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Joe Klecko ends 35-year Hall of Fame wait after a Jets career marked by toughness and versatility

Former New York Jets defensive end Joe Klecko poses with the Seagram's Seven Crowns of Sports award for outstanding defensive player in the National Football League in 1982. After a 35-year wait, the only player in NFL history to be selected to the Pro Bowl at three positions on the defensive line will be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Associated Press File Photo

Joe Klecko was tangled up with an offensive lineman during a New York Jets game when fists, elbows and cusses started flying.

The scrum came to an abrupt end when Marty Lyons, Klecko's concerned teammate, ran up behind the big defensive lineman, put him in a bear hug and pulled him from the fracas.

It was the last time Lyons ever did that.

“He grabbed me and he said, ‘You ever do that again, I’ll kick your (butt) right here in front of everybody,’” Lyons said, chuckling at the memory from more than 40 years ago. “He says, ‘You either fight with me or you leave me alone.’ And right then and there, I knew I had a guy in the foxhole with me.

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