Jets legend and newly minted Hall of Famer Joe Klecko gets off the line for some Q&A with Post columnist Steve Serby. 

Q: Did you ever dream about being a Hall of Famer? 

A: When I was in college, I thought I could maybe play in the NFL when I finally got to my junior and senior year, and in spring camp, the scouts were coming around to ask questions about me, so I thought maybe I’d be able to play. You gotta remember, in the ’70s and ’60s when I grew up, the media coverage of anything involved in professional sports and all was minimal. You never really heard about guys going in the Hall of Fame every year. I didn’t even realize anything like there was a Hall of Fame. 

Q: How would you characterize your on-field mentality? 

A: Well, I didn’t want to lose anything. I didn’t want to lose a battle, I didn’t want to lose a play, and I definitely didn’t want to lose a game. A tackle from the Dolphins was interviewed one time, I heard, and he was talking about me, he said, “It didn’t matter what the score was. We could be beating the Jets 30-0 and it’s the end of the fourth quarter, and I’m saying to Klecko, ‘Relax.’ And he just kept coming.” And I think that was my mentality on the football field. I never wanted to lose one play. I never took a play off. I just had this pride mentality that I didn’t want to lose. 

Q: Where did that come from? 

A: I would think some of it came from my dad, because I remember he got mad at me one time. When I first made the high school team, he came to watch me play the first game. And I said to him before the game, “I might play today.” And I didn’t play one down. And he got mad at me, and he said something to me which I’m not gonna repeat. I was like taken [aback], like my father like destroyed my life just a minute ago, and it was because I didn’t play a football game. Well, from that moment on I said, “You know what?” I was gonna prove to him that, “OK, I’ll show ya, I’m gonna play.” And about in the third game of the season, the guy in front of me got hurt, then after that they couldn’t take me out. I was using everybody. 

Q: Could you see fear in the eyes of offensive linemen? 

A: I never looked at it like that. I didn’t give a s–t. I was gonna make my way with the guy across the line no matter who it was. I played some of the best offensive linemen ever to play the game. I didn’t care who they were. It just didn’t matter to me. I wanted to win, ya know? [Bills HOF guard Joe] DeLamielleure told me one time they were talking about they couldn’t block me on a play or something like that. He says it on TV. He went to the sidelines and gave his helmet to the coach and said, “You block him.” 

Q: When you first had an NFL dream, how old were you? 

A: I never played football ’til I was a senior in high school. I always played baseball. We didn’t have Pop Warner or nothing like that … no Biddy leagues. 

Q: Why didn’t you play until you were a senior? 

A: I went out my freshman year, and the coach that was coaching — I went to a Catholic high school, and he was a Brother, and I really don’t think he knew what he was doing, but I got on this one-on-one with the biggest guy they had on the team at that time, and he told me, “Get out of there before you get hurt.” Embarrassed me to death. I just walked off. I quit. I never went out ’til my senior year because basically all my friends were on the team. So I figured, “What the hell, let me go out.” 

Q: Whatever comes to mind: Walt Michaels? 

A: My father. Just a wonderful man. To me he was everything. When you did something bad, Walt told you about it. But if you played real good — that’s why Walt could never coach today — that’s what the hell you’re supposed to do. I was fine with that. Walt was a [Pole] like me, and I respected Walt to death. 

Q: Marty Lyons? 

A:. A guy to be in the trenches with us and always had your back. Whether I was starting the fight or in the fight, or he was, which I saved him a lot on them … just a great teammate, and a great friend. 

Q: Mark Gastineau? 

A: The complete opposite of Joe Klecko. Mark was a tremendous athlete, we all know that. What a great football player. It’s funny, we became real good friends, like now. I hated his dancing, he knew it, and I let him know about it. He admits it now that maybe he shouldn’t have done it. And I said, “That’s OK, that was then, this is now.” It’s a different world, we can’t sit around and hold grudges. 

Q: Abdul Salaam? 

A: Just a stud, real stud. The immovable object. Abdul was such a rock. 

Q: The Mud Bowl? 

A: Richard Todd made A.J. Duhe (three INTs) a star. I’ve talked to Richard many times over the years, and those days back then, he screwed it up for us. We were mad at him a little bit. Richard took a lot of beatings, but Richard was a helluva quarterback. Richard used to babysit my Michael, my oldest son, and sits and watch movies on Friday night, then Richard would bring him back to practice on Saturday. 

Q: When did you find out that [Don] Shula didn’t put a tarp on the field for the heavy rain? 

A: Not until we got to the stadium. Not until we realized that it took away a lot for us because we had Freeman McNeil, we had Wesley Walker, we had guys that could really fly. 

Q: That game kept you from what would have been your only Super Bowl? 

A: And that would have been the Redskins. The Redskins ran all over the Dolphins, they would have never did that to us. That was tough. Real tough. 

Q: Quinnen Williams? 

A: He’s a real tough kid. It’s hard to block that kid. He’s very quick, he’s very strong. I think he’s still so green, he has so much to learn, he really does. He’s a badass, he really is. He’s a force to reckon with now, can you imagine if he starts learning about your techniques and stuff? 

Q: The roughest football game you played with the Aston Knights? 

A: We played against a team up in Boston, and I was having my way with the guard. And they set me up, and they high-lowed me, and they hurt my ankle real bad. There were no schoolboys playing in that league, that’s for sure. There were a lot of times in those games that, if they had vendettas on the other side, boy, you had to look out. 

Q: You were Jim Jones from Poland University? 

A: The owners came to me and said, “Joe listen — just in case someday you go to college” — the league I played in was called the Professional Seaboard League. You can’t go to college and already played pro football. 

Q: The toughest offensive linemen you faced? 

A: At center, Dwight Stephenson, probably, and Mike Webster. At guard, John Hannah. John was the kinda guy that if you ever beat him, he wouldn’t get intimidated, he woulda eaten your heart out. And of course tackle without a doubt was Anthony Munoz. 

Q: Was there a game at Temple where you opened the eyes of pro scouts? 

A: My junior year when we played Penn State. Penn State could not run the ball on us because of me. 

Q: You were pissed off you went in the sixth round of the draft, right? 

A: Yeah, I was a little upset about it, ’cause the Eagles told me just that day before they were taking me in the fifth round. 

Q: Sparring with Joe Frazier: What did that left hook feel like? 

A: He never hit me with it. That’s where he stopped it next to my head and he started laughing at me. And I said, “This ain’t for me!” [laugh] I think boxing helped me a lot in football because it made my hands quicker. The way Aaron Donald uses his hands and stuff, that’s what I did all the time. I had quick enough hands to where I’d get in first. 

Q: Which players did you like growing up? 

A: I loved Bob Lilly and Merlin Olsen. 

Q: Patrick Mahomes? 

A: He’s a wizard, he really is. He has revamped the quarterback position pretty much. Mahomes’ mechanics change every damn play. The guy has a lot of savvy about the way he plays the quarterback position. And I’m sure he drives Andy Reid nuts at times too, but I think more than ever he makes things work where other guys wouldn’t have that ability to make that play work. 

Q: Would you like to see Aaron Rodgers play for the Jets? 

A: No, I wouldn’t. I don’t see a guy like Rodgers fitting in with that mentality of them kids and everything like that. I could be wrong, he’s a tremendous quarterback, he’s a smart guy. I just think he could be more of a detriment, I really do. He has that condescending attitude about “Why did you give up the route? Don’t stop.” When you know all these things, and you can help somebody, yeah. But he doesn’t do it like that. You could see it on his face on the field how he gets upset with players. Is he a great player? Absolutely. I just don’t see him fitting. It takes a certain personality really to make things work. Like when [Tom] Brady went to Tampa Bay, he called everybody the night before and told ’em why you could be great … he led these guys to believe in themselves, and they did. When things don’t go right, I can’t see Aaron Rodgers being a guy that gives a s–t. I just can’t see it.