Saturday, October 25, 2014

1970 Profile: Weeb Ewbank

Head Coach
"The coach and general manager of the Jets is a stump of a man who always has the look, even when he's talking, of someone sucking on a lemon. This winter he had reason to look sour. There was talk in New York of a conglomerate moving in to buy the Jets. Among the people representing the conglomerate was Allie Sherman, formerly of the Giants. If the conglomerate did buy the Jets, people wondered, who would be the coach: Allie or Weeb? The conglomerate, though, broke off the talks (the price of $15 to $20 million may have been too high) and Weeb will go on wearing two hats: GM and head coach.
A decade or so ago he was an assistant coach under Paul Brown in Cleveland and he tells this story: "We were on the other team's 13, third down. I was up in the booth. Paul got on the phone and asked me what play I'd call. I said a flare pass. He sent in the play as he always did. On a trap, Marion Motley went all the way for a touchdown. Paul came back on the phone. 'That's the way to call a play,' he said.' But after some 40 years of coaching - from his alma mater Miami of Ohio, to the world champion Colts and Jets - Weeb is well able to call his own plays."

-Brenda and Jack Zanger, Pro Football 1970

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