RIP Joe Walton

Former head coach of the Jets and afterward founded Robert Morris College's football program.

Former Jets coach, NFL tight end Joe Walton dies at age 85 - CBSSports.com

His Jets team in 1986 made the playoffs but fell to the Browns in double overtime. The Browns, of course, advanced to the AFC Championship Game, where they fell victim to the Broncos and "The Drive."

He also had a stint as the Steelers' offensive coordinator, where as I recall, he came under some heavy public criticism. I'm sure others on this board will be able to elaborate on that.

 

I was deep into my Rams fanboidom but had a soft spot for those mid '80s Jets. They were on the verge but just couldn't climb to the top of the mountain. Johnny Hector was one of my favorite running backs.

 

I covered a few Robert Morris football games and found Walton to be engaging and thoughtful. Unless something has changed, the stadium has seats only on one side, one of two stadiums like that I came across during my travels (Indiana State being the other).

 

Long Beach State played home games at Veterans Stadium which had just one side of about 10,000 seats.

 

Spartan Stadium at SJSU is like that now, albeit temporarily (supposedly).

 

As usual, I have an anecdote only distantly related to the subject.

I sat in front of Freeman McNeil at the 1987 Super Bowl.

 

His Jets teams were a lot of things, some good, some bad...but rarely boring. O'Brien generally put up the points despite being on put on his ass every play. The defense generally couldn't stop shit. Walt Michaels was much more a beneficiary of the sack exchange than Walton.

 

He had an unfortunate habit of always having a finger up his nose picking boogers when the camera was on

 

Walton seemed like a very good guy, but he definitely was not popular during his two seasons as offensive coordinator in Pittsburgh, which were also Chuck Noll's final two seasons as head coach. They were still running Noll's offense, which no longer worked without superior talent. His son, Joe, Jr., was a backup quarterback at Pitt at the time. I wonder how much crap he had to hear.

 

There was one year where O’Brien got sacked 60-something times despite having two very good linemen in Joe Fields and Marvin Powell up front. Unbelievable to think of today.

The Sack Exchange was past its early 80s peak, and Gastineau was being a distraction by making tabloid headlines every few weeks. I remember their secondary frequently got lit up.

I do recall one game where the Jets were losing and Walton, who always had his baseball cap on backwards, turned it around at halftime and the Jets rallied to win. And then from then on, he kept his hat facing forward, but it didn’t help.

 

OOP, it's been a while, but I thought I remembered the Steelers' QB complaining about him publicly at the time. Was that when Bubby Brister was the signal-caller?