‘HEIDI’ YOUR EYES
Gang Green already in danger of inspiring widespread fan apathy
OAKLAND, Calif. — Where, oh where, was Julian Goodman when you needed him? Goodman was the president of NBC on the afternoon of Sunday, Nov. 17, 1968. It was Goodman who’d made the declaration earlier that week that no matter where that day’s Jets-Raiders football game stood at 7 p.m. Eastern time, the network would switch to “Heidi,” a much-anticipated children’s movie.
And it was Goodman who realized, late, that NBC would be making a terrible mistake. He ordered the game be broadcast to the end, but in 1968 playing a literal game of telephone could be problematic. And it was. NBC switched up with a minute left in the game. The Jets, who were beating the Raiders, lost in heartrending fashion. Nobody in New York saw it. Repeat those last six words again: Nobody in New York saw it. How blissful would that have been Sunday, if you’d been forced to look elsewhere for your lateafternoon entertainment than the latest — maybe even the last — Jets-Raiders game at old Oakland Coliseum? You would’ve missed the Jets sink to 0-2 on the season, the Raiders obliterating them 45-20 in a joyful stomp across the Coliseum’s lawn.
If you’d been forced to miss Todd Bowles’ harsh (and pointperfect honest) assessment of his football team after two weeks: “We’re not good enough to correct our mistakes AND win the game.”
(Who needs “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing,” anyway?) Where was the precious sight of the beloved
Swiss child playing on the mountainside when you really needed her? You don’t think the suits at CBS weren’t tempted to slip onto the air the 1968 version of “Heidi,” starring Jennifer Edwards (TRIVIA TIME! The step
daughter of Julie Andrews!) in the title role? You wouldn’t have preferred that?
Or the Dolphins-Chargers game? Or a rerun of “M*A*S*H?” Or a test pattern? Yes, it was that bad, even if the Jets flirted with making the game competitive in the second quarter. But if you watched (and there is a special place in heaven for you if you did), you knew there was a better chance Marshawn Lynch would deliver a 45-minute postgame monologue on his life and times than the Jets would keep this game competitive. Or even remotely interesting. “We’re professionals. We’re a team, it’s our job to fix this,” said defensive end
Kony Ealy, who used to play for a team, New England, that WAS good enough to fix itself when necessary — and was also capable of correcting mistakes AND winning games. “We’ve got to compete on every down.”
Said Mo Wilkerson: “We did some good things and we can build on that.”
Of course he also pointed to “five plays” that essentially cost the Jets the game, and while technically that may be true if you assess as a group five of the six touchdowns the Jets allowed, that real number was closer to 15 or 20.
The Raiders were that dominant. They were up 14-0 early, and after taking a brief siesta they were rescued from any lingering angst when Kalif Raymond fumbled a punt with less than two minutes left in the half and the Jets trailing by only 14-10. But the moment the ball touched the ground it was as if a memo had been sent to all parties on the field:
YOU ARE NOW LEAVING THE COMPETITIVE PORTION OF TODAY’S GAME ...
Not long after, Lynch — 45 yards on 12 carries and one touchdown in his first home game as a Raider — was doing a high-energy dance on the sidelines that was shown on the video board and whipped the 54,729 folks inside the Coliseum into a genuine frenzy.
“It was exceptional,” Raiders coach Jack Del Rio said of his running backs’ jubilant tango. The Jets pondered using a few other replacement antonyms but mostly stayed quiet because what can you say? You get stomped this badly there are things you have to swallow.
Like a few mouthfuls of Northern California dirt.
“Things are going to happen in a game in a bad way,” Bowles said. “You have to respond and react.”
Like some mischievous CBS techie audibling to “Heidi?”
Would anyone have even noticed?