Beau Jets

The coach was fired by the Baltimore Colts to make way for a younger man.

The middle linebacker is a castoff from the Buffalo Bills, and the kickoff-return specialist is a refugee from Toronto in the Canadian League. The cornerback was dismissed as "a troublemaker" by the Washington Redskins; the flanker was cut by the New York Giants be cause he refused to shave off his long sideburns. The quarterback is a college dropout with one good leg and a con suming interest in "golf and girls, but mostly girls." Who are they? Who else?

The New York Jets, the Foreign Legion of pro football, a team that has never had a winning season and only three years ago was running help-wanted ads for players.

Last week, before a crowd of 54,681 in Shea Stadium, those selfsame Jets beat the Houston Oilers 52-13 -- thereby humbling an outfit that was favored to win not only the game but also the American Football League's eastern division championship. That one game may not make them the best team in pro football or even the A.F.L. -- but don't whisper that within earshot of their defensive line, which weighs in at 260 Ibs. a man. What the Jets certainly are at this point in the season is the most expensive, explosive and exciting ball club in anybody's league.

What's a Weeb? All of which goes to show that there is nothing like a diet of lettuce to make a football team healthy.

The first thing David A. ("Sonny") Werblin did when he bailed out the bankrupt New York franchise in 1963 was to hire Wilbur ("Weeb") Ewbank as his coach and buy time on the radio to ask: "What kind of a name is Weeb?"

The first thing Ewbank did was to take a hammer to the piggy bank that Werblin had filled as longtime boss of MCA-TV. Over the past three years, the Jets have laid out an estimated $2,000,000 in bonuses for promising college players -- $400,000 of which went to Joe Willie Namath, 23, a gimpy-legged quarterback from the University of Alabama who did everything last week except match the A.F.L. record for most touchdown passes in one game.

The record is seven. Namath threw only five against Houston.

Practically everybody on the Jets had a hand in the slaughter. Outweighed by 70 Ibs., Guard Sam DeLuca neutralized Houston's 315-lb. Defensive Tackle Ernie Ladd so effectively that Ladd spent the entire fourth quarter on the bench. Cornerback Johnny Sample picked off two Oiler passes; Middle Linebacker Al Atkinson contributed nine tackles. And Namath, untouched by Houston hands behind a ring of "fantastic" blockers, picked the Oilers' secondary to shreds.

Targets All Around. Joe's first TD pass went to Split End George Sauer. "I dropped back and looked at four receivers," Namath said later, "and they were all covered. Then I looked at George." George was waiting patiently, all by his lonesome, on the Houston 17; Joe hit him with a pass that traveled a good 60 yds. in the air. New York's second touchdown came on a rollout: whirling suddenly, Namath flipped the ball back across the field to Fullback Matt Snell, who ambled 25 yds. Tight End Pete Lammons was Joe's target--a 13-yarder--and then Flanker Don Maynard put on a show of his own. Don caught one TD pass (55 yds.), gathered in a second (37 yds.), barely missed a third when he broke loose in a corner of the end zone, where the ground sloped down 3 ft. Otherwise perfect, Namath's pass sailed 3 ft. over his head.

The victory boosted the Jets' 1966 record to 2-0 and gave them undisputed possession of first place in the A.F.L.'s eastern division. Coach Ewbank, who is so preoccupied with football that he says he reads nothing but sport pages ("If I see Great Lakes Naval Training Station ranked among the top teams, I know we're at war"), has not yet quite forgiven Baltimore for firing him after he had led the Colts to two National Football League titles. He frankly admits to one grand ambition for the legionnaires. Now that the A.F.L. and N.F.L. have agreed to merge, the best teams in both leagues will play off for the world championship next January. Says Ewbank: "My, how I'd like to play those N.F.L. boys."

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