The Jets chose three linebackers during the 1979 NFL Draft, but there was still one that they wanted who was surprisingly available and they signed as a free agent, Mike McKibben.
As a senior at Kent State, he had 141 tackles including seven sacks while earning All-MAC honors for a second time.
The Golden Flashes went 4-7 that season, but fortunately for McKibben, they played in a 4-3 defense, which helped his cause in New York's training camp.
"The thing I was fortunate about was, not many teams at the time were playing in the 4-3 defense," McKibben said. "We played a 4-3, which means all the reads and responsibilities and terminology, all that's kind of spelled out already. Which I understood, because I think it's very important to be able to know where everybody is on the field at all times."
As the regular season was about to get underway, McKibben found that he'd beaten the odds and would be on the field when the Jets met Cleveland in the opener.
"I thought I had a really good opportunity to make the team because of when we played against Chicago in a preseason game," he said. "I made several tackles and made some nice blocks for special teams. But the biggest indicator that I'd made the team was when they changed my jersey number from 68 to 53."
Playing mostly on special teams in the first six games, when McKibben did see action at outside linebacker, he was impressive. And when the Jets were preparing to host Minnesota at Shea Stadium in Week 7 on nationally-televised Monday Night Football, he discovered that he'd be one of four rookies along with linemen Marty Lyons and Mark Gastineau and cornerback Johnny Lynn, who would be starting on defense against the Vikings.
"None of the coaches said anything to me," McKibben said. "We went to the defensive meeting, and then we broke down into the linebacker meeting, and as we watched some clips from the previous game, (veteran linebacker) Greg Buttle walked up to me and says, 'Get ready to play.'
"It was kind of strange. He knew because he was going off the playing ability of Mark Merrill, who was the second-round draft choice the previous year. I took over his spot and just remember playing pretty well."
The Jets released Merrill, and McKibben ended up starting 10 games and finished fifth on the team with 108 tackles, 46 of them solo stops. The Sporting News named him as the best free agent in the AFC East.
And it was while playing on special teams against one of those division rivals the following season that began what would ultimately be the end of his NFL days.
"We were playing New England up at their place, and I was the punt captain. Kind of the safety to protect the punter and call out the signals," McKibben said. "I'm supposed to lag behind most of the defenses running down the field and act as a safety on the ball side, and the punter was the safety on the back side.
"I was doing my duties and I planted my foot, and a guy by the name of Rick Sanford, he was a defensive back, he kind of hit me off to the side of my shoulder and it snapped my leg back and tore three ligaments."
The surgery on McKibben's right knee was unsuccessful, and he spent the 1981 season on the Jets' physically unable to perform list. And while he was not able to play, McKibben was still able to contribute by simply grabbing a pencil.
"It had been about a year-and-a-half coming back from my knee surgery. It was a monumentally damaged knee," McKibben said. "And so I was up in the box with the coaches, charting plays. They actually took me to the away games where no other player had ever done that before. The Jets, anyway.
"I think they were short-staffed from a coaching perspective. I had a firm grasp on the defenses and offenses and what they call them and how to chart it. They just gave me the playbook and told me to keep track of what they were running against us so we could compete better.
"It kept me involved and kept me motivated to come back. And I came back, though my knee was never 100 percent. I ended up getting cut that year, but the 11 games that I started in, we won eight. I'm not saying it was entirely my doing, but at least I helped a little bit."
By 1983, McKibben's time with the Jets may have been over, but his playing career wasn't. Timing is everything. When he had to say goodbye to the NFL in one breath, he was able to say hello to the upstart USFL in the next.
"I played for New Jersey the first year and then went in the (1984) Expansion Draft to the Pittsburgh Maulers," McKibben said. "I played with Pittsburgh that year, and then the team folded. So I signed as a free agent with the Denver Gold (in 1985) and played for (head coach) Mouse Davis and his crew."
Following his football days, McKibben became a crew of one and opened a franchise business – Interstate Batteries of Northeast Pittsburgh – that had been on his mind for four years.
"When I got cut from the Jets back in '81, I went back home to West Virginia to just, I guess, lick my wounds a little bit and try to decide what to do while I was waiting for the USFL to start," McKibben said. "And I met a guy at a local sporting goods store who I'd become friends with; his name was John Barber. I asked him what he did for a living and he said, 'I'm an Interstate Battery distributor.'
"So that's what I wanted to do. I liked his lifestyle. I liked the job. I liked the concept. I have an accounting degree that I can apply to those practices and other stuff. It was a good choice for me.
"I started out running the business entirely by myself the first year. And then I hired an old classmate of mine from Western West Virginia, and he came up and worked for me for about three or four years. In that time, we kind of doubled in size. And today we have 10 employees. I kind of organized a life plan that I've followed pretty closely, and I'm doing very well today."
McKibben and his wife, Randi, make their home in the Pittsburgh suburb of Upper St Clair. They have two adult children: Ashlee Lentini and Tanner; and five grandchildren.
