Lou Holtz wasn’t funny. He would save his best material for Johnny Carson’s couch later on, after he was granted early parole from the Jets after 13 games and three wins, walking out on a five-year contact so he could seek paradise in Fayetteville, Ark., which, Holtz told Johnny, “isn’t the end of the world, but you can see it from there.”
He kept the jokes to himself on Feb. 10, 1976, when he was announced as the Jets’ new head coach at 21 Club. He threw bloody red meat at Jets fans, who were starving after seven years wandering the football wilderness.