The Lansing-born Rochester was a starting defensive tackle for the New York Jets’ victorious squad in Super Bowl III.
The New York Jets’ official website has confirmed that former defensive tackle Paul Rochester has passed away at 81. Terms of his death were not disclosed.
“Paul was an underrated defensive tackle who played a major role on the Jets’ Super Bowl championship team,” former Jets public relations director and Rochester’s Sewanhaka High School classmate Frank Ramos said in a statement written by Randy Lange on the team’s site. “He was a great run stopper who enabled defensive ends Gerry Philbin and Verlon Biggs to rush from the outside and John Elliott, the quick defensive tackle, to rush up the middle. Walt Michaels came up with a scheme to use undersized linebacker Carl McAdams at DT on passing downs, leading the 1968 Jets to have the number one defense in the AFL.”
Rochester played ten professional seasons, beginning with the American Football League’s Dallas Texans (who later became the Kansas City Chiefs). He was released by the team in 1963 and signed with the Jets days later. The Lansing, Michigan native became one of the biggest leaders in green and earned co-captaincy duties en route to the 1968 AFL Championship Game. Rochester had a sack as the Jets topped the Oakland Raiders 27-23.
Two weeks later, Rochester was on the Jets’ starting defensive line as they topped the Baltimore Colts 16-7 in Super Bowl III. It marked the first time an AFL squad defeated an NFL team and indirectly led to the leagues’ eventual merger at the turn of the decade. Rochester is one of only 20 players who partook in each of the AFL’s ten seasons of play. He also partook in the 1961 AFL All-Star Game and helped push Dallas to the league’s title a year later, topping Houston in double overtime.
Rochester was born in Lansing and attended Sewanhaka in Floral Park on Long Island. He is survived by Nancy, his wife of 60 years, and Laurel and Don, his two children.
Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMagsÂ