Jets-Dolphins rivalry: What will Monday night add to the wacky, weird history?
Jets-Dolphins memorable games: Clockwise, from top left: The 1983 Mud Bowl, the Jets' Fail Mary on Black Friday in 2023, the Jets' Monday Night Miracle in 2000, the Dolphins' Dan Marino's fake spike touchdown pass in 1994.
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — There are all kinds of rivalries in the NFL. Fierce ones, lopsided ones, century-old ones and brand-new ones.
The Jets and Dolphins? They definitely are the weirdest one.
The two teams have met in and shared some of the most memorably odd, offbeat and idiosyncratic moments in their histories.
From A.J. Duhe’s three interceptions in the Mud Bowl — the AFC Championship Game on Jan. 23, 1983 — to the Ken O’Brien-Dan Marino fireworks of their 51-45 classic in 1986 right up to the Fail Mary that was returned by Jevon Holland in the Black Friday game in 2023, when the Jets and Dolphins play, it feels as if something quirky is assured of happening.
Aaron Glenn doesn’t need to be reminded of that. He was part of it.
The Jets’ coach was on the field for two of the most iconic meetings between the two teams.
In 1994, he was a rookie cornerback when Marino faked spiking the ball and threw a touchdown pass to Mark Ingram. Though Glenn was one of the few who didn’t get totally snookered by the play, he was the one covering Ingram.
“I remember talking to Ronnie Lott, and I think we had a couple of D-linemen that were down on a knee because we thought [the spike] was about to happen, and it just so happened that I saw something that just wasn’t right,” Glenn said. “I remember trying to run out there to go cover [Ingram] to try and defend the play.
“Listen, they did a really good job of getting us on that play, you know?”
Six years later, in 2000, Glenn got his payback. He was on the team that orchestrated the “Monday Night Miracle” in which the Jets overcame a 30-7 fourth-quarter deficit to earn a 40-37 overtime win. Offensive tackle Jumbo Elliott caught a 3-yard touchdown pass from Vinny Testaverde with 42 seconds left in the fourth quarter, and John Hall’s kick tied it at 37.
“That was an outstanding game,” Glenn said. “Our guys fought to the very end, and that’s what you want as a team, to be able to see your guys fight like that and give yourself a chance. We gave ourselves a chance and ended up pulling that one out.”
On Monday night in Miami, Glenn will re-enter the rivalry. What wackiness awaits?
Time will tell. Perhaps this game someday will be placed among the other curios.
Or maybe it will just go down as Glenn’s first win. That would be memorable, too.
Glenn said there are plenty of lessons to draw from those past classics he experienced. Well, one of them anyway. Of the fake spike game, he said: “I’m a corner, so I forget a lot.”
But that game in 2000? He was able to connect some dots between that result and the effort (if not the result) the Jets put forth last week when they nearly pulled off a comeback at Tampa Bay.
“That’s one thing that we talked to our team about, just the belief that no matter what the situation is, you can always come back and win the game,” he said. “It’s very similar to what we did this past week against Tampa by giving ourselves a chance, and that’s what I’m so proud of about this team. If you have the ability to be able to do that, man, you’re heading in the right direction.”
Monday also will be Jets safety Andre Cisco’s first taste of this rivalry as a player, although he certainly saw it plenty as a fan growing up in Valley Stream. His memories consist mostly of the 2010s, when Chad Pennington, Ryan Tannehill and Ryan Fitzpatrick were quarterbacking the Dolphins, but he is well-versed in those older games that took place when he was much younger . . . or before he was born.
“For me, the personal significance isn’t there because I haven’t experienced it as a Jet,” Cisco said. “I know that this team has history with them, the guys on this team have history with the guys they have. So that’s when the rivalry really builds. When you are seeing the same faces over and over, the rivalry starts to boom. But I’m looking forward to it. I take pride in being a Jet.”
He said Glenn doesn’t spend a lot of time rehashing glory days (and not so glorious ones) or pulling up grainy video clips when it comes to this game.
“We are much more focused on our future, where we are headed, the trajectory,” Cisco said. “I think [the history] is underlying.”
With both teams 0-3, they undoubtedly are looking at each other as an opportunity to get right. Only one of them can manage that.
“We have one focus in mind, and that’s to go down to Miami and go get a win,” Glenn said. “I like exactly where we’re at as far as the mentality of our team. We still have a ways to go when it comes to things that we have to improve on, and we’re going to do that on a daily basis, but our guys are excited and our guys are right where they need to be mentally, and we’re looking forward to this.”
A Jets win? Against this rival? It truly can be said that crazier things have happened.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
