{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"023: The AFL\u2019s New York Titans with Author Bill Ryczek ","description":"Before the modern-day New York Jets of today\u2019s NFL \u2013 before Joe Namath, before the infamous \u201cHeidi Game,\u201d before the guaranteed Super Bowl III victory \u2013 there were the New York Titans.  A charter member of the upstart American Football League in 1960, the underfunded Titans played for three seasons to meager crowds in Upper Manhattan\u2019s decrepit Polo Grounds, flirting with bankruptcy and collapse from virtually day one.  Author\/historian Bill Ryczek (Crash of the Titans: The Early Years of the New York Jets and the AFL) joins Tim Hanlon to discuss the Jets\u2019 ignominious beginnings as the Titans, including notable performances by: Owner Harry Wismer, the volatile sportscaster with a talent for hustling, a penchant for drinking, and a habit of bouncing paychecks; Head coach Sammy Baugh, the prescient hall-of-fame player who refused to show up for a press conference announcing his signing until he was paid his full salary in advance \u2013 and in cash; Successor (and first-time) head coach Clyde "Bulldog" Turner, who inherited a dispirited squad weary of uncertain finances, inadequate publicity, and front office instability; AFL commissioner Joe Foss, the constant Wismer foe, whose tolerance was tested until ultimately pushed to seize control of the franchise; and  William Shea, the New York attorney whose dream for a Continental League baseball franchise in a newly-constructed Flushing Stadium materialized too late to save Wismer\u2019s foundering Titans, but eventually catalyzed the re-born Jets.  This week\u2019s episode is sponsored by Audible and Podfly!   ","author_name":"Good Seats Still Available","author_url":"https:\/\/goodseatsstillavailable.com","html":"