A former co-worker of mine is a New York Jets fan. He grew up and still resides in New York about a half-hour north of the city. He attends at least one game a year in person and bleeds Jets green.
I was listening to WFAN on Wednesday and got to thinking about him and it made me realize this must be one hell of a tough time for Jets fans. I mean the team you battle for sports page space in your own city and your prime division rival are playing each other in Super Bowl XLII. It must make Jets fans at the very least wanna heave their lunch.
Jets fans that called the radio station were pretty much beside themselves. They have no idea who to root for, or against, or if they should root for anyone at all. One caller said he was not going to even watch the game. He obviously does not care about civic pride or the pursuit of perfection.
If you sit down and think about this from a Jets fan perspective what could be worse that this?
Then add to the fact that:
The team blew a chance in the 2004 playoffs to advance to the AFC title game when place kicker Doug Brien missed a pair of field goals against Pittsburgh and former coach Herm Edwards went into “clock management mode” and basically frittered away the game.
Their hated division rival’s head coach spurned them and resigned after one day as the Jets head coach. Then three weeks later shows up in Foxboro smiling announcing his hiring to lead the Patriots and then goes on to turn them into perennial champions.
The current Jets head coach and even some of his staff comes from the New England Patriots. And after a successful first season that saw them go 9-7 and earn a wild card playoff birth, they got eliminated by the Patriots in the first round. Then this year they finish 4-12 and the “Mangenius” isn’t looking so smart and may very well be on the hot seat in 2008.
It’s been 39 years, THIRTY NINE YEARS, since Joe Namath led the Jets to their lone Super Bowl Championship with a stunning 16-7 upset win over the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III.
And now compound that with the fact that the team they share a city and the back pages with has now gone to four Super Bowls in the last 21 seasons and has won two of three that have been played, it has to hurt.
Then for good measure throw in that their hated division rival will not only be playing in their sixth Super Bowl but has a chance to win their fourth in the last seven years, is considered a dynasty and the team of the decade before this game is even played.
Thinking about it all, I wouldn’t blame Jets fans at all if on Sunday February 3rd they didn’t even turn on the game and instead just sat in the dark getting drunk while watching “Roseanne” reruns.
