Dennis Byrd
The Jets will retire former lineman Dennis Byrd’s jersey at halftime this Sunday. Byrd played for the Jets from 1989-1992. His career ended when he collided with a teammate and broke his C-5 vertebra in his neck.
My earliest games that I remember watching the Jets started in 1991 when I was 10 years old and I remember watching the game against the Chiefs when Byrd got hurt. He ran into Scott Mersereau trying to sack the Kansas City quarterback David Krieg. It was pretty scary thing to watch as a kid as I didn’t understand why he wasn’t getting up.
His story has been incredible ever since. As everyone knows Byrd walks around and got into coaching at high schools in Oklahoma. He co-authored a book about his life and a movie was based on him as well.
As a Jet fan, we never heard from Byrd until the week leading up to the 2010 playoff game between the Jets and Patriots. Byrd sent Rex Ryan the jersey that was cut off his body that day in the old Giants Stadium. This was a crazy week with the Jets doing a ton of trash talking. Byrd gave a motivational speech the night before the game which you can read about here, Really Long Link
The Jets upset the Patriots that day 28-21 in one of my all-time favorite games. I’d rather not think about how they lost to Pittsburgh in the AFC Championship game the week after. Dennis Byrd is really an inspiration to us all and he’s a reminder that we should never take anything or anyone for granted.
His story has been incredible ever since. As everyone knows Byrd walks around and got into coaching at high schools in Oklahoma. He co-authored a book about his life and a movie was based on him as well.
As a Jet fan, we never heard from Byrd until the week leading up to the 2010 playoff game between the Jets and Patriots. Byrd sent Rex Ryan the jersey that was cut off his body that day in the old Giants Stadium. This was a crazy week with the Jets doing a ton of trash talking. Byrd gave a motivational speech the night before the game which you can read about here, Really Long Link
The Jets upset the Patriots that day 28-21 in one of my all-time favorite games. I’d rather not think about how they lost to Pittsburgh in the AFC Championship game the week after. Dennis Byrd is really an inspiration to us all and he’s a reminder that we should never take anything or anyone for granted.
