Upon meeting new people, whether it be at parties or on a college campus, one of the first things people ask me is, “Whose your team?”. My answer is the same each time. First, I inform my new peer that I support the New York Yankees, a franchise lathered in championships and a rich history of winning. People look at me with either disgust because my team wins more than they do, or with respect that I pull for such a winner. Then, however, the landscape of the conversation changes when they say, “What about football?”. I take a deep breath, bracing myself for the undeniable response of “What the hell, why?!?”. I take a quick glance down the ground, look them in the eye and smile. “I am a New York Jets fan.”.
The responses are always the same. “They’ve never won anything! Well, we won Super Bowl III, you know. Yeah, 40 fucking years ago, sure! Yeah, yeah, but you never know, this year could be the year.” “This year could be the year” has been a common phrase uttered by Jets fans for years now. We know that were the second team in the city. Sure, we never had our own stadium. We heard about the other team in New York, the one with three championships all in the last 25 years. You don’t have to ask us if we have ever heard of the Patriots. Yeah, they created a dynasty after stealing our coach of one hour. Yup, the Jets did draft Chad “Noodle Arm” Pennington over Tom “Golden Boy” Brady in 2000. We know.
The more intelligent counterpart will bring up the likes of Rich Kotite or Pete Carrol. “How about Blair Thomas! He really turned out better then Emmitt Smith, HA!”. Yup, we did draft Thomas over Smith. We also took Kyle Brady over Dan Marino, not to mention passing up Ed Reed, Troy Polumalu and countless other All-Pro’s. Peyton Manning went back to school instead of going #1 overall to the Jets? I had no clue.
“The Jets, huh? They did pretty well in the past two AFC Championships…” Yeah, don’t forget being up 10 in 1998 against the Broncos only to have John Elway win that game and then the Super Bowl two weeks later. Bring up the Heidi game against the Raiders in 1968, or the 45-3 debacle against the Patriots in 2010, those always cut deep. “Your quarterback sucks!”, yeah Sanchez did have a 62% completion percentage last year. “Sanchez, didn’t he throw 5 interceptions against the Bills?!” yeah, in his rookie year he did. “Revis is going to leave one day, why would he stay with the Jets?!” Maybe so. “Tomlinson is washed up! Didn’t Gastineau take steroids? Vernon Gholston!”. You can say them all, its not like we haven’t heard them.
Its all these one liners and complaints by other fans that make Jets fans unique. You think its an accomplishment being a Patriots fan? Try one week as a Jets fan, hell even one draft day. It takes work to be a Jets fan, some people just aren’t cut out for it. It requires a certain level of what some people call stubbornness. Stubbornness that will force you to wake up every Sunday morning from September to February and still put on the green and white. It’s the same stubbornness that will make you defend Sanchez’ passer rating or Rex Ryan’s fetishes. What some people call stubbornness, we call passion.
Find another fan base that will come in season after season of heartbreak only to cheer harder then they did last week. Find a fan base that will deal with being the “little brother” team of the city. Search all you want, you’ll never find a fan base that wears jersey’s with the last name “Chrebet” on them or sings in the crowd saying, “My son was born a Jets fan, I told him that I was so sorry!”. For others, football is a hobby. Something that’s fun to root for and watch on Sunday’s. For us, it’s a full time job that starts in April and usually ends in January. But ask us “Why” and we’ll give you the same answer. Because you never know, maybe this year will be the year. And hey, it could be much worse, its not like were Bills fans.
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