He was an undersized afterthought in the 1977 NFL draft, a defensive tackle who stayed home to play at Temple and became the best draft pick not named Joe Namath in Jets history.

He was never known as Broadway Joe, was not the first overall pick of the AFL draft the way Namath was in 1965, he was Chester Joe out of Pennsylvania and he gave the Jets more bang for their buck than anyone not named Namath, gave them a career that has been unjustly denied a place in the Hall of Fame.

The Jets own the third pick in Thursday night’s draft, and they will be lucky if likely picks Quinnen Williams, Josh Allen or Ed Oliver turn out to be a Joe Klecko.

Klecko, the 144th pick, taken in the sixth round, is a stark reminder of the inexact science that will cost jobs and break hearts and drive fan bases mad.

No one could have imagined Klecko would become the only player in NFL history to be selected to the Pro Bowl at three different positions — defensive end, defensive tackle, and nose tackle.

Klecko didn’t play football until his senior year of high school. He worked for his uncle, who owned a gas station and a home heating business. Even sparred with Joe Frazier in college. Drove trucks and played for a semipro team called the Aston Knights. He chose Temple over Dayton. He had no other offers.

Klecko was at his apartment on draft day with his wife Debbie, waiting for the phone to ring.

“I was pissed off. The Eagles had said that they were gonna pick me, and they had a pick in the fifth round,” Klecko recalled.

Walt Michaels, the Jets new head coach in 1977, was a big reason why the team drafted him. From 1973-75, he had been the Eagles defensive coordinator.

“When they would have their home games, they would practice right before we would have our games,” Klecko said. “Walt told me he would watch us play.”

Klecko decided right then and there he would take it out on the rest of the NFL.

“After I hang the phone up, I talked to my wife. I was the kind of guy way back then that if I ever wanted it, I had to take it, because that was life back then. Nobody gave you nothing. And I said to her, ‘I’m gonna make everybody regret that they didn’t take me earlier, but the Jets are gonna be happy they did take me.’ That’s the attitude I went into camp with,” Klecko said.

Klecko, only 6-foot-3, 265 pounds at the time, knew he was in direct competition with defensive tackle Tank Marshall, the Jets’ third-round pick that year.

“I figured if they were going to cut me, they were gonna know I was here,” Klecko said.

They knew he was there, all right. Klecko was on the field before practice when he got the word he had dreamed of as a boy who had posters in his basement of Hall of Fame defensive tackles Merlin Olsen and Bob Lilly.

“[Offensive coordinator John] Idzik walked up to me, he goes, ‘Hey congratulations, Joe.’ I really didn’t expect it from him at all, and I said to him, ‘For what?’

“You made the team,” said Idzik, the father of the future Jets’ general manager of the same name.

“I’m like ‘Oh really?’ I didn’t want to act like a giddy little kid. It was pretty fantastic,” Klecko said.

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He started out on special teams. The Jets had just scored a touchdown and Klecko didn’t get on the field in time for the PAT.

“I’m so mad I’m not playing, I’m not paying attention,” he said. “I got fined $15. It’s kinda funny ‘cause $15 was a lot then, you know?”

Around midseason, Klecko got his big chance.

“And from then on, they never could take me out,” Klecko said.

He recorded 50.5 sacks over his first five seasons. He led the league with 20.5 in 1981. He was the enforcer on the New York Sack Exchange. After all, who else had stepped into a ring with Joe Frazier in college?

“I didn’t know I could be a dominant player until my second year,” Klecko said. “I was just a little kid as a rookie, which I made work for me with my quickness and my strength and everything like that. But in my second year I started to learn. My days of boxing really helped a lot with my hands.”

He became a 285-pound force of nature, a feared combination of speed and power. He loved playing nose tackle.

“I loved the way [defensive coordinator] Bud Carson let me play it,” Klecko said. “Nobody ever plays it like I played it. Joe Greene played it in a four-man line. I played it in a three-man line. … I had to take care of both A gaps. I used to give centers fits because they had no idea where I was gonna be. I didn’t play with my strength as much as my quickness, but my strength came into play when I had guys off balance. I just would run ’em over.”

But in Week 2 at New England in 1982, Klecko ruptured his patella tendon. He hobbled his way back for the playoffs, where his Super Bowl dream died in the Mud Bowl. He was an All-Pro nose tackle in 1985.



“People always ask me that one question — what was the highlight of your career?” Klecko said. “And the highlight of my career was playing in the NFL.”

Klecko is no longer eligible as a modern-day candidate for the Hall of Fame. Voters cannot figure out his true position, as if that should matter. Now the Seniors Committee holds his fate in its hands.

“I don’t have a bit of animosity against anybody or anything,” Klecko said. “That’s the piece de resistance, that’s the end of the rainbow, that’s everything you ever want.

“I don’t have over-the-top credentials. But I was the kinda guy his team relied on. What was I worth to my team? I thought I was worth a lot.”

There is only one member of the 1977 draft who is in the Hall of Fame — Cowboys running back Tony Dorsett, the second overall pick. There should be two.