last six seasons, when a string of doctors told him not to risk another blow to the head.

Which receiver, legally blind in his left eye, spent his whole career with the Jets from 1977 to 1989?

Wesley Walker left the game second only to Don Maynard on the Jets' lists for catches, yards and touchdowns, then became an elementary school physical education teacher.

Which team gave the Jets two first-round picks for All-Pro safety Jamal Adams in July 2020?

Seattle Seahawks paid that price a month after he demanded a trade; he had hoped to join his hometown Dallas team, and a year later he became the league's highest-paid safety.

Which coach, fired by the Jets after the 2018 season, later won a Super Bowl ring as Tampa Bay's defensive coordinator?

Todd Bowles won ten games in his first Jets season and still missed the playoffs; a year after that title he was promoted to head coach in Tampa.

Which Jets running back, the 1982 rushing champion, later fronted the lawsuit that struck down restrictive free agency?

Freeman McNeil was the first Jet to lead the league in rushing, and as lead plaintiff from 1990 to 1992 he won a jury verdict against a system that let each club protect 37 players.

Which former college soccer star kicked for the Jets from 1974 to 1991 and retired as their all-time leading scorer?

Pat Leahy won three national soccer championships as a midfielder at Saint Louis University, then left pro football third on the league's career scoring list.

D'Brickashaw Ferguson, the Jets tackle who never missed a game, owes his first name to a priest in which 1977 novel?

The Thorn Birds features Father Ralph de Bricassart, who inspired the name; its bearer made 160 straight starts and played all but one of 10,708 offensive snaps in ten seasons.

Which receiver, acquired from Chicago in 2015, set Jets single-season records with 109 catches and 1,502 yards?

Brandon Marshall cost the Jets only a fifth-round draft choice, and his 14 touchdown catches that year tied a team mark shared by Art Powell and Don Maynard.

Which Jets tackle, a high school tennis champion, cleared the way for 121 rushing yards in Super Bowl III?

Winston Hill started 174 games in a row, yet the Hall of Fame did not elect him until 2020, four years after his death.

Which Jets kicker, a college quarterback at Utah State, scored ten of the team's 16 points in Super Bowl III?

Jim Turner kicked three field goals that day, capping a season in which his 34 field goals set a pro football record.

Which Hall of Fame center anchored the Jets' line from 1998 to 2005 and later led the players' union?

Kevin Mawae made six straight Pro Bowls as a Jet and served two terms as president of the players' association, from 2008 to 2012, finishing the second after he had retired.

Which 1976 sprint relay gold medallist did the Jets draft second overall after doctors warned them off Anthony Muñoz?

Lam Jones won his gold at 18 and took his nickname from his Texas hometown, Lampasas; the tackle the Jets passed over became a Hall of Famer in Cincinnati.

In which New Jersey town, home of the Meadowlands Sports Complex, do the New York Jets play their home games?

East Rutherford lies five miles west of New York City and has hosted the Jets since 1984, so the team has now spent longer across the Hudson than it ever did in its namesake city.

At which London stadium did the Jets win a 2015 division game, the first such match staged in the city?

Wembley hosted that 27-14 win; the Jets have been back to London since, and a 2024 defeat there to Minnesota cost their head coach his job two days later.

Which Jets linebacker was named the league's Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2004, four years before being traded away?

Jonathan Vilma, the twelfth pick of the 2004 draft, was dealt in February 2008 for draft choices and went on to win a Super Bowl with his new team.

Which Super Bowl XLIII MVP receiver did the Jets acquire for only a fifth-round draft pick in April 2010?

Santonio Holmes came cheap because the league had just suspended him for the first four games of the season for a substance abuse violation.

Which Jets defensive lineman, the 2013 Defensive Rookie of the Year, also ran for two touchdowns that season?

Sheldon Richardson, the 13th pick of that year's draft, won the award by 23 votes to 19, and his first score made him the first defensive lineman to run one in since 2011.

Which receiver, top pass catcher in Super Bowl III, quit football at his peak after 1970, calling it dehumanizing?

George Sauer caught eight passes for 133 yards in the upset while the defence shadowed a team-mate used as a decoy; after walking away he wrote a novel.

Which All-Pro running back signed a $52.5 million Jets contract in 2019 after sitting out the whole previous season?

Le'Veon Bell had refused to play under the franchise tag in 2018; he never regained his old form in New York, and the Jets released him less than two seasons later.

Which running back, who retired third on the career rushing list, played his final season with the 2020 Jets?

Frank Gore signed a one-year deal and never played another down; he had spent most of his career in San Francisco and later returned there as a football advisor.

Which receiver joined the Jets in July 2011 after serving a prison term over an accidental nightclub shooting?

Plaxico Burress had shot himself in the thigh in a New York nightclub in 2008; he picked the Jets' one-year offer over a longer deal elsewhere because more of it was guaranteed.

Which defensive lineman, a Jets first-round pick in 1979, later spent 22 seasons as the team's radio analyst?

Marty Lyons won the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award in 1984 for the foundation he set up as a player, which grants wishes to terminally ill children.

Which original Titans of New York linebacker was still calling the defensive signals when the Jets won Super Bowl III?

Larry Grantham is one of only twenty men who played all ten seasons of the old league, and one of just seven who spent every one of them in a single city.

Which South Carolina pass rusher, drafted 13th overall by the Jets in 2000, finished his career with 133.5 sacks?

John Abraham announced himself with 4.5 sacks in only six games as a rookie before an injury ended his season, then recorded 13 the following year.

Jets co-owner Sonny Werblin is said to have picked the team's colours in 1963 because he was born on which holiday?

St. Patrick's Day was his birthday, March 17, and the colour scheme spread beyond football: his partner in the club later borrowed the same green and white for the oil company he ran.

Which team picked Joe Namath twelfth in the rival league's 1965 draft but lost him to the Jets' richer offer?

St. Louis Cardinals executives were taken aback when he asked for $200,000 and a new Lincoln Continental, and they wanted his signature before his final college game.

Which team beat the Jets 31-21 in September 1970 in the first Monday Night Football game ever broadcast?

Cleveland Browns won on a night that made history twice over: it was also the Jets' first game as members of the newly merged league.

Which team ended the Jets' title defence in the 1969 playoffs, then won Super Bowl IV three weeks later?

Kansas City Chiefs won that divisional game 13-6, and the Jets would not appear in the playoffs again for twelve years.

Which coach succeeded his own father-in-law, Weeb Ewbank, in charge of the New York Jets in 1974?

Charley Winner had married the boss's daughter in 1950 and was named heir a year in advance, but he was fired in his second season after losing seven of the first nine games.

Which top-seeded team overturned a 10-0 third-quarter Jets lead to win the AFC title game in January 1999?

Denver Broncos scored 23 unanswered points in the second half of John Elway's last home game, ending the Jets' best season since the merger one win short of the Super Bowl.

Which league commissioner brokered the 1997 deal that freed Bill Parcells from the Patriots to join the Jets?

Paul Tagliabue stepped in after the Jets tried to sidestep the dispute by hiring their man as a consultant; the price of his release was four draft picks, one of them a first-rounder.

The Jets' name was chosen in 1963 over Borros and which name left behind by a departed baseball team?

Dodgers had been going spare in New York since Brooklyn's ball club moved to Los Angeles; the winning name was picked from some 500 suggestions sent in by friends, enemies and advertising agencies.

Which Jets head coach abruptly resigned in February 1983, seventeen days after losing the AFC title game?

Walt Michaels said he needed a break from football; fourteen years earlier, as the Jets' defensive coach, he had won Super Bowl III against a team whose kicker was his brother Lou.

Which award had Notre Dame quarterback John Huarte just won when the Jets signed him alongside Joe Namath in 1965?

Heisman Trophy or not, Huarte lost the starting job to his fellow rookie, who had finished only eleventh in that year's voting for the prize.