The New York Jets have only won the Super Bowl once in their team history and that was back in 1969 when they beat the Baltimore Colts 16-7. One of the key players on that Super Bowl III winning team that contributed to the Jets win was former wide-out George Sauer.
Sadly, both the team and the Moreland Funeral Home in Westerville, Ohio have confirmed that Mr. Sauer passed away after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease. George Sauer was 69 years old. He played a key role in the Jets Super Bowl win by catching eight passes from quarterback Joe Namath in one of the biggest upsets in pro football history.
He played for the Jets in the AFL and then the NFL from 1965-1970, and was chosen for four all star teams and was a tw0-time All Pro player. George Sauer played in 84 games where he had over 300 catches, close to 5,000 receiving yards and 28 touchdowns.
He loved literature and wrote stories, poetry, and book reviews. During the 1990’s he worked as a textbook graphics specialist in St Paul, Minn. John Dockery; a former teammate of Sauer and his roommate during road games; said back in a 2008 interview that Sauer “didn’t want to be anything but a poet and a writer but he was given skills he didn’t want; he wanted something else. He walked away from the money, from everything, because it was too painful for him”. Sauer expressed his view on the game back in 1983 when he was interviewed by The Times by saying that “Football is an ambiguous sport, depending both on grace and violence. It both glorifies and destroys bodies. At the time, I could not reconcile the apparent inconsistency.”
“We will always remember George Sauer for his role in the New York Jets’ run that culminated with a historic victory in Super Bowl III as well as the strength of his convictions off the field” Jets owner Woody Johnson said through a statement. “Our thoughts and prayers are with his family as we say goodbye to someone whose unforgettable contributions will always be a part of this organizations history.”
