Episode 302
Gerry Cheevers, John Schmitt
Host Bill Donohue welcomes Hall-of-Fame goaltender Gerry Cheevers and former New York Jets center John Schmitt for conversations about two unforgettable eras in sports history. Cheevers looks back on his career with the Boston Bruins, including winning two Stanley Cups and creating his famous stitched goalie mask that became one of hockey’s most recognizable images. Schmitt shares stories from the New York Jets’ historic Super Bowl III victory, including snapping the ball to Joe Namath during one of the biggest upsets in NFL history. Throughout the episode, both guests provide personal memories, behind-the-scenes stories, and reflections on the moments that defined their careers.
Takeaways:
- The illustrious career of Gerry Cheevers, a Hall-of-Fame goaltender, is marked by his innovative mask design that became iconic in the world of hockey.
- John Schmidt, the former center for the New York Jets, vividly recounts the challenges and triumphs of playing in Super Bowl III alongside the legendary Joe Namath.
- Both Cheevers and Schmidt reflect on their paths to professional sports, emphasizing the significant influences of mentors and personal experiences in shaping their careers.
- The podcast highlights the enduring impact of sports legends like Cheevers and Schmidt, whose stories resonate with fans and aspiring athletes alike.
- Listeners gain insight into the camaraderie and competitive spirit within professional sports, illustrated through the anecdotes of both guests during their careers.
- The conversations reveal the transformative power of sports in fostering relationships and community, as exemplified by Schmidt's enduring friendships formed through football.
Transcript
The views expressed in the following program do not necessarily represent those of the staff, management or owners of wgbb.
Speaker B:Live from the WGBB studios in Merrick, New York, this is Sports Talk New York.
Speaker C:Good evening and hello again, everybody.
Speaker C:Welcome.
Speaker C:Welcome to Sports Talk New York on WGB here in Merrick, Long Island, New York.
Speaker C: th day of May,: Speaker C:Our indispensable engineer, Brian Graves is with us at the board steering the ship.
Speaker C:I'm glad you're here with us tonight, wherever you might be.
Speaker C:My first show back after open heart surgery.
Speaker C:I am now part cow.
Speaker C:Got a cow valve.
Speaker C:Now there was a.
Speaker C:It was a very moving experience.
Speaker C:You like that one, Brian?
Speaker C:I wrote that one myself.
Speaker C:I will chat about it sometime, folks.
Speaker C:Well, we got a great show lined up for United.
Speaker C:Up first, we welcome in the great hall of Fame goaltender from the Boston Bruins, Jerry Cheevers will join us.
Speaker C:And in the second half we'll welcome in the center for The Super Bowl 3 champion New York Jets, John Schmidt will be here.
Speaker C:So sit back, relax, enjoy the show.
Speaker C:We got some great sports talk coming up in the next hour.
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Speaker C: and: Speaker C: helped win the Stanley cup in: Speaker C:He won more than 300 games in really storied career.
Speaker C: to the Hockey hall of fame in: Speaker C:I'd like to welcome to Sports Talk New York tonight, Jerry Cheevers.
Speaker C:Jerry, good evening.
Speaker D:Good evening, Bill.
Speaker D:How are you guys up there?
Speaker C:We're, we're doing good.
Speaker D:I was just going to say I had, I had a valve replaced a couple weeks ago myself.
Speaker D:I don't think it was the same type of valve.
Speaker D:I don't, I don't go around mooing so it's probably not.
Speaker E:Yeah.
Speaker C:Okay.
Speaker C:Well, they told me I can't go to burger King or McDonald's anymore, Jerry, because it would be like cannibalism, so.
Speaker D:That's true.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:So we got to be careful.
Speaker C:I'm glad you survived.
Speaker C:I survived.
Speaker C:And we're all okay to talk about it tonight.
Speaker C:Well, you grew up in the Ontario area, Jerry.
Speaker C:Who were your sports heroes as a kid?
Speaker D:Well, believe it or not, the city I grew up in, St. Catharines, Ontario, was also the home.
Speaker D:The training camp over the Toronto Maple Leafs and as a young.
Speaker D:And my dad was the manager of the arena there where they trained.
Speaker D:And occasionally he'd bring a player home to meet myself and my brother.
Speaker D:And the first one I remember more than anything was a goalie, and that's maybe why I end up playing goalie named Walter Turk Roda.
Speaker D:You have to go back sometimes to remember him, but he was a character, and he was actually the first guy that had any influence on what I was going to do in hockey.
Speaker D:And I really admired Turk Broda, and I would say he was the most for a young man, for a young boy, I should say he was the most influential guy that I could think of right now.
Speaker D:But as we grew older and I became part of the Maple Leaf organization, I would say the guy with the most influence on me becoming a goalie or trying to be was Johnny Bauer.
Speaker D:He was a great, terrific person.
Speaker D:And, you know, he didn't make the National League till very late in his career, you know, playing for the Cleveland Barons.
Speaker D:And I forget who else he played for, but he was a good one.
Speaker D:I would say he had most influence on.
Speaker D:On my.
Speaker D:What was I going to say about.
Speaker D:On my being a Gold tender, My wanting to be a Gold center.
Speaker C:Interesting.
Speaker C:A great one.
Speaker C:Johnny Bauer, folks.
Speaker C:Google him.
Speaker C:I believe he also played for the Maple Leafs, Jerry.
Speaker C:So, yeah, I did play a couple.
Speaker D:Of games when Bar was hurt, believe it or not.
Speaker C:Yep.
Speaker D:And that was without a mask, too.
Speaker D:So those.
Speaker D:Those were.
Speaker D:Weren't very likable days.
Speaker C:No, I wasn't.
Speaker D:Talk about when you played without the bat.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker D:Right.
Speaker C:Now, you were also an Amerk.
Speaker C:People around here know the Amerks, the Rochester Americans.
Speaker C:How was your day in Rochester?
Speaker D:It was fabulous.
Speaker D:Fabulous.
Speaker D:We had a great team, actually.
Speaker D:We went and called a truck there, and my first child was born there.
Speaker D:So I have fond memories of Rochester, New York.
Speaker D:And I can remember back that our team in Rochester was a farm team of the Maple Leafs, and we were supposedly supposed to play two exhibition games, one in Rochester and one in Toronto, but we beat them in Rochester and they canceled the one in Toronto, so.
Speaker D:So we had a pretty good team, actually.
Speaker D:And.
Speaker D:But it was a great city to play in.
Speaker D:A very affluential city.
Speaker D:A lot of good, not huge business.
Speaker D:Well, you know, some very good businesses.
Speaker D:And it was a great city to learn, to learn your craft.
Speaker C:Genesee, right, Jerry?
Speaker D:Genesee Cream Ale, right under the Genesee River.
Speaker C:That's it.
Speaker C:That's it.
Speaker C:And in.
Speaker C:In 67, the league expands, Jerry.
Speaker C:The Bruins lose Bernie Perron, Doug Favell to the Flyers.
Speaker C:So you're able to step right in in Boston.
Speaker D:Yeah, that was sort of surprising to me.
Speaker D:Each.
Speaker D:There's only six major or six big league teams then, and you can only protect one goalie and Eric.
Speaker D:And the Bruins had Eddie Johnson, an incumbent goaltender there, and Bernie and Dougie.
Speaker D:And I don't know how I got picked, but I did.
Speaker D:But we had just won two championships in Oklahoma City, their minor league team.
Speaker D:So I had won like.
Speaker D:I had been in goal for like three straight championship seasons, and I guess maybe that's why they called me, but, you know, to let Bernie and even Dougie get away.
Speaker D:I'm sure.
Speaker D:I don't know why they did it, but anyway, I ended up having a great relationship with Eddie Johnson and we won a couple of championships there.
Speaker C:You sure did.
Speaker C:Now we're speaking with Jerry Cheevers tonight on Sports Talk New York in 67.
Speaker C:I think it was, Jerry, you started wearing a mask regularly.
Speaker C:How was life before the mask, playing goalie in the NHL?
Speaker D:Well, first of all, it was.
Speaker D:It was very difficult.
Speaker D:And I knew playing without a mask that if I was going to last in the NHL or I've had NHL career, I was going to have to somehow put a mask on.
Speaker D:And there weren't very many state of the art masks at the time.
Speaker D:I think the first one I wore, even in Rochester, I didn't wear any of the games, but to practice, was a big plastic shield that used to fog up all the time.
Speaker D:And I knew that wasn't going to make it.
Speaker D:And when I got to Boston, I knew I was going to have to get a mask.
Speaker D:And for some reason, the Detroit Red Wings came to town and Lefty Wilson was their traitor.
Speaker D:I don't know if that's a familiar name to it, but he was the first one to design a mask.
Speaker D:It was a fiberglass mask, I think.
Speaker D:I don't know if Sotchuk put it out originally, but some of the Goalies of the Detroit organization.
Speaker D:I know it wasn't Glenn hall because he didn't put his on till later.
Speaker D:It might have been a goalie named Dennis Reagan, but I doubt it was him because he got hit in the eye and sort of ruined his career.
Speaker D:So I don't know how Lefty got to where, but I.
Speaker D:Anyway, I had to make one up for me because I knew sooner or later I was going to do it.
Speaker D:Have to.
Speaker D:Have to get used to it.
Speaker D:I had a tough time finding the puck on the ice with the mask because it intruded from my face.
Speaker D:It stuck out a little bit, but I had no idea where the puck was.
Speaker D:That's why I didn't wear it for a long time.
Speaker D:Then I met a guy in Boston, am Ernie.
Speaker D:Hey.
Speaker D:Oh, another thing about the Lefty Wilson Mass.
Speaker D:If you got hit in the face and you played a little different, you could put your nose closer to the grind, stove it.
Speaker D:If you get hit in the mask, it ruined your whole face.
Speaker D:It just shifted the whole mass.
Speaker C:Oh, boy.
Speaker D:So, yeah, and so it really wasn't the answer.
Speaker D:But I met a guy named Ernie Higgins, whose son was a roll in Boston, and he made masks so he could be where we made one.
Speaker D:And the key to the next mask I had made, the Ernie Higgins mask.
Speaker D:That it was anchored at the bottom so when you get hit, it stayed there.
Speaker D:It didn't shift the whole mass.
Speaker D:And we experimented it for weeks and weeks, you know, with different sponges in there to ease the blows and.
Speaker D:But it ended up being the one I wore.
Speaker D:And I only wore one my whole career.
Speaker D:In games, I had practice masks or halfway around my head mask I wore in spring in training camp.
Speaker D:But I only wear one in a game my whole career.
Speaker D:Right now that's on my grandson's wall at Rice University.
Speaker C:Interesting.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Now, what you did with the mask, Jerry, it really became a cultural phenomenon.
Speaker C:Now I had a mask my lect, the street hockey people.
Speaker C:I had a mask that I started putting stitches on my own Mylek mask.
Speaker C:And there's been rock bands writing songs about it.
Speaker C:It's been on tv.
Speaker C:How did you come up with the idea of putting the stitches on the mask?
Speaker D:Well, I used to live about a half an hour drive from Boston Gardens.
Speaker D:No one lived in the city at that time.
Speaker E:And it was.
Speaker D:I used to drive into practice every day.
Speaker D:And I had two things in my mind.
Speaker D:One was how to get out of practice, and the second was how to decorate my mask.
Speaker D:And it happened that this one particular day I got hit in this plain white mask.
Speaker D:And if I didn't have the mask on, it would not hurt me at all.
Speaker D:That's how easy.
Speaker D:Or it was like a fluttering shot, but I sort of faked like it was a bullet.
Speaker D:I went down like a ton of bricks.
Speaker D:Went in the dressing room and I said, well, I've accomplished one thing.
Speaker D:I got out of practice.
Speaker D:And about two minutes later, Harry Sinnen, who's the coach then come in.
Speaker D:He says, get out.
Speaker D:You're not even hurt.
Speaker D:He knew it was nothing serious.
Speaker D:So I go to go return to the practice ice, and our trainer, John Forrestal, Frosty Forrestal, went, hold it.
Speaker D:And I sort of quizzically looked at him.
Speaker D:He says, hold it.
Speaker D:Stay right there.
Speaker D:Well, he went and he got this magic marker and he painted a stitch mark on my mask.
Speaker D:And that by the time I got the ice, is what it's 10 stitch mark.
Speaker D:And everyone got a big kick out of it.
Speaker D:We laughed about it.
Speaker D:But from that time on forward, I sort of.
Speaker D:Every time like I.
Speaker D:The stick come up and hit me.
Speaker D:You got to hit with a stick more than a puck in the mass with all the stuff in front of the net.
Speaker D:And if I did get hit with a puck prosthesis, would sort of analyze it and see how many stitches I would have had.
Speaker D:That's how the stitches became part of the mask or.
Speaker D:And I kind of feel.
Speaker D:I don't.
Speaker D:Not so sure it's true, but that's my phone.
Speaker D:And that if I didn't do that and decorate the mask events, you know, that no one might have thought of it.
Speaker D:I'm sure they would have.
Speaker D:But I was, I think, the first to decorate the mask and it became a.
Speaker D:It to become a.
Speaker D:A great piece of art.
Speaker D:These bass today and over the years, I mean.
Speaker D:And it seemed to me that the.
Speaker D:The art they put on their masks mostly had to do with.
Speaker D:With how they felt or what they were.
Speaker D:I mean, and I had a goalie in the world hockey, Gilles Grattan, I think, played for the Rangers.
Speaker E:He did, He.
Speaker D:He did, yeah.
Speaker D:Very good goalie.
Speaker D:A little, Little off the wall.
Speaker D:But his, he, he, he at one time thought he was a.
Speaker D:He was a reincarnated conquistador.
Speaker D:So his mass was painted up.
Speaker D:We got a tenquistador.
Speaker D:And there's all sorts of stories with masks, but I don't know if I was or I wasn't, but I'm taking credit for being the first one to put art on it.
Speaker C:Interesting.
Speaker C:Okay, great story, Jerry.
Speaker C:Jerry Cheever's with us tonight on Sports Talk New York.
Speaker C:Now, the great Milk Milt Schmidt once said, called you a big money player, one of the greatest.
Speaker C:We need to make one big save in a game.
Speaker C:You were there.
Speaker C:Now up here, Jerry, we all, we always considered Billy Smith here on the island as a money goalie.
Speaker C:Do you see any similarities in the.
Speaker C:In your games between you and Smitty?
Speaker D:Well, I wasn't quite as feisty as Smitty.
Speaker D:I'm very, you know, I know Smitty and I have done a lot together after hockey, and he's a great guy.
Speaker D:I love him.
Speaker D:And I think he won four cups and I was one couple and was involved in another one.
Speaker D:But I think if there is a comparison to all is that we competed hard and hopefully that led to our success.
Speaker D:And I wasn't quite as aggressive as Willy.
Speaker D:But I'll tell you a funny story.
Speaker D:Before the Islanders became the champion Islanders, they were learning and growing, and they decided, and I know, and Al Arbour is their coach, who was a teammate of mine in Rochester, actually, he was our captain, but I don't think he initiated this.
Speaker D:But they came into Boston Gardens and they didn't care about the game.
Speaker D:They just wanted to fight us.
Speaker D:They had to be, because we were pretty tough in those days.
Speaker D:We had tough guys, Cashman, O'Reilly and all that.
Speaker D:Mackenzie, well, he was a scout girl.
Speaker D:I don't know how tough he was, but he started a lot, put it that way.
Speaker D:And so anyway, part of the plan was Smitty to fight me.
Speaker D:And I didn't know Smitty at the time.
Speaker D:And I'll never forget this because our other goaltender for the Bruins was Jules Gilbert, but he was hurt at the time, and he had a young goalie up from the East Coast League called East Belange who weighed about 108 pounds.
Speaker D:And Jilly could fight.
Speaker D:He was a good fighter.
Speaker D:I wasn't so Smitty.
Speaker D:When these fights voted Howard and Cashman, O'Reilly and Jim Gillies.
Speaker D:I mean, it was a Pier 4 out there.
Speaker D:And Smitty comes up to me.
Speaker D:I looked at him and his eyes are going upside down or turning the other way and he says, come on, Cheese, we got to go.
Speaker D:I said, smitty, you go fight.
Speaker D:I'm going to go over and talk to Chico Rich for a while.
Speaker D:If you come any closer, I'm going to have to hit you right over the head with my stick.
Speaker E:He said, come on.
Speaker E:I said, go fight for ease.
Speaker D:I could see ease.
Speaker D:He's getting whiter Every time he's getting paler, I should say every time I mentioned his name.
Speaker D:So I just snuck by Billy, went over and had a great conversation with Chico for a while.
Speaker C:Yeah, that's a great story, Jerry.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Yes, many had no trouble giving you a taste of the Coho, that's for sure.
Speaker C:I know he matched up several times with guys, but that's a story for a different day.
Speaker C:Now, in 72, you jumped to the Cleveland Crusaders of the WHA the upstart WHA.
Speaker C:With whom you would play three seasons.
Speaker C:Now, you went to Tommy Johnson, your coach, and you said, this is the offer I got.
Speaker C:And he said, you know, we can't match it, but are they looking for a coach?
Speaker E:Yeah.
Speaker D:Well, here's what happened.
Speaker D:We just won our second cup, and I don't mind talking about this because people really think he made.
Speaker D:You know, hockey players made millions most of their life.
Speaker D:Well, that's not true.
Speaker D:And we just come out of our second cup.
Speaker D:I was making 50,000 a year, which is okay at that time.
Speaker D:70, 72, I guess.
Speaker D:And they had a lawyer there who was a shyster, and he offered me a $3,000 raise.
Speaker D:This is what the reality of the world hockey.
Speaker D:It really, really hurt me that this was all they offered.
Speaker D:And I know they had Bobby and Phil, guys they had aside, but I knew the world hockey was a reality, like I said.
Speaker D:And just then, as.
Speaker D:As we're going through this negotiation, I got a guy that was.
Speaker D:Was my friend in Cleveland.
Speaker D:He said, I gotta call some guy or my friend in Boston.
Speaker D:I got a guy in Cleveland who wants to talk to you.
Speaker D:His name's Nicoletti, who.
Speaker D:I had no idea who he was, but he owed the Indians and the Cavalier, and he was a.
Speaker D:It turns out to be a.
Speaker D:Just a terrific person.
Speaker D:So we flew there, you know, not land of Stein wise or anything.
Speaker D:We just got on a plane and flew there.
Speaker D:And someone at the airport let it slip that I was going to Cleveland to negotiate with Cleveland.
Speaker D:So to make a long story short, we met Nick Paletti, and he said, what do you want?
Speaker D:And I said, a million dollars for four years.
Speaker D:You know, like, not even thinking it was possible.
Speaker C:Sure.
Speaker D:And he.
Speaker D:He turned right to me and he said, you got it.
Speaker D:I said, what?
Speaker D:He said, you got it.
Speaker D:I want you in Cleveland.
Speaker D:I'll give you a million for four.
Speaker D:But let's talk this over.
Speaker D:He said, so we met the Neck.
Speaker D:We stayed overnight.
Speaker D:We met the next night.
Speaker D:And he says, I went to my people, the backers, and if we're going to do it for four.
Speaker D:We're going to do for seven.
Speaker D:And I said, well, I went two and a half, 250,000 a year for seven years.
Speaker D:He said, I'll get back to you.
Speaker D:So I went back to Boston, flew in 7s, flew in from Cleveland, went back a few days later, and I said, listen, I got to be honest with you.
Speaker D:I'm going to give the Bruins a chance to match this, right?
Speaker D:Which.
Speaker D:Which there was no chance in the world of them matching it, but I had to be fair.
Speaker D:So Tommy Johnson was a coach and he called me and he was a racetrack guy like I was.
Speaker D:We used to hang around Rocky Gam Park a lot.
Speaker D:And I said, I'll meet you, Rocky Jam.
Speaker D:That's when the story happened.
Speaker D:He said, I'm here to offer you what Cleveland offer you.
Speaker D:I said, really?
Speaker D:And he goes, yeah.
Speaker D:And I says, well, this is what they offered me.
Speaker D:And the first thing he says, geez, you think they need a coach?
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker D:So that was the way the story went.
Speaker D:And the Bruins couldn't offer.
Speaker D:They did come up some what is in close.
Speaker D:And I was very.
Speaker D:When it was all done and finished, I was glad I went there.
Speaker D:First of all, the WJ was a success because they end up being part of the NHL, right?
Speaker D:And a lot of guys that wouldn't have had a chance to play in a major league atmosphere got that chance.
Speaker D:And most importantly is I'm still friends with guys I've met in Cleveland.
Speaker D:We talk, we go away.
Speaker D:And it was a great experience for me to meet a whole new group of people.
Speaker C:Yeah, you had great success.
Speaker D:Well, we were good.
Speaker D:We were good.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker D:The two teams that won it the first couple of years, New England and Winnipeg, were pretty good teams and really good teams.
Speaker C:And like you said, they moved on to the NHL, the Winnipeg jets and the Hartford Whalers.
Speaker C:And they really proved that they could play these guys.
Speaker C:Now, you left there, Jerry, you come back to the NHL and all you do is step on the ice and get a shutout.
Speaker D:Well, that was.
Speaker D:There's more to it than that.
Speaker D:You know, I wasn't really ready to play.
Speaker D:I hadn't played in a month.
Speaker D:And a lot of things are going through my mind that weren't good.
Speaker D:And one was getting back to Boston, which was good, don't get me wrong.
Speaker D:And so.
Speaker D:But I couldn't go on the ice until I cleared everything in the wha and at the salary I was making, no one was going to pick me up, you know, so I knew I was Going to be all right in Boston.
Speaker D:But I couldn't go on the ice and I couldn't.
Speaker D:So I went on the ice.
Speaker D:Friday, traveled with the out on the ice.
Speaker D:Thursday traveled with the team.
Speaker D:Friday practiced Friday morning, practiced Saturday morning in the morning skate.
Speaker D:And that was a game.
Speaker D:And I felt so bad.
Speaker D:Dave Reese was one of the goalies for Boston.
Speaker D:That's what I sit there got like I think 10 or 11 points and I was on the bench and Don Cherry was a coach Graves.
Speaker D:And I asked him sometime after why he didn't put me in.
Speaker D:And he says, you were going to play the next night no matter what.
Speaker D:We played with the worst league.
Speaker D:Detroit was awful by the time and we beat him, seven of them.
Speaker D:I begged for him, begged him to play David Reese, who that lit up pretty good the night before, but he wouldn't go for it.
Speaker D:That's.
Speaker D:And something erotic that erotic.
Speaker D:But when I left Boston, before I went to Cleveland in the regular season, I had last lost the last game of that season in Toronto, but I had gone 32 games without losing.
Speaker D:And the game I lost was Bobby and Phil didn't play.
Speaker D:They were wrestling for the playoffs and I lost that game.
Speaker D:Then I went to the world hockey for a couple years, three years.
Speaker D:When I come back, that game you're talking about, I won seven, nothing.
Speaker D:But I went 11 in a row after that without losing.
Speaker D:So it would have been in the.
Speaker D:In the 40s if I did lose that game in Metro in Toronto.
Speaker C:Right?
Speaker C:Yeah, that's exactly right.
Speaker D:So.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker C:Jerry Cheever is with us tonight on Sports Talk New York.
Speaker C:Now, before we finish up, Jerry, I want to ask you about coaching.
Speaker C:How did you decide you wanted to get into coaching?
Speaker D:I don't think I decided it.
Speaker D:What happened was I had a bum leg.
Speaker D:I was mentally and mindset wise, I was ready.
Speaker D:I could play another three or four years.
Speaker D:I was 41, I think it was.
Speaker D:And I went to see the doctor about my knee and he said, well, you know, usually we scope it, but I think we'd have to open you up and tighten this and that.
Speaker D:And I said, how long this is in.
Speaker D:I think in June, when we talked about it, he says, well, it's going to take you six months.
Speaker D:Oh boy, will it take me half through the year.
Speaker D:I said, so I go in the hockey.
Speaker D:I said, can I get away with a scope?
Speaker D:Not if you're going to play.
Speaker D:I says, well, what I'm going to.
Speaker D:If I retire, is my leg going to be all right?
Speaker D:He said, yeah, we'll rehabilitate it and you wouldn't need an operation.
Speaker D:Which I did later on.
Speaker D:Way later.
Speaker D:So I go into the office and I said to Harry, I said, harry, that's it.
Speaker D:I'm retiring.
Speaker D:This was on a Friday.
Speaker D:And he said, okay.
Speaker D:He didn't even argue with me.
Speaker D:He said he got till a week next Friday to see if you want to coach the team.
Speaker D:So if you.
Speaker D:If you think.
Speaker D:If people think I wanted to coach, I really didn't.
Speaker D:But I had nothing.
Speaker D:I had nothing to do, and.
Speaker D:And I probably took a 300 cut.
Speaker D:300 Cut to coach.
Speaker D:In fact, it was more than that, I think.
Speaker D:I think I only made 80,000.
Speaker D:Coaching coaches made nothing in those days.
Speaker D:And I had.
Speaker D:I went from 250 to 80.
Speaker C:Oh, boy.
Speaker D:But I ended up like, like, like I didn't ask for it.
Speaker D:I just had nothing to do.
Speaker D:So I decided to do it.
Speaker D:I was really out of my realm going in coaching.
Speaker D:I had no idea what I was doing.
Speaker D:And I sort of.
Speaker D:I got lucky.
Speaker D:I got an attack of appendicitis and about a month in.
Speaker D:And it gave me a chance to sit back and reevaluate what I was doing and readjust to what it took to be a coach of the NHL.
Speaker D:And in those days, coaches aren't like, you know, there's good coaches, obviously.
Speaker D:L. Arbor for sure, Scotty.
Speaker D:You know, all the ones you.
Speaker D:You would think of.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker D:But I wasn't ready to be a professional coach.
Speaker D: I could go to the gardens at: Speaker D:It takes a lot of time.
Speaker D:And today I wouldn't want to be a coach.
Speaker D:Today it's 24 hours a day.
Speaker D:It's films and this and that and I don't know.
Speaker D:I never wanted to be a coach, but I fell into it and I had a pretty good record.
Speaker D:And as soon as I got out, I was the happiest guy in the world.
Speaker C:That's crazy.
Speaker D:As soon as Harry fired me, he hired me.
Speaker D:As soon as he fired me, I was.
Speaker D:I was happy.
Speaker C:That's good.
Speaker C:Now you're still getting out on the links, Jerry.
Speaker E:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker D:What?
Speaker D:I'm healthy and everything.
Speaker D:We have a good bunch of guy play a lot with the Brad park down here.
Speaker D:We're at the same.
Speaker D:We're at the same club.
Speaker D:We're in.
Speaker D:We have a group of guys, we're called the Pen Seekers.
Speaker D:And we have guys from all over the.
Speaker D:The Northern Seaboard Northeast Chicago.
Speaker D:And we have a group in the season.
Speaker D:It's dwindling a little bit because we're losing guys.
Speaker D:But at 20, 25 guys four times a week keep our own books.
Speaker D:And as one guy says, you can't be too good, you can't be too bad.
Speaker D:You just got to go play and survive.
Speaker C:That's wonderful.
Speaker C:Well, Jerry Cheevers has been a pleasure.
Speaker C:I thank you for taking time out of your Sunday evening to spend it with us here up in New York on Sports Talk New York.
Speaker C:I wish you all the best of health and life, Jerry, and once again, thank you.
Speaker D:Thank you, bo.
Speaker D:Hope you're feeling good.
Speaker C:Thank you.
Speaker C:You too, Jerry.
Speaker C:Stay well.
Speaker C:That's Jerry Cheevers, ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker C:Up next on Sports Talk New York, we'll welcome in the former Super Bowl Jet, John Schmidt.
Speaker C:So stick around, folks.
Speaker B:You're listening to sports talk new york.
Speaker B: fm and: Speaker B:You're listening to sports talk new york on long island's wgb.
Speaker B:And now back to the show.
Speaker C:All right, folks, we are back.
Speaker C:We're back with Sports Talk New York on WGB AM FM radio live from beautiful downtown Merrick, Long Island, New York.
Speaker C:I hope everyone is well tonight.
Speaker C:I hope you're enjoying the end of your weekend, enjoying the program tonight, all the New England folks.
Speaker C:I was glad to bring you Jerry Cheevers tonight.
Speaker C:Great interview.
Speaker C:Just a great guy with some wonderful stories and a great NHL career.
Speaker C:One of the only, he might be the only players in the Hockey hall of Fame, a goaltender to, I believe, not make an All Star game and to not win the Vezina Trophy.
Speaker C:Interesting statistic about Jerry there.
Speaker C:And once again, we thank him for coming our way.
Speaker C:We are going to bring you John Schmidt in a couple of minutes.
Speaker C:We're waiting to get in touch with him.
Speaker C:But in the meantime, I want to talk to you about the New York Met game today.
Speaker C:What a great win, a great win against the Yankees, of course, and a real surprise for them to come back like that.
Speaker C:Showed some guts, showed some character for the jets to do that.
Speaker C:The Mets, I'm sorry, the jets, forget it.
Speaker C:But we'll talk to John Schmidt about that.
Speaker C:And the rookies, the guys they brought up, Carson Benge and A.J.
Speaker C:Ewing, just doing a tremendous job.
Speaker C:I would bring up more of the guys from Syracuse and to play them because they're really adding a spark to the lineup.
Speaker C:The guys they're paying millions of dollars to, like Bichette, Soto, not really adding much to the recipe here, but the young kids adding a spark.
Speaker C:I'd move them up in the lineup because AJ Ewing has got speed.
Speaker C:Definitely wreak some havoc on the opponent.
Speaker C:Getting on base and stealing a couple of bases would really help.
Speaker C:And that's it with the Mets.
Speaker C:They go down to Washington this week and take on the Nationals, so hopefully they can continue the winning ways down there in our nation's capital.
Speaker C:I believe Nolan McLean is going to start one of the ball games.
Speaker C:Always a pleasure to watch, Nolan.
Speaker C:And that's it for the Mets.
Speaker C:The Yankees, they're having a great year.
Speaker C:Anyway, despite losing the series to the Mets, they of course have bright spots in their lineup and well, let's take a short break, folks.
Speaker C:We'll be back in one second.
Speaker C:Maintain the C&O canal nationalism for 248.
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Speaker A:Open to all army veterans, this first registry allows veterans or a loved one on their behalf to create a permanent public record of their service.
Speaker A:No soldier's story should be forgotten.
Speaker A:Learn more@armyhistory.org that's armyhistory.org Sponsored by Army Historical Foundation, Inc.
Speaker F:Are you a foster, adoptive or kinship parent with questions?
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Speaker F: Get help at: Speaker F: -: Speaker F:Cool.
Speaker E:Hey man, I always see those pics.
Speaker D:You post of you and your family at special events.
Speaker D:What gives?
Speaker G:Oh yeah, Vet Tix.
Speaker G:Vet Tix gives.
Speaker E:What's Vet Tix?
Speaker G:Vet Tix is an awesome charity that gives free event tickets.
Speaker G:You know, like concerts, sporting events and shows currently serving military and vets, including the immediate family of troops killed in action.
Speaker D:I've got extra tickets.
Speaker E:Can I donate them?
Speaker G:Yeah, it's easy.
Speaker G:Just go to vet6.org you can give your extra tickets and other vets like me can sign up to get them.
Speaker E:Cool.
Speaker C:All right, folks, we're back Sorry for that little glitch.
Speaker C:I had given Brian the wrong number.
Speaker C:I gave him the number of one of my doctors.
Speaker C:And, of course, you like that one, John, right?
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:And so we were getting the wrong number.
Speaker C:Now we're connected.
Speaker C:So our next guest, one of the few men on this planet who can claim the title of world champion New York Jet.
Speaker C:He was the center snapping a ball to Joe Namath during Super Bowl 3.
Speaker C:And he performed the duties of center for 10 years in the NFL.
Speaker C:He was really in charge of making sure that Broadway Joe's uniform stayed clean.
Speaker C:I welcome to Sports Talk New York tonight, John Schmidt.
Speaker C:John, good evening.
Speaker D:Good evening.
Speaker E:My buddy.
Speaker E:How you doing?
Speaker C:Ah, we're doing all right, John.
Speaker C:Once I get my head out of the clouds, we'll be doing okay.
Speaker E: you know, I started there in: Speaker E:My sponsor for many, many, many, many, many years.
Speaker E:And, God, I can't tell you how much fun we had at that station.
Speaker E:I mean, I would come out of there after doing a show, you know, mine was 605 show, and people would be getting off of the trains and everything and say, oh, we listened to everybody.
Speaker E:I had a lot of guests on.
Speaker E:Howard Cosell was a dear, dear friend of mine, and he would help me get anybody who I needed to get.
Speaker E:I mean, I had Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali and you name it, anybody.
Speaker E:And the big fights, the $5 million fights.
Speaker E:And I had.
Speaker E:He got them for me.
Speaker E:I mean, he was.
Speaker E:He helped me so much over those 10 years that I was there.
Speaker C:Great, John.
Speaker C:Yes.
Speaker C:Some heavy hitters you brought in there.
Speaker C:WGB is Long Island's oldest radio station.
Speaker C:So I tell people, you.
Speaker C:It's Long Island's oldest radio station with Long Island's oldest host, right?
Speaker E:Yeah, you better believe it.
Speaker E:You better believe it.
Speaker C:Now, growing up in CI in Central Islip, John, who were your teams and sports heroes when you were a kid?
Speaker E:Oh, when I was a kid, you know, I was born in Brooklyn.
Speaker E: moved out to Central Islip in: Speaker E:And, you know, basically the.
Speaker E:The.
Speaker E:The Yankees and the Giants were my teams in those days, you know, when I was young, before I learned.
Speaker E:And, you know, and I.
Speaker E:You know, my.
Speaker E:My dad worked at a lighting company, and he had a tractor business on the side.
Speaker E:I mean, I played football.
Speaker E:I was on a wrestling team and a track team at Seaton Hall High School in Patchogue.
Speaker C:And there's a name for you folks.
Speaker E:I mean, it was, oh, yeah.
Speaker E:Now it's St. Joseph's College.
Speaker E:But, you know, the thing is, in those days, you know, it was a Catholic school, so there wasn't a lot of money if.
Speaker E:If you didn't make the three o' clock bus.
Speaker E:You had a hitchhike home.
Speaker C:Oh, gee.
Speaker E:Oh, I had a hitchhike home for two and a half years, every night till I was.
Speaker E:Till I was at the second half of my junior year when I got old enough to get a junior license.
Speaker E:So I was out on that highway every night after practice, hitchhiken back to Isop Avenue and then going north five miles to where I lived on Isob Avenue, you know.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker E:Joshua's path, whatever you want to call it now.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker E:But it was an unbelievable experience.
Speaker E:And, I mean, I got, you know, many nights, I didn't exactly get ride all the way home, you know, I.
Speaker E:Many nights I walked two and three miles.
Speaker C:You hoofed it.
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker E:And I tell them, I tell my kids, and it was always uphill.
Speaker E:They don't believe me.
Speaker E:Right.
Speaker C:Yeah, that's.
Speaker C:That's the great story, John.
Speaker E:I'm telling you, seriously, I really did that for two and a half years.
Speaker E:It was unbelievable.
Speaker C:Sure.
Speaker E:Now, you can't.
Speaker E:You can't do that now because you'd hitchhike one day and you wouldn't be found again, you know?
Speaker C:Exactly.
Speaker C:They'd be dragging the river.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:For your body.
Speaker E:Absolutely.
Speaker D:Absolutely.
Speaker C:Now you chok as Hofstra.
Speaker C:How'd you get to Hofstra?
Speaker C:What other schools were you considering before you went there?
Speaker E:Well, I have, you know, I made the news all star team.
Speaker E:And in those days, there wasn't like a news all star team for Suffolk and Nassau or New York City.
Speaker E:There was only one team for all.
Speaker E:All the boroughs.
Speaker E:Okay.
Speaker E:And Long Island.
Speaker E:And I made.
Speaker E:I made that team.
Speaker E:And I had 12 scholarships offers.
Speaker E:I mean, Southern Cal, North Carolina, Duke, I mean Hofstra, Adelphi, Gettysburg.
Speaker E:I had appointments to the Merchant Marine Academy and the Coast Guard Academy, but nobody in my family ever went to college.
Speaker E:And my dad, we had this factor business on his side, and he wanted me to, you know, to work with him and we get a bulldozer and go into real heavy construction and that stuff.
Speaker E:But I had a girlfriend named Joanne who has been my wife now for 63 years.
Speaker E:And she said, no, you're going to go to college.
Speaker E:But my dad, he came over to Kings Point Academy, and we went in there, and he was an old army guy, and he was really impressed with Kings Point.
Speaker E:So I Signed up.
Speaker E:Harry Wright was the coach at that time.
Speaker E:Great guy.
Speaker E:Till days died.
Speaker E:We were friends and I, he signed me up, all right, and that was it.
Speaker E:My dad loved the place, and it wasn't far from home.
Speaker E:It's only 30 miles from home, you know, so that was great.
Speaker E:But as time I was still, I got, actually, I took my physical and I got my commission.
Speaker E:I was in the Merchant Marine Academy.
Speaker E:And then Coach Myers, Howdy Myers from Hofstra University comes to my house, not knowing that I already have a commission to Merchant Marine Academy.
Speaker E:And he's looking at me, you know, I mean, I lived in the same room as my sister.
Speaker E:You know, we had a two, two bedroom Cape Cod house, right?
Speaker E:And, you know, he says, you know, and he thought I was going to Southern Cal because that was the biggest scholarship I had.
Speaker E:And as you know, you go out to Southern Cal, John, you're going to go out there, he says, your parents, you're only going to be able to come home maybe once a year at Christmas time because your dad and mom can't afford it.
Speaker E:And he said, you know, those, those guys out there are going to be wearing $150 sport jackets and $75 shoes.
Speaker E:And he said, you're not going to be able to afford that, you know.
Speaker E:And then he comes up with the big one.
Speaker E:He goes, you have a girlfriend?
Speaker E:I said, yeah.
Speaker E:He says, where does she live?
Speaker E:I said, massapequa.
Speaker E:He said, well, that's only 15 minutes from Oxford.
Speaker E:That was a big, big plus.
Speaker E:I can't tell you it wasn't.
Speaker E:All right.
Speaker E:And then he, but, but the clincher, the clincher, Billy, he says, do you know that, you know, the, you've got those appointments, the Merchant Marine Academy at Coast Guard Academy?
Speaker E:He says, john, that's a great honor.
Speaker D:That's a great honor to have that.
Speaker E:He says, but you know that the Merchant Marine Academy goes out to sea for six months twice doing that, four years college.
Speaker E:I go, they never told me that.
Speaker E:So I signed with Hofstra, okay?
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker E:And then I had, so now I'm, now I'm in Hofstra and I've got a merchant.
Speaker E:I got an appointment to Merchant Marine Academy, and I have to go over and, and resign my commission, okay?
Speaker E:And Harry Wright was so personal, such a great guy.
Speaker E:And he, he, I saw him went over and I'm crying.
Speaker E:It took me two, two weeks to get the gumption to get over there.
Speaker E:And I went over there and I, I, you know, I, I, I'm crying.
Speaker E:I'm sorry.
Speaker E:I'm sorry.
Speaker E:I'm gonna.
Speaker E:I've got a gun.
Speaker E:He's.
Speaker E:Listen, John, he says, whatever happens, he says, if you want to come back here, you always have a commission here.
Speaker E:He was great to me, and we were friends.
Speaker E:We were friends forever.
Speaker E:As a matter of fact, Hofstra played Kings Point every year, and we beat them every year.
Speaker E:Okay.
Speaker E:And then he left there and he went to the Giants as a backfield coach.
Speaker E:And of course, we played the Giants up at Yale Field in the summertime.
Speaker E:The first summer game up there at Yale, we played against the Giants, and we beat them up there.
Speaker E:Okay.
Speaker E:The jets beat the Giants in that preseason game.
Speaker E:And Harry Wright comes over to me after the game and he says, smitty, are you ever going to let me win a game before I die?
Speaker E:He was the greatest.
Speaker E:He was such a great guy.
Speaker E:Anyway, that's how it started.
Speaker E:Yeah.
Speaker E:And then.
Speaker E:And then I went to Hofstra, and I grew one.
Speaker E:Now, when I was a freshman, I was only 205 pounds as a freshman, and I played offensive and defensive tackle, but I grew in those first three years.
Speaker E:Yeah.
Speaker E:By the time I was a junior, I had grown to 6, 4, and I was 297 pounds.
Speaker C:Wow.
Speaker E:And I played both ways.
Speaker E:I played offensive and defensive tackle, and I made little All American.
Speaker E:That defensive tackle, Coach Myers, he.
Speaker E:He was friendly with Coach Eubank and the jets, and he says, why don't you give this kid a look?
Speaker E:See?
Speaker E:So they came out, we view bank and Trep Knox, who was the offensive line coach at that time, and, you know, they worked me out a little bit.
Speaker E:And what had happened, I had played.
Speaker E:I had played center for four games in my junior year when center got hurt.
Speaker E:And that's the only experience I had at the center.
Speaker E:But Coach Eubank tells me our center is getting old.
Speaker E:He was 27, so I believed him.
Speaker E:I thought 27 was old.
Speaker E:You know, I'm 20 at the time.
Speaker E:Time.
Speaker D:Right.
Speaker E:So they signed me.
Speaker E:They signed me as A Center for $8,500 free agent contract with them.
Speaker E:And they gave me a brand new football to practice.
Speaker E:Snapping.
Speaker D:Wow.
Speaker E:And that was it.
Speaker E:And that was it.
Speaker E:That's how I got to the Jets.
Speaker C:And that's the story.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:John Schmidt with us tonight on Sports Talk New York.
Speaker C:Now, Joe Namath.
Speaker C:People remember Joe, his passing army, but he really had a skill at reading the defenses, didn't he, John?
Speaker D:Yeah, Coach.
Speaker E:You know, the coach would send in plays and Joe would say, I got a better play because he could read the defenses.
Speaker E:He was a field general.
Speaker E:He was unbelievable.
Speaker E:He was the toughest guy, Billy.
Speaker E:He was one of the toughest men.
Speaker D:I've ever played with.
Speaker E: guys, but we were playing in: Speaker E:He was 6 foot 9, 325 pounds, and he broke through the line and he, he ran over Joe like a Ford over rooster, okay?
Speaker E:I'm not kidding you.
Speaker E:He was.
Speaker E:And, and he went down.
Speaker E:They hit his head on.
Speaker E:And in those days, they had.
Speaker E:The infield was skinned.
Speaker E:There was nothing there.
Speaker E:No grass on the infield.
Speaker E:It was just rock hard, okay?
Speaker E:And he hit his head and he was unconscious.
Speaker E:I mean, I went back and they saw the whites in it.
Speaker E:So I never saw the whites of a guy's eyes in my life laying there, you know, like, I didn't know he was alive or dead.
Speaker E:I'll be honest with you.
Speaker D:All right?
Speaker D:Yeah.
Speaker E:And in those days, the rules were different from today.
Speaker E:In those days, if you got up, you could stay in the game.
Speaker D:All right?
Speaker E:So Dr. Nicholas gave him some smelling sauce and everything.
Speaker E:And Joe got up and he's directly across from me in the huddle, right?
Speaker E:And I'm looking at him and I see his hands, and his hands are shaking so bad, you know, I said, joe, call timeout, buddy.
Speaker E:We need time.
Speaker E:No, no.
Speaker E:He calls a fast play, he hits Don Maynard.
Speaker E:Now he's unconscious.
Speaker E:He gets in the huddle, he calls a P37 pass down the right side of the field for a touchdown.
Speaker E:47 Yard touchdown.
Speaker E:I went to Ernie Laird and I told him, I said, ernie, don't piss him off.
Speaker E:He's going to beat you.
Speaker E:And he told me to do something to myself that was physically impossible, but I won't say it on the air.
Speaker E:And we did beat him.
Speaker E:Oh, man.
Speaker E:I mean, he is so tough.
Speaker E:I'm not kidding you.
Speaker E:He's a great.
Speaker E:We talk every week and still he lives.
Speaker E:I live in Brookville, Long island, but I have a home in Boca west in Boca Raton for the last 37 years.
Speaker E:And I'm down here for four months a year.
Speaker E:And Joe's up in Jupiter and I see.
Speaker E:Matter of fact, we're at his.
Speaker E:We were at his charity tournament last Friday, Thursday and Friday, and we raised a half a million dollars for his charity.
Speaker E:I mean, he's, he is.
Speaker E:He has got such drawing power.
Speaker E:We had 85 guys pros.
Speaker E:Half of them were hall of Famous.
Speaker E:And not just football.
Speaker E:Football, Baseball, basketball, hockey, football, you name it.
Speaker E:They come every year, and it's like a family.
Speaker E:And they come up and pay homage to Joe.
Speaker E:I remember about four years ago, the quarterback from the Pittsburgh Steelers, and he came in and we were honoring him, Terry Bradshaw, and we were honoring him at that dinner that night.
Speaker E:But before the dinner, he comes up to Joe, and I was standing right next to Joe, and he says, joe, thank you for having me.
Speaker E:I'm really.
Speaker E:I wanted to be here so bad.
Speaker E:This guy won four Super Bowls, and he's thanking Joe for letting him come to his tournament.
Speaker E:I mean, you can't believe the homage that he gets from all the respect.
Speaker E:Because it wasn't for that $427,000 contract, you know, they wouldn't be making those 50 and $100 million contracts now.
Speaker C:You know, you're right.
Speaker E: ean, you know, by the way, in: Speaker C:Yeah, you were on the way.
Speaker E:I swear to God.
Speaker E:That's true.
Speaker C:John Schmidt with us tonight on Sports Talk New York.
Speaker C:Now, you got to think about the super bowl every day, I would imagine.
Speaker C:John, what did you guys think when Joe comes out and predicts a win?
Speaker E:Oh, oh, listen, he was at this.
Speaker E:He was at this Miami Touchdown Club dinner on Thursday night before the super bowl, right?
Speaker E:And they were like 800 people there at this dinner.
Speaker E:And Joe gets up to speak, and there's some guy in the background who's, you know, had.
Speaker E:Had too much to drink and was really, really peppering him a lot.
Speaker E:And I've never seen Joe get upset, but he got upset, and he yells out to that guy, he goes, hey, fella, I just want to tell you, he says, we have a really good team, and we're going to win this game tomorrow.
Speaker E:As a matter of fact, I guarantee, not tomorrow, but Sunday, I guarantee we're going to win that game.
Speaker D:All right?
Speaker E:Now, what Joe didn't know was that there was a reporter from the Miami Herald over in one of the tables at the dinner.
Speaker D:All right?
Speaker E:So the next morning, I'm sitting.
Speaker E:I'm going down to breakfast at the hotel that we're staying at.
Speaker E:And Joe was at the next table with his girlfriend.
Speaker D:She.
Speaker E:Her name was Susie Storm.
Speaker E:She was so beautiful.
Speaker E:Oh, my God.
Speaker E:And Joe was there, and his eyes were so bloodshot, I couldn't.
Speaker E:I can't tell you they weren't, all right?
Speaker E:And Coach Eubank comes up to him, and when.
Speaker E:When he's really upset with Joe, he calls him Joseph, okay?
Speaker E:Oh, and he comes up and he's got.
Speaker E:He's got the tie.
Speaker E:He's got the paper under his arm, okay?
Speaker E:And he comes up to Joe and he goes, joseph, Joseph, did you say this?
Speaker E:And he opens up the paper, and there it says, namath guarantees win.
Speaker E:And big, big let.
Speaker E:I mean, Joe's eyes are so bloodshot.
Speaker E:He had a hard time looking at it, but he did see it, all right?
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker E:And he's going, why did you do it, Joe?
Speaker E:Joe, do you know what they're going to do with that?
Speaker E:They're going to put that on the locker room wall.
Speaker E:They want to go.
Speaker E:They're going to come out.
Speaker E:They're going to want to kill us.
Speaker E:Joe, you know that.
Speaker E:You know that, don't you?
Speaker E:And Joe is in.
Speaker E:You can see smoke coming out Joe's ears.
Speaker E:And he finally talks to the coach and goes to the coach and goes, well, Coach, you've been telling us all week that.
Speaker E:That we're going to win.
Speaker E:He says, don't you think we're going to win?
Speaker E:I just told him what you've been telling him.
Speaker E:It's no big deal.
Speaker E:But I want to tell you something about four years after our Super Bowl.
Speaker E:I did Live at Five with Ernie and Nancy before that super bowl coming up that weekend.
Speaker E:And this is like the fourth, the two, two or three years After Hours, okay?
Speaker E:And.
Speaker E:And it's life.
Speaker E:Live at Five is live, okay?
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker E:So we're there.
Speaker E:We're sitting there and says, john, before we get going, we've got a few shots of you in the beginning of the game.
Speaker E:And I said, oh.
Speaker E:So they run it, right?
Speaker E:And you see me getting buried with three or four plays.
Speaker E:I mean, buried, all right?
Speaker E:And they cut to me and says, john, what's going on there?
Speaker E:Well, the truth was, I'm getting my butt kicked right there.
Speaker E:Well, I said, you know, Emerson Boozer.
Speaker E:I said, Emerson Booza liked to cut and spin.
Speaker E:And, you know, it had rained the night before, so the field was really wet, and he didn't know whether to wear his long cleats or his short cleats.
Speaker E:And after I could, after you saw how deep my face was being pushed into the mud, I told them, wear the long cleats, all right?
Speaker E:And they started to laugh in the studio, right?
Speaker E:And then they cut to a commercial, and I punched Ernie right in the chest.
Speaker E:I said, you son of A gun.
Speaker E:I said, I'm going to kill you when the show is over.
Speaker E:Oh, it was so funny.
Speaker E:But, yeah, in the first quarter, Billy, they came out and they were.
Speaker E:They really tried to kill us.
Speaker E:But once we got our ground game going and Matt Snell ran into that 19 straight, what we call a 19 straight, which is an end run off of our left tackle, Winston Hill, he earned.
Speaker E:He owned.
Speaker D:Excuse me.
Speaker E:He owned their right defensive end, and he just could take them one way or the other.
Speaker E:And we ran all day.
Speaker E:And when Matt scored that touchdown, Billy, no team had scored a running touchdown against them all season, and they couldn't believe it.
Speaker E:And in the second half, when the second half began, see, the jets and Coach Eubank coached Baltimore before he coached the jets, they had our checkoff system because they use the same checkoff system as we did, all right?
Speaker C:Oh, yeah, so.
Speaker E:So they knew our checkoffs.
Speaker D:All right?
Speaker E:So what we did the whole second half, number one, we did not throw a pass in the second half, all right?
Speaker E:We ran the ball, all right?
Speaker E:Matt Snell had 116 yards rushing in.
Speaker D:That game, which was a record.
Speaker E:Was.
Speaker E:It was an NFL record, all right, for the super bowl, right.
Speaker E:And we would.
Speaker E:We would just go into the huddle and we call a fake place, and we come up to the line and, you know, like, the colors would be red, white and blue, green, gray and gold, you know, and it was always one, you know, one letter in the Alphabet to start.
Speaker E:Green, gray, gold, red, white, blue.
Speaker E:And we would call a fake checkoff, okay?
Speaker E:So they would go to then, and they heard green, okay?
Speaker E:So they know it's, you know, it's going to be green, gray, gold.
Speaker E:And then Joe would turn the other way and go blue from blue, black, red, you know, red, white and blue.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker E:And that would be the play that we're going to run.
Speaker E:So we'd wait for them to shift, and then he would call the play opposite their strength.
Speaker E:And we had them yelling and screaming at each other by the beginning of the third quarter, because how can they figure this out?
Speaker E:They know every time we go there, they're on the other side.
Speaker E:They go, you know, and that's what happened.
Speaker E:We called the check with me offense the whole second half, and that's how we won the game.
Speaker C:And the rest I say is history.
Speaker C:Well, John, I got many more items that I want to talk to you about.
Speaker C:Will you come back and see us again?
Speaker E:I would love to come back.
Speaker E:WGB is in my heart for millionaires.
Speaker C:And mine as well, John.
Speaker C:Yes, I'll keep in touch with you.
Speaker E:Have a great one.
Speaker C:John Schmidt, I want to tell you it's been a pleasure and I want to thank you for taking time out of your Sunday night would spend us spend it up here in New York.
Speaker C:I wish you the best and I will speak to you soon.
Speaker D:I hope so.
Speaker E:Thanks, Billy.
Speaker D:Take care.
Speaker C:That is John Schmidt, ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker C:Well, that'll do it for me tonight on Sports Talk New York.
Speaker C:I'd like to thank my guests Jerry Cheevers and John Schmidt, my engineer Brian Graves, and of course, you guys for joining us.
Speaker C:I'll see you Next on Sunday, May 31 for more sports Talk New York.
Speaker C:Till then, be safe, be well.
Speaker C:Bill Donahue, wishing you a good evening, folks.
Speaker A:The views expressed in the previous program did not necessarily represent those of the staff, management or owners of WGB.
