GANG GREEN; By Gerald Eskenazi; Illustrated; Simon & Schuster; 333 pages; $25.
Has any other New York institution enjoyed so little glory as the New York Jets? There was the one great upstart moment in the 1969 Super Bowl, when their flamboyant quarterback, Joe Namath, guaranteed that the Jets would beat the heavily favored Baltimore Colts, and then in fact they did. But although Namath himself, long retired, remains an icon, the Jets have come to be known for the color of their jerseys but also for their tendency toward mortification, as Gang Green.None of which is to say that the history of the franchise is devoid of interest. "I believe," says Gerald Eskenazi, who has been a sportswriter at The New York Times for some 35 years, "the Jets are the most famous bad franchise in sports. But that doesn't mean they are a team that cannot be enjoyed, even loved."
The Jets started out in 1960 as the Titans. Their owner was, as Eskenazi tells us, the former sports announcer Harry Wismer, who "once called The New York Times, where I had just started as a copy boy." The conversation went like this:
" `Hello, this is Harry Wismer. Who's this?'
"I told him my name. It was unknown to anyone outside of my family and friends and a few people in the office, who were impressed with the way I tore copy paper off the A.P. machine and got the coffee order right. I had yet to have a byline.
" `Jerry,' he shouted into the phone, `you're doing a great job!'
"His checks bounced, too."
The best part of the book covers the early, crazy years. The final stage, as Bill Parcells takes over as head coach and begins to enforce severe professionalism, is relatively upbeat: "Perhaps, just perhaps, the long strange saga of the New York Jets would have a hap-py ending." A Jet fan's spirits, presumably, are lifted. The reader misses Harry Wismer.