Jets Facts

• Franchise Granted: -> August 14, 1959 as the New York Titans; Charter Member of AFL
• First Season -> 1960
• Changed nickname to Jets -> 1963
  Stadium -> Giants Stadium (77,716)
• Chairman of the Board -> Leon Hess
• President - > Steve Gutman
  Super Bowl Championship -> III
• AFL Championship - > 1968
• AFL Eastern Division Championships - > 1968, 1969, 1998
• AFL Record - > 71 - 66 - 6
• Retired Uniform Numbers - > #12 Joe Namath, #13 Don Maynard

New York Jets

The New York Jets are a National Football League team that plays its home games in East Rutherford, New Jersey, but is based on Long Island. The Jets began as the Titans of New York, a charter member of the American Football League in 1960. When a group including Sonny Werblin bought the team from Harry Wismer in 1963, the team was re-named the New York Jets.

Ewbank, who had enjoyed success with the Baltimore Colts in the 1950's, patiently began a building program with the Jets. Patience is one thing . . . but on January 2, 1965, the Jets received an instant transfusion when Werblin signed Alabama quarterback Joe Namath. The signing of the highly-regarded Namath proved to be a major factor in the eventual end of the AFL-NFL war that raged in the 1960's.

About Bledsoe

For the first part of the game, Bledsoe had all day to pass, but the Jets started putting more and more pressure on him. Once they started to taste blood, it was all over. Bledsoe got sacked 7 times and looked like a 72 year old man with arthritis out there. He threw 40 times and completed 24 for 204 yards and one pick. However, he just hasn't been as effective since the first two games. In fact, his poor command at the controls and faulty passing is one of the main reasons the Bills are going backwards in the standings.

Bledsoe didn't have his main weapon, as Eric Moulds was out with a groin injury, but the Jets were without their top defensive rusher Pro Bowl end John Abraham, who was forced to watch the game in street clothes because of a drunken driving arrest last week. Even so they got to Bledsoe 7 times. With Abraham, they may have sacked Bledsoe 14 times.

Jets History

In February 1963, Harry Wismer, owner of the New York Titans, one of the AFL's charter franchises, sold his outfit lock, stock and barrel to a five-man group headed by David "Sonny" Werblin. Werblin's group bought the bankrupt franchise for $1,000,000, and, soon after, rechristened the "new" team the Jets. Weeb Ewbank was chosen to be the coach.
The three-year reign of Wismer had been fraught with controversy. The on-field happenings of the Titans were often overlooked as Wismer moved from feud to feud with the thoughtlessness of a person playing Russian roulette with a fully loaded pistol. In spite of it all, the Titans were reasonably successful on the field. Their real problem was at the box office: they were a disaster. At least that problem was addressed when the Jets moved from the antiquated Polo Grounds to a brand-new Shea Stadium in 1964. (The Jets moved to the Meadowlands in New Jersey in 1984.)