our bad years, because we tried to do everything for the short term rather than the long haul—we'd trade a draft choice for a player, figuring he'd give us one or two good years. We didn't want to accept how the public might react if we had a bad year or two or three." In 1967, the Giants traded for star Minnesota Vikings quarterback Fran Tarkenton in the vain hopes he would lead them to renewed success and rival Namath in the public eye. In August 1969, the Jets faced the Giants in a preseason game at the Yale Bowl. While the Jets' Super Bowl win legitimized the AFL as a comparable league to the NFL in the eyes of many, others doubted the AFL's standard of play, and the Jets were underdogs going into the game. Giants coach Allie Sherman approached the game as if it were a regular season contest, and the Jets sent the three remaining original Titans out for the coin toss. The Jets defeated the Giants 37–14, and Sherman was fired a few weeks later. The Jets' fellow tenants, the Mets, won a championship themselves; the baseball team's accomplishments forced the Jets to play their first five games on the road. The Jets recovered from a slow start to win their second consecutive Eastern Division championship, but fell to Kansas City in the divisional round of the playoffs, 13–6. The first NFL game for the Jets, as the leagues finalized their merger in 1970, was also the first-ever Monday Night Football game, a 31–21 loss to the Cleveland Browns. Three weeks later, they played the Colts for the first time since the Super Bowl. The Jets lost both the game and Namath, who fractured his wrist and was lost for the season as the Jets fell to a record of 4–10, the worst mark yet of the Namath era. They did not have a winning record again until 1981. After six years with the team, wide receiver George Sauer, a major contributor offensively, retired on April 16, 1971. Namath was injured again in a 1971 preseason game in Tampa, and missed much of the season. He returned on November 28 against the San Francisco 49ers and threw three touchdown passes; the Jets lost by three points. The Jets finished the season at 6–8. In 1972, Namath had one of the best days of his career