Joe Walton, who died on Sunday at age 85, presided over what I think of as “The Jets Era That Never Was.”
He led the team from 1983 through 1989. There were moments when they looked like pro football’s best team. And there were the doldrums when fans bellowed “Joe Must Go!”
In some ways, I believe, his career is a cautionary sports tale, an arc of an American dream.
He was from Beaver Falls, Pa. — yes, the same town as Joe Namath. And he starred at the University of Pittsburgh as a receiver-tight end, a position he played after turning pro.