By Anthony Holden
CBS SportsLine Historian

A little more than a month before the Raiders and Jets met to decide the 1968 AFL championship at blustery Shea Stadium, the teams squared off in balmy Oakland.

On that day, Oakland scored two touchdowns in the final 50 seconds to pull out a dramatic 43-32 victory over New York in the infamous Heidi game.

New York QB Joe Namath is chased by Oakland defenders. (AP)

It had been a painful loss for the Jets because it seemed to prove once again that they couldn't beat the Raiders. In their last eight games with Oakland, the Jets were 5-1-2. Their lone win, 27-14, came in 1967.

"We always had a tough time with Oakland," admitted Jets wide receiver Don Maynard.

And when Oakland's George Atkinson intercepted a Joe Namath pass and returned it to the Jets 5, setting up Pete Banaszak's touchdown run which gave Oakland a 23-20 lead with 8:18 left to play in the championship game, it looked as if the Raiders were going to break the Jets' hearts again, this time in the biggest game of the season.

"I don't know about them," New York wide receiver Bake Turner said of his teammates, "but I was scared."

Fear not, Bake.

Within 31 seconds, Joe Namath -- starting at his own 32 -- threw a 10-yard completion to George Sauer, a 52-yard bomb to Maynard, and a six-yard pass to Maynard who caught the ball in the end zone to put the Jets back on top 27-23. It turned out to be the last score of a dazzling game as the Jets dethroned the defending AFL champions and earned a spot opposite NFL powerhouse Baltimore in Super Bowl III at Miami's Orange Bowl.

On a day when Oakland quarterback Daryle Lamonica threw for a title game record 401 yards, he was still overshadowed by the huge specter of Namath. The three-play drive that produced the winning touchdown was absolute mastery, a succession of plays that defined Namath's character as well as his skill.

Earlier in the game, Atkinson had made a beautiful interception on a pass that was intended for Maynard, so what did Namath do? He went right back at the rookie, and this time, he won the battle.

"On the sideline, [Maynard] told me he might be able to get by Atkinson deep," Namath said. That was all Namath had to hear. After Sauer made his first-down catch at the Jets 42, Namath threw deep to Maynard, and the veteran receiver made a superb catch and lumbered his way to the 6.

"We both could see the ball fine," Atkinson said. "Then all of a sudden it moved crosswind. He made a great adjustment and a hell of a catch. It's tough to do that when you're running so fast."

It's also tough to do what Namath did on the next play. He rolled out to his left looking to throw to halfback Bill Mathis in the flat, but the Raiders got good penetration and forced Namath to look elsewhere. Sauer was his next choice, but he wasn't open. Tight end Pete Lammons flashed briefly, but he was also blanketed. Finally, Namath found Maynard, who had worked himself free from Atkinson's clutches, and the touchdown electrified the shivering crowd at Shea.

"We were both covered," Sauer said of himself and Lammons, "so he found Maynard. How many quarterbacks could go through four options in what, five seconds?"

Now it was up to the Jets defense to somehow hold off Lamonica, something they hadn't done all day. Lamonica marched the Raiders right back downfield to the Jets 26, but against a stiff breeze, a George Blanda field goal was out of the question. So on fourth down Lamonica tried to throw for the first down and was sacked by Verlon Biggs.

"It was a key play when their coach (John Rauch) decided not to take the field goal," said Jets linebacker Larry Grantham. The linebacker, like Maynard, was a member of the original 1960 New York Titans. "It showed how much respect they had for Namath, because they must have figured they needed the points."

The Jets couldn't move and were forced to punt with 3:30 to go. Lamonica was on the attack again, hitting Fred Biletnikoff for 24 yards and Warren Wells for 37 to the New York 24. Here, Lamonica looked to swing a pass out to Charlie Smith, but he threw the ball just slightly behind the line of scrimmage, meaning it was a lateral. Smith couldn't get a handle on the ball, then froze as it bounced to the ground, unaware that it was a fumble. Jets linebacker Ralph Baker recovered the fumble and the Jets had averted another threat.

"Out there [in Oakland in the Heidi game] they scored the winning touchdown on a pass to one of their halfbacks [Smith]," Baker said. The Raiders used the same formation on this play and Baker recognized it and was therefore in position to make the recovery.

"I don't even know if I could have gotten to the ball," Smith said. "Baker was on it so quickly, and I didn't know if it was a live ball. It all happened so fast. Either you react or you don't and I didn't react."

Again the Jets failed to produce a first down and punted to the Oakland 22 with 42 seconds remaining. Lamonica hit Billy Cannon for 16 yards, but the Jets defense stiffened. And on fourth down, safety Jim Hudson stopped Hewritt Dixon two yards shy of the first-down marker and the game was over.

New York raced to a 10-0 lead as Namath threw a 14-yard touchdown pass to Maynard 3:39 into the game and kicker Jim Turner added a 33-yard field goal. But Oakland pulled to within 13-10 at the half as Lamonica threw to Biletnikoff for a 29-yard touchdown and Blanda kicked a 26-yard field goal. Sandwich in between was a 36-yard field goal by Turner.

Blanda tied the score early in the third with a 9-yard field goal, which was set up by a 37-yard pass to Biletnikoff and a 40-yarder to Wells. But Namath made it 20-13 when he fired a 20-yard touchdown pass to

Lammons with less than a minute to go in the third quarter.

Jets cornerback Johnny Sample, who had been burned repeatedly by Biletnikoff in the Heidi game, was benched in the second quarter by Jets coach Weeb Ewbank after being beaten for the 29-yard touchdown pass. However, Biletnikoff had also embarrassed rookie Cornell Gordon, so Ewbank summoned Sample in the fourth quarter. It didn't matter as Biletnikoff (who finished with seven catches for 190 yards) blew past him for a 57-yard gain that put the Raiders on the Jets doorstep.

New York's defense stiffened and Oakland settled for a 23-yard Blanda field goal, and then Atkinson made his interception and Banaszak scored the touchdown that seemed to give Oakland irreversible momentum.

"Of course I thought we could come back," said Namath. Added Lammons: "I knew we had plenty of time left."

Namath needed only 31 seconds.

"That was the biggest game of my career," said Maynard, who despite being hampered by a hamstring injury had six catches for 118 yards. However, the injury rendered him a decoy in the upcoming Super Bowl against Baltimore. "That was a must-win game," he said. "We had to win to get to the Super Bowl."

Game Player Profiles

Don Maynard, Jets
Because they played in separate leagues during their heyday in the 1960s, New York Giants Hall of Fame linebacker Sam Huff and fellow Hall of Famer, wide receiver Don Maynard of the Jets, never met on the playing field.

But the two were teammates for a brief period with the Giants in 1958, and all Huff could remember about Maynard was that "When he was with us, he couldn't catch the flu."

Giants coach Allie Sherman didn't exactly hold Maynard in high esteem, either.

"It was only a matter of time before Allie and I had a parting of the ways," Maynard said. "It came down to his not liking my running style. He told me to shorten my steps. I told him I could cover more ground with one step than anybody he had out there could with three. The next day I was cut. He kept an ol’ boy named Joe Biscaha. Heck, I could run faster backwards than he could run frontwards."

After playing 1959 with Hamilton of the Canadian league, Maynard caught on with the fledgling New York Titans of the new AFL in 1960. In that first season he caught 72 passes for 1,265 yards and 6 TDs, then followed that up with 99 receptions for 1,670 yards and 16 TDs over the next two years.

Still, despite those impressive numbers, the criticisms continued. When Weeb Ewbank took over as coach of the team that was now called the Jets in 1963, he remarked of Maynard, "I don't like the way he runs patterns. And he catches the ball all wrong. His elbows are apart instead of together and the ball, instead of being trapped in there, often dribbles out."

So how did this guy who ran funny, caught the ball improperly, and ran patterns in haphazard fashion go on to become one of the greatest receivers in the history of the game?

Truth be told, everything derogatory said about Maynard was right on the mark. But when he was on the field, when there was a play to be made and a game to be won, Maynard could always be counted on. That, after all, is what really matters.

"You probably have to put him at the top of the underrated list," said former Buffalo cornerback Butch Byrd, who regularly waged battles with Maynard from 1964-70. "He had so much speed that you never stopped worrying about him."

Equally as memorable as some of Maynard's acrobatic catches was the lanky Texan's attitude about money. Maynard was way ahead of his time when it came to griping about his salary. To put it succinctly, Maynard was a tightwad, and the more money he made, the more money he saved.

"Nothing ever really bothered me except taxes," Maynard once said.

Larry Grantham, who, like Maynard was an original member of the 1960 Titans, said of his longtime teammate: "I started to question his finances when we'd go through a 10-cent toll booth and he'd ask for a receipt for his income taxes. When the team was still the Titans and we were worried about our checks bouncing, Maynard would be the first guy at the bank trying to cash his check."

Added defensive tackle John Elliott: "I don't know who was tighter with a dollar, Ewbank or Maynard. One year they were negotiating a contract and got it settled two or three days before the season started. Weeb told Don 'Don't tell anyone what you're making, I wouldn't want it to get out.' Don said 'I won't Weeb, I'm just as ashamed as you are.'"

But no matter how little money he made, the future Hall of Famer always gave 100 percent. He once told Joe Namath "You make me look good and I'll make you look good. We're in this together."

And together they helped lift the Jets to the AFL championship in 1968 and one of the game's greatest upsets, their 16-7 conquest of Baltimore in Super Bowl III.

That was a game during which Maynard's value to the Jets came into clear focus. He had suffered a hamstring injury during the Jets AFL title game victory over Oakland, yet gutted it out and caught six passes for 118 yards and two touchdowns, including the game-winning score in the fourth quarter.

The Jets hid Maynard's injury against the Colts in the Super Bowl and used him as a decoy most of the day. Early in the game he got open deep and Namath barely overthrew him.

"It was an important play," Namath said. "Maynard was open, he got behind their bomb-proof secondary, he put the fear of God in them the rest of the game. That opened things up for George Sauer. To a lot of people it looked like just another incomplete pass, but it was one of the turning points of the game."

Baltimore never caught on that Maynard was hurt and double-teamed him all day. Maynard didn't catch a pass, but Sauer enjoyed a heroic day in single coverage, catching eight passes for 133 yards.

When Maynard's career ended, he caught one pass in two games with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1973, he was pro football's all-time receiver in yardage (11,834) and receptions (633).

"There were some comments here and there that my record was tainted because I broke it playing in the AFL, but I didn't pay much attention to that," he said. "I just knew that each yard had come hard, and I was tickled with the record."

Jim Otto, Raiders
Although Jim Otto had enjoyed a stellar collegiate career at the University of Miami, there were many football followers in South Florida who didn't exactly predict greatness for him as a pro.

When Otto signed his initial contract to play for the Oakland Raiders in 1960, a sports writer wrote, "A University of Miami athlete just committed suicide. I predict that he will not last more than two days in professional football."

Does anyone wonder why sports writers so often get a bad name?

The undersized Otto, who played center and linebacker for the Hurricanes while weighing just 210 pounds, eventually bulked up to 255 pounds and had no problem filling out his No. 00 jersey. Ol’ ‘Double Zero’ did not incur a serious injury for the first 10 years of his career, which lasted 15 seasons (1960-74) and was capped by his induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1980.

Otto is one of only three men -- George Blanda and Gino Cappelletti are the others -- who played in every AFL game during the league's 10 years. And he is one of only 20 players who were with AFL teams when the league opened for business in 1960 and closed in 1969 when it merged with the NFL.

"He was a model, that guy," Raiders coach John Madden said of Otto.

"I was a football player, and I wanted to play," Otto said, explaining his determination to overcome his lack of size for such a grueling position. "Once you have a desire to be recognized, it's amazing what you can do."

And what Otto did was amazing. He played in 210 consecutive regular-season games and appeared in 13 AFL All-Star or NFL Pro Bowl games. He also survived the early days of the Oakland franchise when things were downright gloomy.

"Coming from a first-rate program in both high school and college, it was tough to take," he said of the Raiders first few years. "We always traveled third-rate and it got to the point where we would go out and look for an open lot to practice. I remember once a bunch of parents of Little League baseball kids chased us off one field. Can you imagine a pro football team being chased off a field by a bunch of irate parents? It was wild. But in our fourth year, Al Davis was named coach and general manager and that's when things began to change."

Otto anchored an Oakland line that was very weak in the early days, but grew to become one of the best units in history as players such as Gene Upshaw and Art Shell were added to the mix.

"After I finished my first year, the NFL was knocking at my door wanting me to jump leagues," said Otto. "They knocked every year until the merger, but I wouldn't do it. The Raiders gave me my original shot and I felt a certain loyalty to them. I had faith in the Raiders."

Not only did he play center, he also starred on the Raiders special teams and in their early years, he was usually the leader in special teams tackles.

"First one down on punts," he said. "I made the majority of tackles on punts, I went down on kickoffs, I even received kickoffs. I had a lot of fun."

Many times at the expense of his center brethren. When the Raiders lined up for a punt block, Otto would be over the opposing team's center, and because he was so familiar with the position, he often created havoc.

"I used to love to hit the center on punts," he said. "I knew when he was about to snap the ball because I could see his knuckles whitening on his hands. I used to time it just right, flying in."

Today, Otto is the poster child for what this violent game can do to a man's body. During his first 10 years, he suffered the usual injuries such as broken noses, fingers and ribs, and he played through it all. But in the final five years, he began to suffer the debilitating injuries that have left him just short of a cripple.

He underwent 11 knee operations -- five of them coming after he retired following the 1974 season. He has a pair of artificial knee joints, and his back and shoulders have been operated on countless times. Otto can barely get out of bed in the morning, and he hasn't played a down in a quarter of a century.

"I was stubborn," Otto said of his refusal to come out of the lineup despite all his pain. "I played hurt, but I still went out at the right time, the way I wanted to, when I was still rated higher than 27 other (centers) in the league."