Sack Exchange's Abdul Salaam, the Jets' “Quiet Philosopher” and “Peacekeeper,” dies at 71

Abdul Salaam, who ultimately became the first addition among the founding members of the greatest quartet of players in Jets history – the New York Sack Exchange – has died. He was 71.

Salaam, whose name means “soldier of peace,” became a jet when he was known as Larry Faulk, a defensive end from Kent State who was selected by the team in the seventh round of the 1976 draft before being drafted the next year Islam converted. In the locker room, he often wore a silent, stern face, which at the same time reminded him of a fierce fighter on the field, but also earned him the nickname of the Jets' “quiet philosopher.”

“You get nothing without a fight,” Salaam said in 1980. “But I love the fight. Every day it's a struggle for me to do my job and I'm sure it's a struggle for you to do your job. But if you don’t make an effort, you won’t be able to get up in the morning.”

“You never hear much about Abdul,” head coach Walt Michaels said at the time, “but he gets the job done on the field.”

“I always imagined him to be like the John Wayne character 'The Quiet Man,'” longtime public relations director Frank Ramos said today. “And he just didn’t miss a tackle. When he got his hands on you, it was over. And he never wanted to advertise. He just didn't say a word, went to work like a lunchbox guy and did his job.”

Salaam's struggles, dating back to his childhood in Cincinnati, have made him, along with his fellow sack exchangers, something glorious for the Green and White and their fans. Joe Klecko was drafted in 1978, Mark Gastineau and Marty Lyons in 1979. Salaam moved to tackle, and he and his three teammates were the stuff of NFL legends and opposing offenses' nightmares for a too-brief but extremely productive stretch.

The top four's greatest success was the 1981 season, when they led the ferocious pass rush to a franchise-record 66 sacks. The team sacks are official, but the individual sacks – Klecko's 20.5, Gastineau's 20, Salaam's 7 and Lyons' 6.5 – all came in the season before player sacks became official. But whatever. For the QBs that were taken out, they all felt very real, including Lynn Dickey, Phil Simms and Ken Stabler, all of whom were sacked at least seven times in a game.

Salaam recalled working closely not only with Lyons on his right, but also with Gastineau on the left edge of the line when he spoke with him Jim Gehman of newyorkjets.com in 2021.

“When Mark did the sack dance, I knew he was genuinely happy about the sack, so it was kind of a dance for me too,” Salaam said. “But I was in the middle and couldn’t reach as many, so I couldn’t dance as well.”

“He was a soldier,” Gastineau said today. “He let me walk and run and run in and out and let me do my own thing. And that made me myself.”

“Abdul was larger than life. “He enjoyed life,” Lyons also recalled. “When he got up to speak, he wasn’t a rah-rah guy all the time, but when he spoke, you listened. And when we walked on the field, I was right next to him and right next to Joe, pressed in the middle, and we all knew what we had to do. Abdul and I communicated well.

“His name says it all: Soldier of Peace. He did that. Whenever there were conflicts with the four of us, he was always the mediator who would step in and solve the problems,” Lyons said, adding, “I just got it.” I didn't speak to Mark and Joe on the phone today. We not only lost a teammate, but also a friend.

WR Wesley Walker, who joined the Jets a year after Salaam, was also hit hard by the loss of his old teammate and wrote in a Facebook post:

You will be missed my brother!!! Forever anchored in our hearts, never forgotten

Salaam's role in the Jets' version of the Fab Four will continue to resonate with fans young and old. The Jets' rebranding this season brought the past into the present by redesigning the team's logo and uniforms from that era. And ESPN announced in August that it had greenlit “The Sack Exchange” for its documentary series “30 for 30.”

“We were lucky enough to come together for this show,” Lyons said of some of the videos filmed at One Jets Drive. “Abdul was in a wheelchair, but his sense of humor, his laughter, everything was still there.”

After his eighth Jets season in 1983, which he spent exclusively wearing number 74, Salaam retired as a player. He and his wife Debbie, Cincinnatians at heart, lived there after his playing days and when he became an officer and football coach in the city's school district. After retiring from his post-soccer activities, he enjoyed spending time with his family and watching his granddaughters play basketball.

And Salaam still fondly remembered the rigors of the serious game that he and his brothers played at the highest level. When asked what he was most proud of from his Sack Exchange time, he said:

“That we survived. It was a survival game. And we passed the test.”