CANTON, Ohio — They both came from Pennsylvania and paved their respective roads to the Pro Football Hall of Fame through New York, playing for the Jets as arguably the two best defensive players in franchise history.
Both Joe Klecko and Darrelle Revis, in their respective speeches upon being enshrined into the Hall on a sunny and hot Saturday at Tom Benson Stadium, made the core of their message a “thank you’’ to loved ones who made it all possible for them.
“My career started in St. James High School in Chester, Pennsylvania, and, after high school, no one offered me a scholarship to play football and as a result I went to work for a trucking company,’’ Klecko said Saturday. “Eventually, I was invited to try out for a semi-pro team the Aston Knights [of the Seaboard Football League]. My girlfriend and now wife [Debbie] drove me to the field and when we pulled up, I got cold feet.
“I made a few excuses to Debbie and she suddenly grabbed the keys out of the ignition and threw them out the window. I said, ‘What the heck did you do that for?’ When I went out to get the keys, the guys saw me and said, ‘Joe, come on over.’ I tried out for the team and I made it. If it wasn’t for Debbie making me get out of my car, I wouldn’t be sitting here today wearing this gold jacket.’’
A short time later, Revis took the stage and called out his mother, Diana Askew, as the catalyst to his greatness as one of the best cornerbacks to ever play the game.
That was the only moment Revis, usually a stoic sort who makes himself difficult to read, became emotional.
“To my first coach, my mother Diana … I remember if I wasn’t doing well in the classroom you would take away the very thing I loved, which was playing ball,’’ Revis recalled after briefly choking up. “At the time, I didn’t appreciate you taking ball away from me, but the lesson was to make sure I had the same type of focus in the classroom as I did in sports.
“Thank you for always knowing what paths I needed to take to make it here to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.’’
Askew recalled her amazement at seeing her son become a Jet.
“That’s my son out there doing this,’’ she recalled saying to herself. “It was amazing, like a superhero. He is one of the best Jets players of all time. Revis Island is masterpiece. That is his legacy. No man has an island, but Darrelle Revis does. He was a very dominant player. He went after a player’s will.’’
“Revis Island,’’ of course, became Revis’ calling card — much the way the “New York Sack Exchange’’ made Klecko famous, alongside fellow Jets defensive lineman Marty Lyons, who presented Klecko on Saturday, Abdul Salaam and Mark Gastineau.
“It was a long wait for him,’’ Salaam told The Post after he sat and watched Klecko’s induction. “I’m honored to have played with him. I’m proud to represent him as well.’’
The 69-year-old Klecko, as he began speaking, said the speech “has been in my drawer since 1993 — 30 years, I’ve been waiting to give this speech.’’
“Once I asked my defensive line coach, Dan Sekanovich, a guy I really looked up to, about making the Pro Bowl,’’ Klecko recalled. “He said to me, ‘Joe, you’re not going to have to worry about making the Pro Bowl. You’re going to have to worry about someday being enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.’
“Believe me, from that day on, I played a lot harder.’’
Revis spoke of Rex Ryan, his second head coach with the Jets, as a motivator, similar to the way Klecko spoke of Sekanovich.
“Ahead of the 2009 season, Rex Ryan called me the best corner in football and I hadn’t even met him yet,’’ Revis recalled. “Needless to say, the expectations were high. After our first meeting, I was convinced I was going to play my heart out for him.’’
While there are many similarities and parallels between the two Jets Hall of Famers, there are plenty of differences, too.
Klecko got no college offers out of high school, went to Temple after his semi-pro stint and was drafted in the sixth round by the Jets in 1977. Revis was a hot-shot recruit at Pittsburgh and was drafted 14th overall by the Jets 30 years later, in 2007.
Their paths, though, took them to the same stage on Saturday at the Hall of Fame, where the two were immortalized with bronze busts.
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