Curtis Martin believes Jets are close to being a Super Bowl team
NY Jets greats Victor Green, Emerson Boozer, Curtis Martin and Bruce Harper pose after Boozer is inducted to the Jets Ring Of Honor during halftime of the Miami Dolphins at the New York Jets on Sunday Nov. 29, 2015. Credit: Lee S. Weissman
SAN FRANCISCO — Now that Curtis Martin’s playing career is over and he’s comfortably enshrined in the Hall of Fame, the former running back said he has one goal left when it comes to the sport of football:
Seeing the Jets in the Super Bowl.
“That would be the ultimate for me, to see the Jets here,” he told Newsday on Thursday at Radio Row. “I’ve become more of a fan since I retired and the Jets are still my number one team. To see them get here would be everything for me.”
The Jets have not been to the big game since 1969, when they won Super Bowl III. That was four years before Martin was born, so he’s never seen the team on the big stage in his lifetime. How far away is this current crew to changing that?
“I think that they’re very close,” Martin said. “Who knows what would have happened had they won that game [against the Bills in Week 17]? And as you can see with Denver playing the Patriots, everyone thought the Patriots would win, but any given Sunday can change that.”
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.
