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Adversity faced: The Jets went into the season with an eye on the Super Bowl,
but those hopes were severely damaged when QB Vinny Testaverde was lost for the season in
Week One.
How the team coped: Despite their mediocre record, the Jets did a sensational
job. They never came unglued during a 1-6 start and finished the season as one of the
hottest teams in the league.
An old joke puts the New York Jets’ seemingly disastrous 1999 season into
perspective:
Teenage girl: "Dad, I’m pregnant."
Dad (face turning every shade of red): "What! Wait until I get my hands on that
good-for-nothing boyfriend of yours! This is a disaster! How are you going to go to
college now? I can’t believe this!"
Teenage girl: "Relax, Dad. I was just kidding. I’m not pregnant. What I
really wanted to tell you is that I put a big dent in your car."
Dad: "What a relief."
Certain tragedies don’t seem as bad when you consider an even worse possibility.
So it was for the 1999 Jets. This was a team that entered the season with Super Bowl
dreams, only to miss the playoffs with an 8-8 record.
A nightmare season?
Yes and no.
To be sure, the lofty hopes of the preseason crash-landed into middle-of-the-pack
mediocrity.
A closer look, however, reveals that this was a team that scrapped and clawed and
fought its way to an 8-8 record that far exceeded what it had any right to achieve.
The glass was both half empty and half full, depending on the date someone looked at
it.
Actually, on opening day the glass didn’t even look half empty. It looked as if it
had been dropped on the floor, splattering into a million broken pieces.
On opening day, the Jets faced the Patriots. Midway through the second quarter, Jets QB
Vinny Testaverde fell to the turf without being touched after making a cut to the ball
when RB Curtis Martin fumbled. Testaverde had ruptured his Achilles tendon.
The Jets went on to lose the game 30-28. In reality they lost a whole lot more, as
Testaverde was done for the season.
Bye-bye, Vinny. Bye-bye, Super Bowl dreams.
"I feel terrible for Vinny," Patriots QB Drew Bledsoe said.
"Vinny’s a guy that’s been through a ton of hard times and been on some
terrible football teams. Finally, last year, he gets a chance to play on a good team and
does extremely well.
"This year it looks like he’s going to be very strong again, and all of a
sudden he’s out for the season. It’s really disheartening on a personal level to
see that happen."
Bledsoe’s empathy for his opponent was a true display of sportsmanship. Jets head
coach Bill Parcells, however, would have none of it. If someone was going to feel sorry
for the Jets, it wasn’t going to be their head coach.
"What? I’m going to put up the white flag? No, I’m not going to do
that," Parcells said. "You know what? Nobody cares. … We just have to try
and adjust and go forward."
These were words that would serve the Jets well. These were words that would be
symbolic of the Jets’ refusal to roll over and die later in the season. These were
words, however, that would fall on deaf ears in the short term for a shell-shocked team.
The Jets actually fought back to take a 28-27 lead in the fourth quarter but lost to
the Patriots on a 23-yard field goal by New England’s Adam Vinatieri with three
seconds left in the game.
"When we lost Vinny, it took a lot of air out of us. We just couldn’t kill
them. We couldn’t put them away," WR Keyshawn Johnson said in a postgame news
conference made memorable when he pounded on the rostrum with both of his fists and
stomped out, his face etched in frustration.
The Jets stumbled to a 1-6 record in the aftermath of Testaverde’s unfortunate
injury. As the losses mounted, the biggest question became whether or not they could
maintain a one-for-all and all-for-one approach.
Not surprisingly, the offense was struggling. Not only was Testaverde missing from the
lineup, but WR Wayne Chrebet missed the first quarter of the season because of a broken
foot.
After a miserable performance by the offense in a 16-6 loss to the Jaguars dropped the
Jets’ record to 1-4, the issue had momentarily stopped being wins and losses and had
become about maintaining team unity.
Would the defense start pointing fingers at the offense, or would the team stand
together and point to the next opponent on the schedule?
"I don’t know if it’s the media or whoever is trying to separate us or
get us to point fingers," Jets LB Bryan Cox said. "This is a team sport, but I
sense the media is trying to say, ‘You guys (the defense) are doing the job, and they
aren’t on offense.’
"But it’s a team game, and it ain’t going to get to the point where we
start pointing fingers. We have to be patient. You do your job the best you can and not
get to the point where you are not expecting the offense to score …
"We’re playing OK defense, but I wouldn’t say great. We’ve all got
to stick together."
Perhaps no one on defense understood Cox’s point better than CB Ray Mickens, whose
four penalties vs. Washington in Week Three contributed to the Jets’ loss.
"We’re all part of a team striving for the same thing," Mickens said.
"We can’t get there if we are divided."
While it remained to be seen if they would be divided or unified, there was no denying
the fact that the Jets were wounded. It was as if a war’s front lines had been moved
directly to the Jets’ locker room. After the Jets fell to 1-5 following a highly
respectable 16-13 loss to the much-improved Colts, it might have been easier if the
training staff had simply wrapped the entire locker room in a gigantic bandage.
Ray Lucas, who was named the starting quarterback over Rick Mirer only 2 1/2 hours
before kickoff, sprained his ankle on the last play of the game and would miss several
weeks.
When Lucas got to the training room after the game, they probably asked him if he had a
reservation. By this time, Testaverde, RB-KR Leon Johnson, LB Chad Cascadden and CB Otis
Smith had been lost for the season. It got so bad that DB Kevin Williams was placed on the
reserve/non-football injury list with, of all things, a severe case of strep throat that
put him in the hospital. He was done for the season.
"There’s been a lot of bad things this year," said NT Jason Ferguson,
who had already missed three games because of a sprained ankle. "There was a lot of
good last year. It’s like there’s a cloud over us. There’s definitely a
cloud over this team."
S Victor Green said, "Each loss we get, we lose a player. It’s unbelievable
the way we continue to lose players, whether it’s for one, two, three games or the
season."
P-QB Tom Tupa said, "I don’t think I’ve ever seen it like this."
In Week Seven, the Jets’ record fell to 1-6 in particularly crushing fashion, as
they blew a 20-3 lead and lost to the Raiders 24-23. The game-winning score for the
Raiders came on a five-yard TD pass from QB Rich Gannon to WR James Jett with only 26
seconds left in the game.
The Jets’ litany of injuries grew a little bit longer that day. Add a broken heart
to the list.
"I’m just fed up with the situation," Parcells said.
Mercifully, the Jets had a bye on their schedule the next week. They didn’t know
it at the time, but the worst was over.
Continued on Page 2
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