If These Walls Could Talk: New York Jets: Stories from the New York Jets Sideline, Locker Room, and Press Box

by Lou Sahadi, Marty Lyons, Joe Klecko

Having spent 11 seasons at defensive tackle for the New York Jets before later joining the broadcasting team as a radio analyst, Marty Lyons knows what it means to live and breathe Jets football. In If These Walls Could New York Jets , Lyons provides insight into the Jets inner sanctum as only he can, from the New York Sack Exchange days alongside the likes of Joe Klecko to the current roster helmed by Sam Darnold.

Genres: Sports

240 pages, Paperback

Published September 22, 2020

Reviews

[Glenn Naughton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must read for Jets fans. Great player and a better man, Marty Lyons walks fans through his time at Alabama under Bear Bryant, his stint with the Jets as a first-round pick and more importantly his charitable work with the Marty Lyons foundation.

[Ryan Logrieco · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fine book detailing the history of the Jets and the Marty Lyons foundation through the eyes of Marty Lyons

[Charles Healy · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a fun read but pretty much had no ending.

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Marty Lyons's intent with this book was to share in his own words New York Jets football history from the first year (1979) he put on a uniform for them up until the 2020 season (he was asked to retire in 1991).

I could tell from the first page of this book until its end that Lyons saw this book as a passion project. That man bleeds the green and white and it's cool that he wrote a book about his love for a franchise that has had more downs than ups.

Any football fan who enjoys football history would relate to this book or like it, but old school Jets fans would finish this book in a week or less. He wrote passionately about beloved former Jets defensive end Dennis Byrd (RIP) as a football player and as a human being. I liked his end of chapters Lyons Life Lesson's. I enjoyed going down memory lane with the 1979 to 2020 Jets. He even discussed how mercurial former Jets wide receiver Santonio Holmes was, the player the Jets brought in before the 2010 season to help them get past mediocrity. But all Holmes did was underachieve and help remind the Jets and their fans of how mediocre or below average the Jets were during most of the years he played for them (2011-2013).

Lyons could have made this book a love fest concerning his love for the Jets or that he was this star defensive lineman who retired on his own terms. Instead, and this was one of my favorite parts of the book, Lyons talked about how he knew that he was going to be a backup or pushed to the side for younger and better defensive ends during the latter part of his career, the late 1980s through the 1991 seasons.

He had hope he'd come back for the 1990 (he lost that season due to a torn bicep) and 1991 seasons, but instead his body wasn't cooperating with him or matching his work ethic, so the decision was made by father time and then Jets General Manager Dick Steinberg to have him retire before the '91 season (pages 113-114).

Lyons came across to me in this book as a standup guy. The guy gave up his body for the Jets for 11 years as a tough as nails defensive end/tackle, he was a father and a husband, he started the Marty Lyons Foundation which gives wishes to children with life-threatening illnesses, and he's a radio broadcaster for his beloved Jets.

In conclusion, there aren't a lot of books out there on Jets history, and the ones that are out there just want to talk about Joe Namath or the 1968 Jets Super Bowl III team. This book is NOT the most comprehensive book you'll ever read on the Jets football history, but it does have enough history in it to educate you on the Sack Exchange years (1981-1985), the depressing years of Jets football (too many to count), and more.