This article also appeared in the New York Jets Special Advertising Supplement that was published in Thursday’s New York Daily News.
The next six months are shaping up to be a series of Gold Jacket and Green Letter days around the New York Jets.
To start, three of the Jets’ former stars — center Nick Mangold, tackle D’Brickashaw Ferguson and cornerback Darrelle Revis — will have their names added to the team’s Ring of Honor at MetLife Stadium during the 2022 NFL season.
Come winter, versatile and impactful defensive lineman Joe Klecko is likely to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a Seniors Finalist in the January vote by the Hall’s full Selection Committee. Also at that time, Revis could score an awards exacta since he could also be inducted into the Canton, OH shrine in his first year of eligibility.
Canton, Here They Come
Klecko played 11 seasons for the Jets, staking out a notable and unusual distinction — he was the rare defensive lineman who excelled as an end, tackle and nose tackle. The native of Chester, PA, who also won two NCAA club boxing titles at Temple University in the heavyweight division, was a two-time All-Pro. He led the NFL with 20.5 sacks in 1981, when the stat was unofficial. (Sacks became an official league statistic in 1982.)
The charter member of the New York Sack Exchange (along with Mark Gastineau, Marty Lyons and Abdul Salaam) is within whistling distance of a place in the Hall, needing at least 80 percent of the votes among the 49-member voting panel before Super Bowl LVII. Klecko is one of three Senior Finalists along with Bengals CB Ken Riley and Cowboys LB Chuck Howley.
“Playing in New York is one of the greatest things you can do,” Klecko said at the Atlantic Health Jets Training Center. “Winning in New York is the next best thing. I remember when we were the Sack Exchange and we were doing this photo shoot down at Wall Street and we drove down there and we turned the corner and it was mobs of people.”
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