Matt Snell still has the broad shoulders you remember. Even at 74, you can see the frame that made him a professional athlete.
As he walks toward you, making his way through the garage of his Jersey City construction business, his gait is slow, but you picture him with the big green No. 41 on his back.
On Tuesday, he was walking between a blue Cadillac and a gray, vintage 1960s Corvette, but in your mind he always is running around the left end and Winston Hill’s block into the Orange Bowl end zone on that January day in 1969.
Snell extends his hand with the same smile he had in 1973, when Miller Lite picked him to be the first athlete featured in its commercials.
The smile disappears and the posture changes, though, when you tell him you are here to ask him about the Jets.
“I have nothing to say about them,” Snell said.
The Jets travel to Indianapolis to face the Colts on Monday night. Even though Mayflower moving trucks moved the team from Baltimore more than 30 years ago, whenever the Jets and Colts get together on a football field, you are reminded of Super Bowl III and the Jets’ 16-7 upset of Don Shula’s mighty Colts.
Joe Namath is remembered as the hero of that game for his guarantee and was named the MVP, but in many people’s eyes Snell deserved the award. He ran 30 times for 121 yards and the team’s only touchdown. He was essential in the Jets’ ball-control attack that day.
Snell should be one of the franchise’s biggest legends. Instead, he wants nothing to do with it. No one is quite sure exactly why.
“There’s a lot of water under that bridge,” is all Snell would say Tuesday.
The most popular version of the story among his former teammates is the team promised Snell a job after he retired in 1972 and never delivered.
“He’s not too beholden to the Jets,” said Pete Lammons, a tight end from 1966 to 1971. “I haven’t talked to him in a long time, but the last time I did, he was just a little put out with the Jets and how they handled his deal.”
The Jets have tried to repair the relationship repeatedly in recent years. He has been invited to reunions of the 1968 team and other alumni functions, but he won’t even return phone calls from the team.
Everyone who was in charge of the Jets at the time of Snell’s retirement is dead. There are new people from owner Woody Johnson on down.
To Snell, it does not matter.
“Those people there now don’t owe me anything,” Snell said. “I’ll be gone soon, too.”
A fourth-round draft pick by the Giants in 1964 out of Ohio State, Snell decided to sign with Sonny Werblin’s AFL Jets instead for a lot more money. He was the AFL Rookie of the Year that season after rushing for 948 yards and scoring six touchdowns.
“I think Matt was as great a runner as just about anybody that played,” said Hall of Fame wide receiver Don Maynard. “Not only that, he was a great protector or pass blocker and lead blocker for [Emerson] Boozer. And, if you look at the stats, one year he might have caught two or three more passes than I did [1964, when Snell caught 56 passes to Maynard’s 46]. He was a great player and teammate.”
An Achilles injury derailed Snell’s career after an All-Pro year in 1969. He hung around for a few more years, then retired. His 4,285 career rushing yards remain the fourth-most in franchise history behind just Curtis Martin, Freeman McNeil and Boozer.
The Jets have done a good job of honoring past players in recent years. They established the Ring of Honor in 2010, and it feels like there is a vacancy until Snell is inducted.
Would he show up at MetLife Stadium if the team wanted to pay tribute?
“I’m not interested in being honored,” he said.
Not even for the fans?
“Fans today with all of their instant everything, they don’t know who I am,” Snell said.
He’s wrong about that. Jets fans have not had a ton of reasons to celebrate through the years. Snell and his teammates provided the biggest one. Jets fans will never forget that, even if it seems he wishes they would.