Some (older) Matt Snell articles:
Ex-Jets great Matt Snell carries 30-year grudge, vows to skip 'Ring' ceremony
Nov 19, 2015
The man who scored the most famous touchdown in New York Jets history works by himself in a decaying brick building on a gritty residential street. Anyone on the sidewalk can look inside because there's an open garage, blocked by a chain-link fence. You can see two 1970s cars -- a silver Corvette Stingray and a royal-blue Cadillac with a white roof and a "For Sale" sign in the windshield. You can hear classical music coming from the garage, not the soundtrack you'd expect in such a dingy setting.
Time stopped here 40 years ago -- or at least that's how it appeared when a reporter showed up Wednesday, looking to solve the Matt Snell mystery. The former great, who moved like a Vette and styled like a Caddy when he played running back in the 1960s and 70s, cut ties long ago with his former team and his former teammates. The estranged Snell harbors a 30-year grudge, maybe longer, and no one seems to know why.
In 10 days, the Jets are planning to induct Snell and his longtime backfield partner, Emerson Boozer, into the Ring of Honor during at halftime ceremony at MetLife Stadium. Snell lives only 10 miles from the stadium, but from all indications, it'll be a one-back formation at midfield. The organization has been trying for weeks -- no, months -- to contact him, to find out if one of their Super Bowl III heroes will attend. The response?
Crickets.
On Wednesday, Snell, 74, emerged from the shadows in his garage to check on a stranger who was calling for him at the chain-link fence. The old man, wearing a blue hoodie with an Olympic logo over his heart, was in cranky mood, leaving no doubt about his intentions. He wants no part of the Jets. There's no chance he will show up next Sunday.
"I don't want anything to do with them," he snapped at the reporter.
"Why? You were such a great player. No one understands why ..."
"That's right, you don't understand," Snell said. "You don't understand because you've never walked in my shoes, OK? Just leave it alone and write your story about Emerson and let him have a good time, let him enjoy himself, OK?"
"So you won't attend?"
"No," he barked. "I'll see you later."
If he were standing in front of a door, he would've slammed it. The balding man, a shriveled-up version of the 6-foot-2, 220-pound hulk who mashed linebackers on Sundays, turned and walked away from the fence, disappearing into the shadows again as a piano concerto echoed in the building that houses his construction business in Jersey City, New Jersey.
It was sad.
On Jan. 12, 1969, Snell rushed for 121 yards and scored New York's only touchdown in the Jets' stunning 16-7 upset of the Baltimore Colts. Some feel he deserved to be the Super Bowl MVP; the honor went to Joe Namath, who famously guaranteed the victory and calmly orchestrated the attack.
Matt Snell's construction business sits in Jersey City, New Jersey, just miles from where the Jets play at MetLife Stadium.
Snell and Boozer played seven years together, from 1966 to 1972, forming perhaps the most celebrated backfield in team history. Snell and Boozer. Boozer and Snell. They were always linked, and it's entirely fitting they're entering the Ring of Honor as a tandem.
"It would be special for me and special for him if we could be together, our last hurrah on a football field," Boozer said. "I'm looking forward to it. I'm hoping Matt reconsiders. It'll be our last time to see the fans and hear the applause."
The Jets are planning to honor Snell whether he shows up or not. Some wonder if his two children will come on his behalf. Their father already is being honored at the Jets' facility. A giant head shot of Snell is hanging on the wall in the team's field house, along with Boozer and the 15 previous honorees. Many of them will attend the Nov. 29 ceremony. So will members of the Super Bowl III team, a tightly knit group that gathers every year for a golf tournament in New Jersey.
"It's important to recognize both Matt Snell and Emerson Boozer, given their historical accomplishments and contributions to the New York Jets," team spokesman Bruce Speight said. "We are excited that Emerson will be on hand for the ceremony. We have extended the same invitation to Matt for what we are planning to be a fitting celebration of two great Jets."
Clearly, Snell believes he was wronged by the Jets, but how? There are a couple of theories floating around. Some former teammates say he felt snubbed by the team because it wouldn't hire after his playing career. Others believe he's angry because former owner Leon Hess purportedly reneged on a promise to give Snell a job in his oil company.
But Hess died in 1999. Would Snell carry the grudge this long?
Another theory: Snell was a season-ticket holder into the mid-1980s, when the Jets had moved to Giants Stadium, and he became miffed when the price of his four tickets was raised. Word has it that Snell called the ticket office, asking for a 10- to 20-percent reduction. The answer was no, and he surrendered his tickets.
But would he stay angry for 30 years because a mid-level guy in the ticket office gave him a hard time?
No one knows the real story, but there are a lot of hard feelings.
"I don't know how you could hate that much," said John Schmitt, the starting center in Super Bowl III. "Life is too short. I don't care if you don't like the organization -- that's his choice -- but to not want to be with your teammates? That's wrong. We're all getting up there in age. We don't know when we'll see each other again. I love the guy, but I feel bad for him. He should be there."
Boozer said the last time he spoke to Snell was about three years ago. That phone number no longer works. He doesn't expect to see his old friend next Sunday.
"You'd think he'd want to be part of something like that, and put his bitterness aside," Boozer said.
He'd have 70,000 people cheering for him. Few people on earth are lucky enough to experience something like that.
Snell will stay in the shadows, hanging out with his antique cars and listening to concert-hall music in his beat-up garage.
Entire article:
https://www.espn.com/blog/new-york/...ies-30-year-grudge-vows-to-skip-ring-ceremony
Just sayin': I just wonder if Matt Snell is one of the many former NFL players suffering from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).
Why An Ex-Jets Great Wants Nothing To Do With The Jets
9/19/18
View attachment 25315
Excerpted from Beyond Broadway Joe: The Super Bowl
TEAM That Changed Football
, now available from Dey Street Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
Matt Snell holds a number of distinctions in Jets lore. He was one of the cornerstone college stars that the NBC television network demanded the AFL sign when the Peacock Network doled out $36 million in 1964 for its American Football League coverage. The first number-one pick ever to sign with the Jets, he earned the Jets’ first AFL Rookie of the Year honors, led the team in 1964 in rushing, and finished second in receiving. The fourth-leading rusher in Jets history (4,285 yards), he is not only synonymous with the Jets’ Super Bowl III victory over Baltimore, but in the minds of many, deserved to be named MVP in that epic win.
But Matt’s first mark in Jets history occurred in 1963, the only time both the New York Jets and New York Giants made the same player a high draft pick (the Jets’ number-one selection in the AFL draft on November 30, 1963; the Giants’ number three in the NFL draft, three days later). When they didn’t ignore them, Giants ownership publicly sneered at the Jets until after Super Bowl III.
A Giants fan growing up on Long Island, Matt was the first member of the Snell clan given the opportunity to attend college. His mom became sold on Ohio State when Matt was offered a full scholarship that was not dependent on him playing football. Coach Woody Hayes promised Mrs. Snell that Matt would earn his B.A. if he was a serious student, accepted tutoring if needed, attended classes, etc. That established college as a Snell family goal for his siblings and, later in life, his own children.
It’s hard to fathom that during Matt’s college football career, he was never timed in the 40- yard dash. (Jets’ notes show he ran a 4.6 in the pros.) “At Ohio State,” Snell admitted, “all the skill position players had to do was run a mile in less than seven minutes.” Also surprising: as Matt finished his senior year at Ohio State, he didn’t know what it meant to be drafted.
Matt’s mom heard from a newspaperman shortly after the Jets selected him. Snell approached head coach Woody Hayes and his position coaches (he played running back and stand-up linebacker), and they calmly explained that he should sit back and wait for the NFL to hold its draft. He couldn’t bring an agent on campus without jeopardizing his full scholarship, so Hayes became Matt’s pro football career advisor. “Get the Jet and Giant offers, bring them to me, and we’ll evaluate them with you,” he was instructed.
The Giants had just lost the NFL Championship Game to the Chicago Bears. They sent scout and Giants legend Emlen Tunnel to Columbus, Ohio, to meet Matt. Old and rebuilding, the Giants offered Snell a multiyear contract but said he should expect to sit for a few seasons and learn from veteran Giants running backs Alex Webster, Dick James, and Joe Morrison. Later he met a member of the Mara family, owners of the Giants.
Matt next got together with Jets principal owner Sonny Werblin, who needed to make a splash in New York. Werblin promised Matt that he’d start immediately for the Jets and he shared the Jets’ five-year plan to build a championship team, telling Matt that he would be a cornerstone.
Then came the teams’ offers.
“My father had a fifth-grade education and never made more than fifteen thousand dollars; my mother graduated eighth grade and, as a woman, made less than that. I couldn’t imagine the kind of money the Giants and Jets offered me,” Matt remembers. Snell weighed the Giants’ $12,000 salary and $12,000 bonus versus the Jets’ offer of $20,000 salary and a $30,000 bonus, and inked a one-year deal with the Jets due to personal attention from the Jets’ head man.
Entire article:
https://deadspin.com/why-an-ex-jets-great-wants-nothing-to-do-with-the-jets-1829172586
