Derrick Gaffney, the wide receiver who teamed with Wesley Walker to help provide the Jets of the late 1970s and early-to-mid-1980s with one of the greatest downfield passing dimensions in franchise history, has died. He was 69.
While Gaffney never had a monster game or season, he was a steady starter and midrange contributor to the Green & White offense for seven full seasons from 1978-84 plus, after a two-year hiatus, two more games as a free agent during the 1987 players' strike.
His trademarks on the NFL stage were his smooth moves and his quick changes of direction. He also had another quality that was helpful in forging his Jets and pro career.
"I'm a daredevil," he said. "You put me out there and I'll give you everything I've got. I'll go till I can't go anymore."
The Gaffney family tree produced two more pros down the road in Derrick's son, WR Jabar Gaffney, and his nephew, CB Lito Sheppard. Jabar was an 11-year NFL receiver with 447 catches for 5,690 yards and 24 TDs. Sheppard, a 10-year corner, played his first seven seasons with Philadelphia before moving to the Jets, playing in 11 games (9 starts) at RCB in 2009 and coming up with the 19th and last INT of his career in his first Jets game in the season opener at Houston.
The Gaffneys last year became the only father-son duo to be named to the Florida Times-Union's "100 Greatest Athletes" list. Jabar checked in at No. 51 on that list, bumping dad Derrick to No. 69.
"He deserves it," Derrick said of Jabar's ranking. "He was a better receiver than I was. ... I'm more proud of his career than mine. He's home-grown. It wasn't easy but it was worth it once the light came on for him."
Derrick Gaffney grew up in Jacksonville, FL, and attended William M. Raines HS there. Then he headed southwest to Gainesville and the University of Florida, where in 1977 he was a part of the longest play of his college career that also tied for the longest possible play in SEC and college football history — a 99-yard catch-and-run from Cris Collinsworth, then a freshman and a quarterback, in a 48-3 rout of Rice.
Gaffney (6-1, 181) was selected by the Jets in the eighth round (197th overall) of the 1978 draft. He and Walker, drafted in the second round in 1977, plus Johnny "Lam" Jones for the first five seasons in the 1980s, catching passes primarily from Richard Todd and then from Ken O'Brien, made the Jets a chore to cover on intermediate to deep routes.
Gaffney never had a pro reception longer than 50 yards and never had better numbers than his rookie season of '78, when he started all 16 games and posted what would be career highs of 38 catches (12 for 20-plus yards and 12 to convert third downs) for 691 yards and three touchdowns. Yet he excelled when called on to produce a career average of 16.75 yards/catch, the fifth-best average in franchise history for all receivers with 100-plus catches. The top four: Walker (19.0), Don Maynard (18.7), Richard Caster (18.1) and Jones (16.83).
For his NFL career, spent entirely in uniform No. 81 for the Green & White, Gaffney played in 100 games (69 starts) and had 156 receptions for 2,613 yards and 7 touchdowns, plus 9 more catches for 121 yards and a TD in 4 postseason games after the ''81 and '82 regular seasons. The score came on a perfectly executed 14-yard option pass from Freeman McNeil in the first-round playoff game at Cincinnati in early 1983.
The Jets released Gaffney early in 1985 training camp, but he held no grudges, saying in 1987: "My favorite pastime has been watching the Jets on Sunday." He returned for those two games in '87 during the strike and contributed one final 10-yard reception at home against Dallas.
"There are other guys here who are younger than me, a lot faster," he said. "But I can catch the ball."
Frank Ramos, the Jets' longtime public relations director, remembered Gaffney as "a sure-handed possession receiver who was never afraid to go over the middle to get a needed first down. He was a quiet guy who was raised in a football family and had a good career for the Florida Gators.""
