January 12, 1969. Kirk Buchner and Paul Lawrence look at Super Bowl III, one of the most important football games of all time.

Regular visitors of Notinhalloffame.com know that we are slowly working on the top 50 of every major team in the NHL, NBA, NFL and MLB.  Once that is done, we intend to look at how each team honor their past players, coaches and executives.  As such, it is news to us that there will be three new members inducted into the New York Jets Ring of Honor in 2022.

The team announced that Derrell Revis, Nick Mangold and D’Brickashaw Ferguson will be inducted this upcoming season.

Revis is arguably the biggest name of the three.  Playing at Cornerback, Revis was taken in the First Round in 2007 (14^thOverall) from Pittsburgh, and he rapidly became one of the most explosive Defensive Backs in the NFL.  “Revis Island” became synonymous with elite coverage, and while he was with New York, he was chosen for four Pro Bowls and three First Team All-Pros.

Mangold played at Center for the entirety of his 11-year career, and would start all of his 164 Games for the team.  The product of Ohio State went to seven Pro Bowls and was a two-time First Team All-Pro.

Ferguson played his entire 10-year pro career with New York after the Jets after they chose the Tackle with the Fourth Overall Pick in 2006.  He started all of his 160 games with the Jets.

The honors will take place for Mangold (Sept 25), Ferguson (Oct 30) and Revis (Nov 27).

These are the first entrants since Kevin Mawae in 2017.  They will also join Weeb Ewbank, Winston Hill, Curtis Martin, Don Maynard, Joe Namath, Larry Grantham, Freeman McNeil, Gerry Philbin, Al Toon, Wesley Walker, Joe Klecko, Mark Gastineau and Marty Lyons.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to congratulate the newest members to the New York Jets Ring of Honor

We have lost another football legend today.

Former New York Jets Wide Receiver, Don Maynard, passed away today at the age of 86.

A college star at Texas Western (the future UTEP), Maynard was taken by the New York Giants in the draft, playing for them sparingly as a rookie, to the point where he left the team for Hamilton of the Canadian Football League the season after.  In his third professional year, Maynard returned to New York City, but this time with the Titans of the upstart American Football League.

Maynard would become the team’s top Wide Receiver, exceeding 1,000 Yards five times, and winning the AFL Receiving Title in 1967.  A four-time Pro Bowl and All-AFL Team Selection, Maynard helped lead the Jets to win at Super Bowl III, as the primary target for Joe Namath.

Retiring after a final season with the St. Louis Cardinals, Maynard left the game with an exceptional 11,834 Receiving Yards (a record at the time) and 88 Touchdowns. 

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to offer our condolences to the fans, friends and family of Don Maynard.

Brandon Marshall was a really good Wide Receiver, but was he a Hall of Fame wide out?

The 4^th Overall Pick in 1977 from USC, Marvin Powell wasted little time affixing himself as the starting Right Tackle for the New York Jets.  In 1979, Powell would begin a five-year run as a perennial Pro Bowl Selection, and in '79, 1981 & 1982, he was a First Team All-Pro.  Without Powell's protection and presence, the offensive game would not have been as good, and he was certainly one of the most underrated players in Jets history.

Art Powell played in the Canadian Football League for two seasons before he was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles in 1959.  As an NFL rookie, Powell was used as a returner and defensive back but would join the New York Titans (later to be renamed the Jets) of the American Football League.  With the Titans, Powell would lead the AFL in Receiving Touchdowns (14) in the league's first year of existence, and in 1962 he would finish first in Receiving Yards (1,130).

From the University of Mississippi, Larry Grantham was a second round pick by the New York Titans in 1960 (he was a 15^th rounder in the NFL) and a member of the original team. 

It is not a stretch by any means to state that Nick Mangold was the greatest New York Jet Center ever.  We could easily go a step further and state that he is one of the best Offensive Lineman in franchise history.

This is a first for us. 

As many of you know, we are (methodically) working on our top 50 of every team, which will eventually lead to how each franchise in MLB, NHL, NFL and NBA treat their former players in terms of retired numbers, rings of honor and franchise Halls of Fames. 

We can’t really say that we envisioned one team taking a potshot as to how another one handles that, but that is exactly what transpired today.

In a speech at Gillette Stadium during the New England Patriots Charitable Foundation Awards the son of Pats owner, Robert Kraft, Josh Kraft, told those in attendance to check out the Patriots Hall of Fame and stated that “It’s a lot better than the Jet’s Hall of Fame, which is non-existent”.

Ouch.

While the division rival does not have a physical Hall of Fame, the Jets do have a Ring of Honor with seventeen members and have retired the numbers of five former players.  What New York has done is more than typical for a National Football League organization.

Either way, it is a banter that we here at Notinhalloffame.com love!

The hard-luck Cincinnati Bengals have yet to win a Super Bowl, but it was Boomer Esiason who brought them closer than anyone else had when they lost to the San Francisco 49ers on a last-minute drive in Super Bowl XXIII.  Fortunately for Esiason, his career did not need a Super Bowl Ring to be considered great.

Replacing the productive Ken Anderson, the powerful southpaw became one of the premier Quarterbacks in the league.  During his time in Cincinnati, Esiason was a consistent producer and he turned the Bengals into a high powered attack.  Mastering the play-action pass, Boomer used his strength and speed and was always producing high yardage games.

Although Quarterback sacks have always taken place in football, it was not an official statistic in the NFL until 1982.  The first labelled “sackmaster” of American football would have to be the flamboyant and somewhat controversial Mark Gastineau who terrorized Quarterbacks; and not because he had sex with Brigitte Neilsen.

A member of the 100 Sack club (133.5 exactly), John Abraham was a pounding Defensive End who terrorized Quarterbacks for years. Eight times he would exceed ten sacks in a season and was a very popular figure during his time with the New York Jets and the Atlanta Falcons. A very intriguing candidate, Abraham is as of this writing in the top ten all-time in Forced Fumbles and Tackles for Loss and the top fifteen in Quarterback Sacks.  He would go to five Pro Bowls, and was twice a First Team All-Pro, and that first step he took off the snap remains in the nghtmares of offensive linemen.