Last Sunday, I craved football...I must have thought 100 times that I would rather watch the JETS lose than not have any JETS love on a football Sunday. Well, a week later, I could have easily regretted thinking that - but I'll take the loss. A loss is a loss is a loss- 60-0 or losing in the final moments (as we have 3 of the past 4 games)...after a loss- I feel crappy- but I don't utter the words that every JETS fan I know says as they shake their head (or tweet!)- Same ole Jets. Bulldog said it as we walked back to his car after the stunning, frustrating, and miserable loss to a team that is as mediocre as the Jets....for him, he's lived this over and over like groundhog day since birth. He's got the entire repetoire of heartbreaking losses and the fleeting memories of the "greatest Jets games" of the past 32 years...more guts than glory. So, my best friend suffers from what all Jets fans suffer from- baggage. It's like Jets fans just haul around the biggest TravelPro suitcase filled with cinder blocks that represent numerous missed field goals, botched calls, poor clock management, prevent defenses that didn't prevent, touchdowns called back because of penalties, interceptions, lost fumbles, last second playoff losses, embarassing defeats, a slew of "let-down" game losses, moral victories, injuries, nostalgia, draft day scripts that turn into hysterical montages on youtube...you get the picture.
I've been schooled in Jets history- I get it- it's tough to be a Jets fan....always 2nd fiddle to the Dolphins forever, then the Bills, and now the Patriots...Just because I saw the Jets win 4 games during the first season I went with Bdog to the Meadowlands (including a playoff game against Peyton Manning's Colts) and I fell in love with a loveable, but injury prone Chad Pennington- doesn't mean that I thought (8 years ago) it was going to be as easy as a Republican winning a congressional seat in Texas! However, I have only 8 seasons of Jets memories...and the majority of them have been gut-wrenching, grunting, hand slamming down on table, silent car rides from the bar. So, today, as I stood with about 20 other Jets fans at the NY sports bar in DC....in stunned silence...I was disappointed, pissy with poor play calling, and baffled by the lack of defense- but I never had this overwhelming feeling that "THIS IS NEVER GOING TO GET BETTER".
The NY Jets are still magical and fabulous to me...I see some players (Revis, Sanchez, Pace, Thomas Jones) playing their hearts out- even if execution is lacking....the LAST thing on the planet I want to do is assume that I'm obviously a deranged individual because this team isn't worth loving. Do we really want Mark Sanchez to think that he's just another piece of a puzzle that is always missing 3 pieces? Is there a culture of doom that is in the Jets heads already?
Certainly, the Jets were a tease the first three games of the season- flashing their mighty defense and picking up Sanchez even as his rookie mistakes were woven into the story of 2009. And, to lose 3 games in the manner the Jets have managed to lose is definately disheartening. For those of us who are Mets fans too- we have an added layer of poo to wade through to get to the light at the end of the tunnel. True, I just assume that we can't stop the other team from scoring....I assume we can't convert on 3rd down, and that we will always have a holding penalty that brings back a big play. I'm a ball of nerves watching every game....I scream at the TV...and I yell "REALLY???" like I'm sitting at my desk with Al or something!
All this pontificating on a day when I took the first step in becoming a JETS season ticket holder. I can't think of any material thing that I want more than Jets season tickets...I'm so lucky that it's going to happen (fingers crossed). So, this is my team...even if my suitcase only has a couple of bricks in it....
btw- thanks to the Cowboys for sucking even more than the Jets did today...
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