Joe & Joe ( klecko & namath )

[jtomm]

*******  if this ^^ has already been posted  , i apol. and please delete  THIS post  🌈

 

[The Crusher]

I’ll have to check with Max before I can delete your account. Give me the day, I’ll let you know.  

[jtomm]

1 minute ago, The Crusher said:

I’ll have to check with Max before I can delete your account. Give me the day, I’ll let you know.  

 

[FidelioJet]

So funny.

I happen to actually be watching Klecko 73 right now...

That scene is at the end of this documentary.

[jtomm]

4 minutes ago, FidelioJet said:

So funny.

I happen to actually be watching Klecko 73 right now...

 

[MykePM]

4 hours ago, jtomm said:

 

That video should be required viewing for any idiots who say "Why does he belong in the Hall of Fame?", or worse yet, "He doesn't belong in the Hall of Fame".  I would swear that, in some of those clips, you can actually see the pants worn by the guy lining up against him filling with sh*t.

[jtomm]

13 hours ago, FidelioJet said:

So funny.

I happen to actually be watching Klecko 73 right now...

That scene is at the end of this documentary.

i Love joe ( both of them ) one of my ALL time fav jets   😎

[Dunnie]

Beast.

Sent from my Pixel 7 using Tapatalk

[y2k8]

It was a good show.

Great to see and hear Lance Mehl and Joe Fields.

Had no idea how much they all hated Joe Walton.

[WeCantDraftGoodQBs]

My two favorite jets of all time and I had the amazing good fortune to meet both of them! 

Broadway Joe I actually met in a Subway shop in Jupiter, FL when I was on vacation there about 20 yrs ago. I was just leaving and he was walking in. I was too intimidated to say anything more than he was my all time favorite player and the reason that I became a diehard Jets fan since 1968. He was very nice and shook my hand and told me thank you.

Joe Klecko I met at a party at a wealthy guys house in Livingston, NJ around 30 yrs ago. Klecko was one of the nicest guys I ever met and very funny too. Because I was drinking at the party, I was much more comfortable talking and he talked with me for about 15 minutes about his time with the Jets and specifically the sack exchange. He confirmed what I had always heard that he wasn’t a big fan of Mark Gastineau especially the sack dance. I didn’t tell him that I never had a problem with Gastineau from a fan perspective because he was helping the Jets win. But I guess if he was your teammate it was a different story. Their personalities and backgrounds couldn’t have been anymore different too.

[BeaconJet]

I got to meet Joe (Klecko not Namath) last year at a fundraiser for the widow of a police officer, and he could not have been a nicer guy. In addition to talking to everyone and telling stories (great stories about the NFL, and his roles in the Cannonball and Smokey and the Bandit movies), and donating his own money to the cause (and giving back raffle items he won), he spent a bunch of time with the widow and a local priest during dinner. It was obvious he's a man of faith, and still an old school Polish Catholic American. Got a picture with him, a handshake with his huge meathook hands, and got my Klecko jersey signed - "Joe Klecko #73 Pro Bowl 4X" - too bad he couldn't add HOF at the time, but that has now been corrected. About time.

[jtomm]

18 minutes ago, BeaconJet said:

I got to meet Joe (Klecko not Namath) last year at a fundraiser for the widow of a police officer, and he could not have been a nicer guy. In addition to talking to everyone and telling stories (great stories about the NFL, and his roles in the Cannonball and Smokey and the Bandit movies), and donating his own money to the cause (and giving back raffle items he won), he spent a bunch of time with the widow and a local priest during dinner. It was obvious he's a man of faith, and still an old school Polish Catholic American. Got a picture with him, a handshake with his huge meathook hands, and got my Klecko jersey signed - "Joe Klecko #73 Pro Bowl 4X" - too bad he couldn't add HOF at the time, but that has now been corrected. About time.

BeaconJet, hi !  😎  Thank you for sharing the above with us ! !    Truly wonderful story  🙂  

[jtomm]

If the Hall of Fame calls, Joe Klecko will have the best tales, back to growing up in Chester

 

Sparring with Joe Frazier, playing semi-pro under an assumed name, seeing men betting on dogfights next to Temple's practice field ... Klecko's roots tour is a Philly classic.Joe Klecko knew all along, every step, how it never had to happen. So many forks in so many roads. Any little deviation could have knocked Klecko off stride.Starring for the New York Jets, a crucial part of the famed New York Sack Exchange, Klecko might be on the verge of having his election in the Pro Football Hall of Fame announced.

What if Klecko’s girlfriend, now his wife of all these years, hadn’t thrown his keys out of the car window?

What if he hadn’t played glorified sandlot ball for the Aston Knights of the Seaboard Football League?

What if he hadn’t decided to finally give football a try as a senior at long-gone St. James High School in Chester?

What if Temple’s football coach had ignored his equipment manager from Delaware County who told Wayne Hardin he had to see this player for the Aston Knights, that this kid Klecko was better than anyone Hardin had?  What if Joe Frazier had really knocked him out?

The whole tale starts in Chester — “the west end of Chester,” Klecko said over the phone. “Chester made you tough. Chester was no walk in the park. A working-class town. Nobody in my family had ever gone to college.”Klecko’s uncle owned a gas station and a fuel oil business. Before he was a teenager, Klecko was part of the business, “worked for them all the time.”Then he switched his hours to a family friend who was a general contractor — “all dirt,” Klecko said of that work.

There was no Pop Warner football in Chester at the time, Klecko said. Baseball was his game. He remembers being a Little League all-star when he was 12.“We used to clean heaters, had to crawl into heaters,” Klecko said. “I asked my dad, ‘Can I take off today?’ "

That was the day of the all-star game.

“Yes, you can.”

A cousin caught wind off of this. Take off for a baseball game? “What are you going to do, play games the rest of your life?”

That line still cracks Klecko up, since games would one day lead to being named NFL defensive player of the year by United Press International, after leading the NFL in sacks in 1981.That was later. Klecko wasn’t a football player back then. His baseball prowess eventually turned into softball prowess. Klecko had gone out for the football team as a freshman at St. James, but remembers how the freshman coach taught a drill where two players got on a piece of wood, “like a 2-by-10,” and the pair of youngsters would hit into each other until one was knocked off the wood. Klecko had been put against the biggest guy. Klecko remembers the coach saying, “Get out of there before you get hurt.”

“He embarrassed me so bad, I quit,” Klecko said.

Who lost in that deal? Maybe the other guy on that piece of wood was the only player who could have stood his ground with Klecko.“I was a phenom in the trench,” Klecko said when it came to work. “We’d bust up heaters, carry them out of a basement. At 12 years old, I’d carry it out like the big guys.”

Late start

Finally, senior year at St. James, “I said, you know, there’s not anybody in my senior class I didn’t think I could beat up, or a win a fight with.” He joined the team. The varsity coach, Joe Logue, saw what he had in Klecko quickly.“A guy playing in front of me got hurt,” Klecko said. “Like the fourth game. I did so good, they couldn’t take me out.” So good, Klecko made all-state, “only playing six or seven games.”

So on to Temple?

“I wasn’t going to pay for school,” Klecko said. “We were a normal working-class family. I went to work. I was driving a dump truck.”

That’s when the chance encounter at the softball game led to a suggestion that Klecko join the Aston Knights. Klecko drove over to the football practice field with his girlfriend, but didn’t get out of the car. “I was a really timid kid,” he said.His future wife, Debbie, maybe wasn’t as timid. She grabbed the keys out of the ignition, threw them out the window. As family lore has it, Klecko got out of the car to retrieve the keys. The Aston Knights coach who had wanted him to join the team saw him, “Hey, Joe.” All right, couldn’t back out now.That eventually led to that Temple equipment manager, John DiGregorio, seeing Klecko playing against some rugged older competition. Better than anybody Temple had? “Yeah, yeah, sure,” Owls coach Wayne Hardin said to that.

Temple’s coach apparently respected the equipment manager’s opinion enough that Hardin got to a game out at Sun Valley High, saw roughly what DiGregorio had seen, offered Klecko a full scholarship. Klecko accepted it and showed up for preseason practice.

“I was a real rough-in-the-edges kid,” Klecko said. “I actually quit and went home.”

Klecko was thinking about this other offer he’d had to play at Dayton, how that might be a better spot. But DiGregorio “came after me — ‘Joe, you’re in camp, you can’t move around.’ I went back, broke my hand in camp. I wasn’t going full force.”Third game, he said, “a guy got hurt — the rest was history.” By the seventh game, everyone knew this guy was special. Klecko had 15 tackles including five sacks in a big win over Delaware, was named ECAC rookie of the week. His last three seasons, he led Temple in tackles. The last two years, he was honorable mention All-American.He didn’t quite leave the Aston Knights behind. Since this was a semipro outfit, playing could have jammed up Klecko’s college eligibility, even though he said, “I never got paid or nothing, everything was strictly legit.” To play it safe, he played under the name “Jim Jones,” from “Poland University.”

Temple offered memories he’ll never forget. Like practicing across 15th Street at Geasey Field, “right outside McGonigle Hall. Next to it, there was a city playground. There was an old abandoned pool. They used to have dogfights. We’d be going to practice and guys would be betting on the dogfights.”Klecko boxed a little at Temple. There was no NCAA boxing, but there was a national club competition, and Klecko won it twice, heavyweight division. Word got around Philly and Klecko was invited to work out at a little gym in North Philly. “You walked in the front door, the ring was right there.”This was Joe Frazier’s gym. The big kid from Temple wasn’t just there to watch. Frazier, who had already beaten Muhammad Ali once and lost to Ali once, the Thrilla in Manila still a year away, needed sparring partners.

“I was a big, strong, tough guy,” said Klecko, who was listed at 6-foot-3, 263 pounds as a pro player. “Joe used to spar like 20 rounds. I went two or three rounds. It was a scary situation.”

In his mind, Klecko sized it up and decided, “If things get bad, I can tackle him.”

His confidence boosted a bit one time, Klecko tried to go on a momentary offensive.“He threw a deadly left hook to my head — I didn’t see it,” Klecko said. “I said, ‘Oh, [shoot].’ Joe started cackling.”Klecko never saw Frazier again, until they were guest speakers at a dinner years later in Rahway, N.J. By then, Klecko was a legit pro football star. Heading to the NFL, did he finally know that he was legit?

“Oh God, no,” Klecko said. “I was so afraid that I wouldn’t get drafted.”

In 1977, the NFL draft was 12 rounds. Klecko went to the Jets in the sixth round. A pretty good round that year, since 10 picks later, the Eagles chose a running back from Abilene Christian named Wilbert Montgomery. But Klecko didn’t focus on the Montgomery pick. The Eagles had told Klecko they were going to take him in the fifth round. Instead, they chose a defensive back from Kansas named Skip Sharp.

“He never made it,” Klecko said, and Klecko never forgot that name, or being scorned by his hometown team.

When Jets training camp began on Long Island, “If I was any good, I didn’t know that,” Klecko said. Except the heat that summer, he said, was historically “horrendous,” and a lot of players were dropping. “I was last man standing.”Klecko played 11 seasons for the Jets, and made the Pro Bowl four times, twice at defensive end, twice at defensive tackle. With him bookending Mark Gastineau, the New York Sack Exchange was born, the tabloid headline describing the whole line.

Klecko had 78 sacks in his career, which ended after one season with the Indianapolis Colts. In 1982, he won the George Halas Award, given to the NFL player who had overcome the most adversity.Klecko now lives in Colts Neck, N.J. One of his five children, Dan, had a big football career of his own at Temple, and was part of three Super Bowl titles playing for the Patriots. Dad, however, has this potential honor rising above, one of the three finalists nominated by a senior committee for consideration for the 2023 Pro Football Hall of Fame class. Each finalist needs to receive 80% approval. The voting already has occurred, and Klecko will find out Thursday evening at the NFL Honors banquet in Phoenix if his name is called out to join the best of the best.

If Joe Klecko is asked to stand on a stage this summer in Canton, Ohio, who has better tales to share? Who else traded punches with Smokin’ Joe Frazier, or played sandlot ball for Poland University? Who else is convinced still that he would never even have played college football if not for his future wife throwing his keys out of a car window?

If Klecko is on that stage, obviously expect him to be thrilled. He’ll just know this, too.

It never had to happen.

>>  https://www.inquirer.com/college-sports/temple/joe-klecko-temple-jets-hall-of-fame-20230206.html

[jtomm]

[THE BARON]

gastineau next ?

[BeaconJet]

If anyone remembers Joe's role in Smokey and the Bandit II ("the circus must be in town"), the way Joe tells the story, the director wanted to cut at the point where Joe grabs the sheriffs badge, and then cut back in with an already bent badge.

Joe said screw that, I'll do it in one take, and did - crushed the sheriffs badge himself.

 

[jtomm]

28 minutes ago, BeaconJet said:

If anyone remembers Joe's role in Smokey and the Bandit II ("the circus must be in town"), the way Joe tells the story, the director wanted to cut at the point where Joe grabs the sheriffs badge, and then cut back in with an already bent badge.

Joe said screw that, I'll do it in one take, and did - crushed the sheriffs badge himself.

[jtomm]

Joe Namath has been called many things over the years. He can now be called octogenarian.

Namath was born 80 years ago today, in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania. He played college football at Alabama, leading the team to the 1964 national championship.He was the first overall pick in the AFL draft, taken by the Jets, and the 12th overall pick in the NFL draft, selected by the Cardinals. He opted for the upstart league.In his fourth season, Namath led the Jets to the AFL title and, in one of the biggest upsets in pro football history, a victory in Super Bowl III over the heavily-favored Colts — a win that came after Namath famously guaranteed a win.

Broadway Joe became a crossover star, a pop-culture icon. Along the way, he briefly retired when the NFL ordered him to sell his stake in a bar that was frequented by the mob. (Eventually, Namath sold.)The Hall of Famer sits 67th on the all-time passing yardage list, with 27,663. He spent 12 years with the Jets and one with the Rams.As explained in the New York Times article regarding his second, and permanent, retirement, Namath had four knee operations (two per knee) and a torn hamstring that occurred while water skiing.

“That torn hamstring is what kept me from being able to move around the last four or five years, not my knees,” Namath said upon his retirement.But he was pragmatic about the impact of his knee injuries on his NFL career.

“If I had good knees, might’ve gotten killed in Vietnam instead of playing football,” Namath said.

The Jets have been searching for their next Namath for decades. They think they might have found him in Aaron Rodgers, who is six years older than Namath was when he last played for the Jets.

 > > https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2023/05/31/happy-80th-joe-namath/

[JetsfaninNorthHollywood]

On 5/23/2023 at 5:09 AM, y2k8 said:

It was a good show.

Great to see and hear Lance Mehl and Joe Fields.

Had no idea how much they all hated Joe Walton.

I remember reading an article in either "Pro Football Digest" or Athlon's Pro Football Preview that Walton had referred to his players as "pea brains that wouldn't amount to anything after football."  And damn I feel old bringing up "Pro Football Digest" 

[Trotter]

Two of my favorite quotes

honey joe Namath came for lunch

i like my Johnny walker red and my women blonde

two great jets 

[jtomm]

Joe Klecko's Patience Pays Off: Jets' Uber-DL Finally Gets His Ticket to Canton

NY Sack Exchange Member Got the Word from Another Fame-ous Joe, Namath

Jul 12, 2023 

Ethan Greenberg - Team Reporter

This is one in a series of articles that will also appear in the New York Jets 2023 Yearbook, which will be published later this summer.

Good things come to those who wait.Former Jets defensive lineman Joe Klecko waited 35 years after he retired in 1988 to hear five knocks and 11 words.The message delivered by Hall of Fame Jets quarterback Joe Namath: ""Welcome to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Class of 2023."

"Honestly, it was exhilarating," Klecko recalled. "The best part of it was Joe, it really was. I give Joe every accolade. He's one of the greatest people for the NFL, he's just an icon. For him to come to my house — what a great feeling. It was a cheerful, glorious time when it happened."

Klecko, a two-time first-team All-Pro and four-time Pro Bowler, is one of three players in NFL history to earn a Pro Bowl selection at three positions — DE in 1981, DT in '83-84 and NT in '85."I love Joe Klecko," QB Terry Bradshaw said along Super Bowl Radio Row in February. "He was tough. You had to always build your offense around him. First you had to protect yourself against him. Then you had to trap him, you had to try to neutralize him. If you didn't, he was so disruptive."One-fourth of the New York Sack Exchange, Klecko was named NFL Defensive Player of the Year in 1981 by the Pro Football Writers when his 20.5 sacks led the league. Sacks, however, became an official stat in 1982. Klecko officially has 24 but unofficially, his total spikes to 78 — second-most in franchise history to Mark Gastineau.

"They're throwing the ball a lot more, so that number was even more impressive in 1981 than it would be now," DL Howie Long said.

Klecko has always had praise from his peers, including a quartet of Hall of Famers — Bradshaw, Long and guards Joe DeLamielleure and John Hannah — who were waiting for the Chester, PA native to join them in Canton. Klecko will do that when he's officially enshrined in August."You were one of the greatest players to ever wear the Jets uniform," Chairman and CEO Woody Johnson said. "You played every position on the defensive line and took no prisoners. Your impact on the history of the New York Jets was huge and I'm so happy you've gotten this honor that you richly deserve."

 >>  https://www.newyorkjets.com/news/joe-klecko-s-patience-pays-off-jets-uber-dl-finally-gets-his-ticket-to-canton

[Kleckineau]

Years ago I met Klecko at Buttles bar restaurant in East Meadow. He seemed nice enough and he looked about as strong as an ox.

[jtomm]

 

[jtomm]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVkkAWKesRk

[jtomm]

 

[jtomm]

Jets legend Joe Namath praises Aaron Rodgers for taking pay cut: It's a 'great exhibition of his character'

Published: Jul 30, 2023  - Bobby Kownack

Aaron Rodgers has had Jets fans on a high since his April trade to New York, but Gang Green legends seem to be buzzing over him, as well.Joe Namath, the quarterback of the Jets for their lone championship victory in Super Bowl III, has been particularly impressed with Rodgers' unselfishness during the four-time MVP's recent contract renegotiation.

"It's a great sign, a great exhibition of his character," Namath told The Jake Asman Show on ESPN New York 98.7 FM. "Just the way he is. He wants to win and he wants that team he's on to win. And he already likes the area, the coaches, the people around there -- the teammates especially -- and he wants to them to know, 'Hey, we're in this a couple of times. We want to win now. If we don't, we're going to win it next year.' To have him for two seasons and for him to show his appreciation of being with the Jets and his teammates and coaches, man, is just wonderful."

 video  >>  https://www.nfl.com/news/jets-legend-joe-namath-praises-aaron-rodgers-for-taking-pay-cut-it-s-a-great-exh

[jtomm]

--- Joe Klecko, defensive end/tackle

New York Jets, 1977-1987; Indianapolis Colts, 1988

Klecko was voted to the Pro Bowl at three different positions in his career -- defensive end, defensive tackle and nose tackle. He finished second to Lawrence Taylor in the league's Defensive Player of the Year voting in 1981.

Why he was elected: The versatility to play with enough quickness to flourish at defensive end to go with enough toughness, power and balance to flourish on the interior is rare. And Klecko was unselfish enough to, two years after a 20.5-sack season at end, move to defensive tackle for the Jets.

Signature moment: Klecko's 20.5 sacks came in 1981 -- the year before sacks became an official statistic -- so it doesn't appear in the official' lists of best seasons since, but it is believed to be one of the 15 best seasons in league history.

Quotable: "He went to the Pro Bowl at three different positions. Strong, quick, tough. He was great no matter where he lined up.'' -- Hall of Famer Joe DeLamielleure

-- rest of above article >>  https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/35577376/class-2023-pro-football-hall-fame-meet-newest-members

[jtomm]

Inside the Numbers, Hall of Fame Edition | Darrelle Revis & Joe Klecko One More Time

Recounting Some Great Games, Superb Seasons by the 2 Jets Greats Being Enshrined in Canton on Saturday

Aug 02, 2023  - Randy Lange

It's an intoxicating time in Jets history, not only with Aaron Rodgers and Hard Knocks but with Darrelle Revis and Joe Klecko being enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday, two days after the Jets play in their third Hall of Fame Game in Canton. Revis will become the sixth player with Green & White connections to be a first-ballot enshrinee and the first first-ballot Hall of Famer who played most of his career with the Jets.

Klecko is on the other end of the timescale, being inducted as a Seniors candidate 29 years after he was first eligible to be inducted. The only Jet with a longer wait to enter the Hall's doors was tackle Winston Hill, enshrined posthumously in 2020, 37 years after he became HOF-eligible.

Here are a few more numbers to celebrate from the careers of No. 73 and No. 24 ahead of their Canton cermony:

- - -   Joe Klecko

■ How many sacks did Klecko have in his career? There are at least two correct answers. As football fans know too well, Klecko's career sack numbers are truncated due to the NFL and the Elias Sports Bureau making individual defensive sacks an official statistic only beginning in 1982. By that measure, Klecko has 24 career QB takedowns.

■ But the Jets kept coaches' video breakdown numbers before that, so a truer, albeit unofficial, accounting of Joe's career give him 77.5 sacks, including his career-best 20.5 sacks in 1981.

■ 1981 was a bountiful harvest for Klecko, Mark Gastineau, Marty Lyons and Abdul Salaam — the New York Sack Exchange — as well as for the entire defense, which set the franchise season mark with 66 sacks. Klecko, again unofficially, led the way with 20.5 (Gaastineau had 20). And for what it's worth, add one postseason sack and five preseason sacks to Klecko's '81 total for a 26.5-sack season, which is possibly the second-largest single-season total-games haul behind only Al Baker's 29 sacks for Detroit in 1978 (six in the summer, 23 in the regular season).

■ Klecko enjoyed no 4.0-sack games but he had a game in which he was involved in four sacks and almost five that perhaps was just a little sweeter than his 3.0-sack games. That was the Jets' 1981 October home game against New England, when he was credited with 3.5 sacks of Matt Cavanaugh in the Jets' 28-24 victory. Klecko and Lyons, his presenter at Saturday's ceremony, each had a half-sack of Steve Grogan on the Pats' final drive, but it was wiped by a defensive holding penalty.

rest of above article  >>  https://www.newyorkjets.com/news/inside-the-numbers-hall-of-fame-edition-darrelle-revis-joe-klecko-one-more-time

[jtomm]

It's Finally Time for Jets DL Great Joe Klecko to Enter the Pro Football Hall of Fame

3 Decades After Becoming Eligible, Fierce, Relentless, Patient No. 73 Will Be Enshrined Saturday in Canton

Aug 02, 2023  - Randy Lange

People of the faith know about the patience of Job. People of the Green & White know about the patience of Joe. Centuries after Job's fortitude was rewarded, Joe Klecko is about to finally receive his due: enshrinement in the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday.

A year ago, with another Hall of Fame vote ahead in February, Klecko said his wait for recognition — 35 years after his last game as a Jet in 1987, 29 years after he first became Hall-eligible — was "really kind of easy for me. I've been in the construction business all my life. I had times where I had the job and I walked in the door to sign the contract, and I hear that something went wrong, it's going the other way.

"So I've learned not to get too excited about anything unless the check's in the bank, know what I mean?"

So do all the Jets fans who waited as long and perhaps not as patiently for Klecko's induction.

Then it happened in February in Phoenix: The construction project was completed. The Klecko check cleared. Joe, as a Senior candidate, became a Hall of Fame finalist for the first time. Then he was elected to the Canton, OH, shrine as a member of the Class of 2023."When it didn't happen, I always said next year. I figured if it was to be and it was God's will, it would happen," he said backstage at the NFL Honors broadcast Feb. 9. "It's unfathomable, hard to put in perspective. ... It's awesome."

It only gets more awesome this week. Klecko, legendary Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis and the rest of the Hall class are guests of honor at Thursday night's Hall of Fame Game — between the Jets and the Browns — then at Friday's Gold Jacket Dinner, and finally at the Saturday ceremony back at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium. And Klecko will do all that along with his wife and children in attendance and green-clad fanatics in No. 73 jerseys cheering him on.It was a long time coming but it was well-deserved for Klecko, the multiple rocket launcher on the defensive line of the Jets' iconic New York Sack Exchange. His numbers say so: In 11 Jets seasons he collected 78 sacks, 54 of them coming before 1982, when defensive sacks were made official. An NFL-leading 20.5 of those sacks came in 1981, when the Sack Exchange set a franchise record with 66 total QB takedowns. And his personality says so: He had power, pugnacity, ferocity and relentlessness.

Marty Lyons, Klecko's next-door neighbor at DT who will present his close friend for enshrinement, told the New York Post's Steve Serby that what made Klecko unique was "his desire to win. He wasn't intimidated by anybody. You could put him up against somebody that was 6-8, he didn't care."You didn't realize how good Joe was till you watched the film on Monday. You're playing right alongside of him, but you don't realize what he did to make that offensive lineman look so silly. Once Joe got into the heads of the offensive lineman, he could do anything you want. He would just look at me and give me a nod or move his head in one direction, and I knew what he was gonna do."

Right end Klecko tipped his cap to left end Mark Gastineau for that '81 season, when Gastineau's 20 sacks made the duo still the only teammates to reach 20 sacks together in the same season, as well as to Lyons and Abdul Salaam.."The Sack Exchange was a big deal," Klecko said. "We put fear in people's eyes." And if not fear, the look inside the facemasks of many opposing guards and tackles was one of resignation to a long day ahead, especially against 73.And Joe brought his fire from three different positions over his Jets career — D-end, D-tackle and nose — earning at least one Pro Bowl berth at each, four total. He is still only one of three players to achieve that position trifecta, along with Bears DL Dan Hampton and multitalented Giant Frank Gifford.

Buffalo tackle and fellow Hall of Famer Joe DeLamielleure, a longtime Klecko supporter, recalled at profootballhof.com having to block Joe Greene and Merlin Olsen in the same decade he ran into Klecko twice every regular season."Believe me, Joe was equal to those two guys," DeLamielleure said. "If Joe had played one position for 10 years, he'd have been considered one of the top two or three players at that position, whichever one it was."

That's an interesting take from Joe D on why perhaps Joe K had to wait so long for his Hall of Fame moment. Sometimes the more you can do works out great, and other times it slows your relentless path to your destiny."Three things happened in 30 years," Lyons said. "Joe went into the Jets Ring of Honor, they retired his number, and the third one is that Joe became a man of faith. And maybe God said, 'Hey, you know what, Joe? You deserve to be in the Hall of Fame because your deserved to be here a long time ago. You used your platform for the benefit of others. And now you found your purpose in life. Now you're gonna be in the Hall of Fame.' "

"It was an awesome wait. It was filled with roadblocks, in my mind," Klecko told newyorkjets.com's Eric Allen. "But what a grateful thing, what a tremendous thing it really is."

 >>   https://www.newyorkjets.com/news/it-s-finally-time-for-jets-dl-great-joe-klecko-to-enter-the-pro-football-hall-of

[jtomm]

Joe Klecko's Hall of Fame Speech

Aug 05, 2023

Listen to Hall of Fame inductee and former Jets defensive lineman Joe Klecko's full speech at the Pro Football HOF Class of 2023 enshrinement ceremony in Canton.

 video >>  https://www.newyorkjets.com/video/joe-klecko-s-hall-of-fame-speech