Simply put: no Winston, no Namath-Maynard; no Snell/Boozer.

Yes, I’m old enough to have watched Winnie. The best way to describe Hill’s play is to equal him to a VERY large, VERY strong bouncer at a club, who is extremely nice, yet extremely expert and effective at his job. Just as the nice, massive bouncer remains polite while he makes absolutely certain that you follow the rules and stay in line (“Excuse me, sir, but I believe you’re going to have to stay over here.” — which you do since he’s three times your size and his point is clear, especially if you feel that cast-iron hand on your shoulder), That’s how Winston went about his job. In a cowboy era of “pound the crap outta ya,” “biker gang” football, with few if any rules enforced, Winston simply went about his business. I don’t know if I ever saw Winston hit his defensive opponent in the classic sense — instead he just seemed to smoothly move them where he wanted them to be like he was working a door (“Excuse me, sir, but I believe you’re going to have to stay a few yards over here.”), while Snell, Boozer and Riggins would saunter through. It was akin to how you simply change your course when a bus begins to pull out — survival says you just move. Pass blocking was the same (“I’m sorry, sir, but you’re not allowed to go in there.”). Same effect. Winston never played smash-mouth football, simply because he never had to. Snell’s quote is correct — a very elegant player at a very inelegant position.

Sack, you and I fully agree here on this all-time team…

Thanks for Augie as well…had forgotten him.

One thing that usually gets missed here, is that from the Titan teams to now, our single strongest, most consistent, longest-tenured position is and has always been — Center:
1960-1965 — Mike Hudock, 2-time 2nd team All-AFL, missed 6 games in six years;
1966-1973 — John Schmitt, All-AFL (1968); consensus 2nd team All-AFL (1969);
1976-1987 — Joe Fields, Pro Bowl (1981, 1982), 1st-team All-NFL (1982);
1988-1994 — Jim Sweeney, played G-T until taking over for Fields;
1998-2004 — Kevin Mawae, Pro Bowl (1999-2004), named as 1st-team All Pro (1999 and 2001);
2006- current — Nick Mangold, Pro Bowl (2008)

The gap years were manned by two years of Wayne Mulligan, a year of Cal Dixon, a couple years of Roger Duffy, a year of Pete Kendall. Other than that, SIX MEN have anchored this team since its inception, garnering a slew of awards. What’s funny is they all seem cut from the same mold — happy-go-lucky, loud, tough sonavabitches who were solid as rocks and very athletic for the position. All of the other positons have seen a slew of great and not-so-great players man them for different lengths of time. But, at center? That’s NYJ prime real estate.

Good call on Burkett. Ramsey was serviceable, lifetime 40 yard avg., got decent hang time. Joe Willie, who liked his “women blonde and Johnny Walker Red” allegedly was quite smitten with Farrah during the shooting. Oddest coupling in Joe Willie’s bio was with Janis Joplin, who allegedly dragged him semi-comatose off of a bar stool!

And it seems MJ is dead too, but his life was probably even more tragic than his death.

This thread is a fitting tribute to Winston Hill.

Maybe the punter should be Steve O’Neal just for the fact that he once had an unassailable 98 yard punt in an NFL game. Or Joe Prokop because he was good at fake punts!

Special Teams Demon – Chris Burkett? All those blocked punts!

K-Jim Turner (Maybe it’s my bitter look back, but I always thought Pat Leahy missed the big FGs)
P-Chuck Ramsey (the best of a bad lot…I don’t think that a Jets punter ever made the Pro Bowl…OUCH!)
KR-Leon (A surprisingly strong group…Aaron Glenn, Miller, Bobby Humphrey, Mathis, Harper, Morton, etc.)
PR-Harper (he’s the best that I can remember, but Jo-Jo Townsell and, especially, Moss, who easily would’ve been the best in Jets history if he had stuck around, had their moments)

Special Teams Demon-Wallace Wright…has anyone been better?

Your list doesn’t differ too much from the all four-decade team named in 2003:

Offense Guards (2) Randy Rasmussen 1967-81, Jim Sweeney 1984-94 Tackles (3) Jason Fabini 1998- Present, Marvin Powell 1977-85, T Winston Hill 1963-76 Center (1): Kevin Mawae 1998-Present Tight End (1) Mickey Shuler 1978-89 Running Backs (2): Freeman McNeil 1981-92, Curtis Martin 1998-Present Fullback (1): Matt Snell 1964-72 Wide Receivers (3): Don Maynard 1960-72, Al Toon 1985-92, Wesley Walker 1977-89 Quarterback (1): Joe Namath 1965-76

Defense Tackles (2): Marty Lyons 1979-89, Joe Klecko 1977-87 Ends (2): Mark Gastineau 1979-89, John Abraham 2000-Present Linebackers (3): Greg Buttle 1976-84, Kyle Clifton 1984-96, Mo Lewis 1991-Present Cornerbacks (2): James Hasty 1988-94, Aaron Glenn 1992-2001 Safeties (2): Victor Green 1993-2001, Bill Baird 1963-69

Special Teams Punter (1): Chuck Ramsey 1977-84 Kicker (1): Pat Leahy 1974-91 Kick Returner (1): Bruce Harper 1977-84

Off topic: Is Michael Jackson dead?

Now, here’s the defense:

LDE-Gastineau (the greatness of Gastineau was that he was on the offense’s right side…in today’s game, he’d be an RDE on the blindside)
LDT-Klecko (he could also be RDE, but not NT anymore)
NT-Jenkins (when is 1 year as a Jet enough to make him the best of all time? When you play like Big Jenks did last year…he was more dominant than Klecko was in his NT days…but it’s close, real close)
RDT-Marty Lyons (old timers tell me that John Elliot was great, but I didn’t see him play)
RDE-Gerry Philbin (I’m switching his side to the blind side…amazing that the Jets 2 greatest pass rushers played on the strong side, plus if I don’t then I have to put John Abraham on my team, and that ain’t happening)
LOLB-Greg Buttle
LILB/MLB-Kyle Clifton (Vilma and Blinka were also candidates, Kyle gets the nod because he was more complete than Vilma and Blinka)
RILB-Lance Mehl (gets the nod over Marvin Jones)
ROLB-Mo Lewis (I know, he played the left side for his best years, but the Jets have not had great RLBs, except for Larry Grantham and if I put him here, then Buttle gets booted)
LCB-Aaron Glenn (IMO, the Jets’ top shut down CB of all-time, with Revis clearly on the horizon)
RCB-Revis (James Hasty should get some love)
SS-Victor Green
FS-Kerry Rhodes (Erik McMillan flamed out, his first 2 years were AWESOME, I mean like historically awesome….do you guys remember? One of the most puzzling declines by a Jets player ever)

I think Harris and Scott could become the best ILB tandem, so we’ll see.