FLORHAM PARK, N.J. -- Aaron Glenn vowed vengeance. It came after one of his lowest moments in professional football. He didn't tell reporters, and he didn't announce it on social media because that wasn't a thing in 1994. He told one of his New York Jets teammates, Victor Green, and they kept it quiet for years.
"AG had a mean streak to him," Green recalled last week. "He never forgot the plays that were made on him, and he always tried to get you back."
This was an all-timer, one of the most memorable gadget plays in NFL history -- and Glenn happened to fall victim to Dan Marino's wizardry.
Naturally, we're talking about "the fake spike" play, when the Miami Dolphins legendary quarterback, in the final seconds of a critical AFC East showdown, made the Jets believe he was going to clock the ball only to throw an 8-yard touchdown to Mark Ingram for a 28-24 victory.
Most of Glenn's teammates remained stationary at the snap, thinking Marino was simply going to stop the clock by spiking it. Glenn, a rookie cornerback, was the defender on Ingram's stop-fade route. It took him a second or two to recognize the ruse; the slight hesitation proved costly.
It's remembered as one of the darkest moments in Jets' history, starting a tailspin that lasted two-plus seasons. They lost 32 of their next 36 games, reinforcing the three-word narrative that has haunted the franchise for a half-century and one that Glenn referenced after the Jets suffered a last-second loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 3.
Same Old Jets.
"It's a play I'll never forget because it went to my guy," Glenn told ESPN many years after the play, "but I remember telling Victor Green on the sideline, 'I'm going to get Dan back for that.'"
He did.
Two years later, Glenn exacted his revenge with a 100-yard interception return for a touchdown against Marino. He high-stepped the last 20 yards, dancing in the end zone with a shoulder-shimmy that resembled last week's viral sideline celebration.
Now, 53 years old and gray, Glenn returns to this ancient AFC East rivalry as a first-year head coach. The Jets and Dolphins, both 0-3, will meet for the 120th time Monday night (7:15 p.m. ET, ESPN) at Hard Rock Stadium. The all-time series is into its seventh decade.
Once again, Glenn is the rookie. Once again, he's getting picked on, not by a Hall of Fame quarterback but by a tortured fan base starving for a winner.
This time, he vows to be ready from the snap. And, as always, there's getback on his mind.
THE DOLPHINS HAVE provided pain and euphoria for Glenn, who went from the fake spike to the pick-six to the "Monday night miracle" in 2000 -- one of the greatest wins in Jets history. Oct. 23 will mark the 25th anniversary of that game, a four-hour classic in which the Jets prevailed in overtime, 40-37, after trailing by 23 at the start of the fourth quarter. It's tied for the second-largest fourth quarter comeback in NFL history.
"That was an outstanding game," Glenn recalled last week. "Just when everybody thought the game was over -- and that's one thing that we talk about now, just the belief that no matter what the situation is, you can always come back and win the game."
In some ways, the full Jets experience -- the entire star-crossed history -- can be framed by the fake spike and the Monday night miracle. Glenn is one of only six Jets that played in both games.
The Jets were 6-6 after the fake spike, still alive in the AFC wild-card race, but they lacked the mental toughness to recover from what then-coach Pete Carroll called "a staggering defeat." So staggering that Carroll, who would go on to great success with USC and the Seattle Seahawks, was fired after the season.
His one-and-only Jets team was a veteran group with strong personalities, including Hall of Famer Ronnie Lott and famed quarterback Boomer Esiason, but it wilted under the weight of the "Same Old Jets" burden.
"I tell you what, that s--- broke us for the rest of the season," former linebacker Marvin Jones said, looking back.
If that game reinforced the perception of the Jets -- fragile, gullible and addicted to losing -- the Monday night miracle did the opposite. Save for winning Super Bowl III in 1969 and the upset of the New England Patriots in the 2010 divisional playoffs, the Miami win in 2000 could stand as the franchise's signature moment.
To overcome a 30-7 deficit in less than 15 minutes, to do it with key contributions from unheralded players (three scored their first NFL touchdown) and to do it against a quality opponent ... it was the kind of never-say-die performance that still gives the participants goose bumps a quarter-century later.
Former coach Al Groh, who tossed a trash can that night during a fiery, expletive-laced halftime speech, said he still gets "remember the miracle" texts from former players and friends around mid-October, when the game usually is replayed on TV.
He remains awed by the team's determination and fighting spirit. As for that scorching halftime address, Groh said, "I'll just put it this way: The head coach was excitable." His exact vocabulary, he said, would be best illustrated by "those symbols you see in print."
As in: Get your $#&!? together, fellas.
TACKLE JUMBO ELLIOTT, the unlikely hero, said he still gets stopped by fans who ask him to autograph photos of his catch -- his juggling, falling-down touchdown grab on a tackle-eligible play in the final minute of regulation.
Elliott's play, Vinny Testaverde's fifth touchdown pass on the day, was just five seconds out of a 14-year career that included a Super Bowl championship with the New York Giants. But it's his calling card, along with the expression on his face that was captured on the JumboTron as he watched the replay.
"It was like a Mastercard commercial -- just priceless," said Green, who, like Jones and Glenn, played in the '94 and '00 games.
Glenn started and played the entire Monday night game. This time, the Dolphins stayed clear of him, a sign of respect. In the years after the fake spike, he became one of the better corners in the league, a two-time Pro Bowler with the Jets.
Wary of Glenn, the Dolphins attacked the opposite corner and paid dearly. Marcus Coleman delivered one of the great defensive games in team history -- three interceptions, including two in overtime.
Glenn's old nemesis -- Marino -- didn't play in the Monday night miracle. He retired after the 1999 season, and his job went to New York native Jay Fiedler, who would play briefly for the Jets in 2005.
Fiedler, a Long Island kid who grew up watching the famous passing duels between Marino and Ken O'Brien in the 1980s, was thrilled to be part of the rivalry. In Miami, he gained an immediate appreciation for "how much the teams truly hate each other," he recalled with a laugh.
The Dartmouth product led the Dolphins to the AFC East title in 2000, but Coleman got him three times that night before family and friends at the old Meadowlands. Mic'd up for the game, Fiedler told teammate Jason Taylor on the sideline, "They ain't coming back on us." That video clip, which he said "became as viral as viral could be back then," compounded the sting of the defeat.
A quarter-century later, he's a good sport, agreeing to talk about it.
"I understand the importance of [the game], but I think at this point it's like beating a dead horse because everybody has been talking about it for 25 years," Fiedler said. "It's not my favorite subject to talk about. It was a long time ago, so it's not necessarily eating away at me on a daily basis."
The Jets improved to 6-1 with the stunning win, looking like a legit contender in the first year of the post-Bill Parcells era, but they skidded down the stretch and missed the playoffs at 9-7. They don't like to talk about that part of the story, lest it diminish the luster of the Monday night miracle.
AS FOR GLENN, he carries the fake spike with him like an old picture in his wallet -- out of sight, but always there, tucked away.
Reminded of it last week, Glenn's first reaction was to joke that he had forgotten about it. Then he closed his eyes for a couple of seconds, as if rewinding his memory to that fateful day in 1994.
He remembers talking to Lott, the legendary safety, before the snap. He remembers seeing a couple of defensive linemen down on one knee.
"It just so happened that I saw something that just wasn't right, and I just remember trying to run out there to go cover -- I think it was Mark Ingram -- to try and defend the play.
"Listen, they did a really good job of getting us on that play."
Marino, who works for the Dolphins as a special advisor, declined to be interviewed for this story.
Eleven years ago, for a story on the 20th anniversary of the play, Marino told ESPN, "I think playing the Jets made it memorable, beating them the way we beat them and came back. We were behind, and we had four touchdown passes in the second half -- and also because no one ever really did [a fake spike] before in a national kind of spotlight game. That's what made it memorable."
Glenn has been lugging it around for 31 years, knowing he was involved in one of the franchise's worst moments. That had to be a heavy burden for a young player. As Jones said, "No player would want to be in that situation, especially with the ramifications and everything that followed that."
The play symbolized one of the most embarrassing periods in Jets history. From 1991 to 1996, they went 22-58 under three different coaches. Parcells arrived on his white horse -- actually, a white Cadillac -- to save the franchise in 1997.
Green, who has remained close with Glenn, said his former teammate never brought up the fake spike again -- well, except to share his redemption plan. After that, he packed it away. It never detracted from his mission, which was a long, fruitful NFL career. He wound up playing 15 years for five different teams.
"The whole defense relaxed a little bit -- we got caught off guard -- and he happened to be the guy in coverage," Green said.
Of course, some folks like to rub it in. When the Jets tapped Glenn to be their head coach in January, a website that produces Dolphins content, Phin Phanatic, ran a story with the headline: "Jets hire man who fell for Dan Marino's fake spike to be next head coach."
THE JETS ALMOST pulled off another miracle win last week in Tampa, but it turned out to be one of those classic Jets-ian losses.
Down 17 in the fourth quarter, they scored three touchdowns, taking a one-point lead on Will McDonald IV's incredible, 50-yard touchdown return on a blocked field goal with under two minutes to play. Glenn was so pumped that he took off, running down the sideline as if he had stolen another one from Marino.
just gonna leave this here #ForTheCelly pic.twitter.com/3i2LNQUrWy
— New York Jets (@nyjets) September 21, 2025
For a desperate organization, seeking its first winning season since 2015, this was a potential turning point. This could've been the fake spike in reverse, a franchise-raising moment.
Alas, the Bucs rallied for a field goal as time expired, walking off with a 29-27 win.
At the post-game podium, Glenn got defensive, insisting his winless team isn't a descendant of its "Same Old Jets" ancestors.
"I hate that term, and I really don't know what that term means, but I know this: They're not the Same Old Jets," he snapped.
The Jets have played three quality opponents -- combined record: 8-1 -- and they lost two games on late field goals. So maybe there is progress, but the fan base -- cranky and restless -- wants results, not promises from a first-year coach.
So much for the honeymoon period.
Green, who reads the vitriol on social media, feels bad for his friend. Whatever happened to patience? Like other former teammates and coaches, he's confident Glenn is strong enough to combat the negativity and turn their old team into a winner.
Instead of running from the team's history, Glenn embraces it. Preparing for the Dolphins, he referenced the Monday night miracle, saying he sees that same fight in his current team.
"That's why I made the statement that these guys aren't the Same Old Jets," said Glenn, predicting brighter days.
The old cornerback is vowing vengeance. Again.