1979 Profile: Scott Dierking

"Scott's blocking has improved tremendously in his last two seasons with the Jets. He has become a big asset, leading plays for the fullback, and giving the club a good inside runner. He is learning to find open slots in the pass patterns he runs.

Scott and his father were both high school MVPs 25 years apart."

-1979 Topps No. 362

1979 Profile: Greg Buttle

Linebacker

No. 51

Penn State

"Greg has good football intelligence and a burning desire to excel. One of the Jets' hardest hitters, he was chosen the club's rookie of the year in 1976.

During his college career, Greg was a consensus All-American at Penn State.

He sang in a barbershop quartet at Penn State."

-1979 Topps No. 161

GREG BUTTLE OF THE JETS: ANOTHER GREAT PENN STATE LB

Many Experts Think He Will Follow In the Footsteps Of Another Nittany Lion, Jack Ham, And Be All-Pro. One Thing Is Sure: The Four-Year Pro Is One Of The NFL's Hardest Hitters

"Greg Buttle doesn't feel he is one of the meanest players in the NFL. In fact, the cantankerous Jets linebacker isn't sure what mean means.

'Mean is an adjective the press call people,' Buttle says. 'I guess if you hit people and try to rip their heads off, you're mean. If you go out and just want to tackle somebody, you're not mean. I guess I would fit in the first one [category].'

Greg Buttle, the Jets' 6-2, 232-pound left linebacker, is certainly one of the game's most savage hitters. He doesn't have the image of Pittsburgh's Jack Lambert- a toothless, blood-stained ghoul- but he's certainly ornery and brutal. And right before a game.

'I'm hungry,' Buttle says. 'I never eat breakfast before a game. That puts me in a disposition that's right for me.'

Buttle once described himself as a surly dog on the field. As a rookie, he frequently got into fights because he felt compelled to prove that this was one young punk who wasn't going to take any guff.

'You turn into something else,' he says of his Jekyll-Hyde transformation. 'I can't go out on the field with the personality I have now.

'I'll shake hands with somebody before a game, or if he's my buddy, I'll say 'Hi.' But when I put my helmet on it's time to play football. My brother could be playing across from me, I don't care. I'd play him like I'd play anyone I didn't like.'

Buttle has become one of the best interviews on the Jets. He is analytical and incisive. It wasn't always that way.

'I didn't want to be bothered by any outside influences when I was trying to learn the game of football,' he explains. 'I didn't want anyone writing anything good about me because I didn't want to believe any of that stuff.

'I wanted to be good before the press said I was good.'

So that means that you now think you are good.

'Yeah.'

He is very good. He has a chance to be the best. Jack Ham of Pittsburgh is 30 now and he can't be All-Pro on the left side forever. Buttle is 25 and ready to challenge.

'All-Pro would be a nice goal to reach,' Buttle confesses. 'I'm trying to keep the mental mistakes down. To none. I can deal with physical mistakes. There are guys bigger than me and stronger and faster.

'I don't think there are any smarter.'

And that's his secret. Once Buttle felt the need to make every tackle on the field. The dreaded habit, now cured for the most part, is called freelancing. Now he makes all the plays he's expected to make. Ask him what makes him a 'big-play' linebacker, and he calmly points to his head.

'I don't get the hits I get on the field being stupid,' he says. 'If I have a man [to man] coverage on a back, sometimes I'll let him go out in the flat to get the quarterback to throw to him .'C' mon, baby, throw the ball!' And the minute he does- boom!'

Some of Buttle's teammates regard him as cocky and loud. Buttle says it isn't so and prides himself on 'telling it like it was.' He doesn't walk, he struts. He thrusts his chest out. Richard Todd walked out of the locker room one day early in the season for practice, and Buttle's greeting was a shoulder blow that sent Todd reeling.

'He likes the tough-guy image,' says middle linebacker Mike Hennigan. 'He likes being the center of attention.'

Running back Clark Gaines says Buttle is self confident rather than cocky. 'Muhammad Ali had it and he was great,' Gaines says. 'Why can't Greg Buttle have it?'

'I'm not cocky,' Buttle says. 'I know my ability. I know what I can do and the things I can't. I don't go around telling anyone I'm great.'

Buttle may be on the verge of greatness because of his combative nature and competitiveness. 'I remember the first day of practice my rookie year [1976],' Gaines recalls. 'I was running a pass pattern and I beat him the first time real bad. A couple of guys got on his back. The next play he tackled me head-on without equipment. We've been friends since.' "

-Steve Serby, The New York Post (Football Digest, January 1980)

1979 Profile: Bruce Harper

"Tom Thumb masquerading as a kick returner. Although it's no masquerade, really, when considering what Harper has accomplished. Last year he shared the longest punt return in the league with Buffalo's Keith Moody- 82 yards, and both for touchdowns. Harper and Moody tied for second behind Rick Upchurch in NFL punt returns. Harper also led the league in kickoff return yardage with 1,280.

'The big colleges said Bruce was too small. The pros said he was too small,' says Walt Michaels. 'He's always proved everything wrong.'

Born June 20, 1955, in Englewood, New Jersey, he attended Kutztown State. He's led the NFL in all-purpose yardage the last two years. He's a spot player at running back, too."

-Dave Newhouse, the Complete Handbook of Pro Football (1979 Edition)

"Bruce makes things happen every time he touches the ball. He has excellent instinctive reactions to offensive blocks and gets the most out of his size with his great speed and balance, quick feet and good hands. He holds the kick return yardage mark.

Bruce was a high school friend of John Travolta."

-1979 Topps No. 82

1978 Record Breaker, Most Combined Kick Return Yards, Season

"Last season, Bruce set an all-time NFL mark with 1,658 combined kick return yards during the season. He broke the previous record of 1,582 yards set by Chuck Latourette of the St. Louis Cardinals in 1968."

-1979 Topps No. 333

1979 Profile: Joe Klecko

Defensive Tackle

No. 73

Temple

"Truck-driving tackle. A one-man convoy on the pass rush. From out of the blue, better yet the interstate, Klecko arrived in the Jets' camp two years ago, a sixth-round pick from Temple. He immediately led the team in sacks with eight.

Born October 15, 1953, in Chester, Pa., he's quite a character. He drove a truck for two years out of high school. Temple's equipment man saw Klecko playing sandlot football and convinced the school to offer him a scholarship. He once sparred with Joe Frazier. 'One of his punches was enough to convince me not to become a professional boxer,' he recalls.

Klecko has been a drag racer, too. Now a truck broker in the off-season, he knows all the good truck stops in the East."

-Dave Newhouse, The Complete Handbook of Pro Football (1979 Edition)

"Joe has great speed and quickness for a defensive down lineman and changes directions very well. He plays with a great deal of enthusiasm and has improved with added experience.

As a rookie with the Jets in 1977, he had a hand in at least one quarterback sack in each of his starts. He had eight sacks for the Jets in the final six games of 1977.

Joe has been a drag racer."

-1979 Topps No. 101

1979 Profile: Marvin Powell

Offensive Tackle

No. 79

USC

"Atten-hut!

Son of a career military officer, Powell will soon snap defensive ends to attention once he masters the intracacies and subtleties of playing offensive tackle. Oakland's Al Davis said Powell was the best athlete in the 1977 draft.

Probably the most sophisticated, too. He loves to read poetry and listen to classical music. He's a conservative, disciplined person.

His father fought in the Normandy invasion at 15 and in Korea and Vietnam. Marvin's combat is happily confined to a different kind of trench. He was born August 30, 1955, at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

Powell was a three-time all-conference and an All-American at USC. Like Chris Ward a year later, he was the fourth player taken in the NFL draft."

-Dave Newhouse, The Complete Handbook of Pro Football (1979 Edition)

"Marvin has overpowered people during his two campaigns with the Jets. He's improving on his pass blocking and has all the tools necessary to be an All-Pro.

Considered by many to be the best player in the 1977 college draft, Marvin played in three Rose Bowls and a Liberty Bowl during his career at USC. He was a first-team All-America as a senior.

Marvin enjoys reading poetry."

-1979 Topps No. 63

R.I.P. Kevin Long

1979 Profile: Chris Ward

Offensive Tackle

No. 72

Ohio State

"Mount Everest in cleats. Big, broad tackle, who when he spreads out, you need a mountain climbing team to get all over him. Ward is probably bigger than he's listed. 

Born December 15, 1955, in Cleveland, he's another of Woody Hayes' fat tackles who've made it in the pros. However, Ward figures to make it bigger than any Buckeye since Jim Parker. 'I see Chris as a modern edition of Parker,' says head coach Walt Michaels, 'and I wouldn't say that about many people. With Marvin Powell at right tackle, we've got two bookends for the next 10 years.'

Ward was an instant starter for the Jets after he was the fourth player taken in the 1978 draft. He's so versatile, he could play guard or tackle."

-Dave Newhouse, the Complete Handbook of Pro Football (1979 Edition)