You know, I used to want him back. Thought he was good for this fan base and for the morale, but now I think otherwise. Fuck him. We have all been through shit with this franchise. We have all had interactions with bad fans at games or disliked things others have done, but my passion and love for this franchise never changes. Through the good and the bad.
NC, just out of curiosity, why do you say that you NEVER liked him? not even back in his heyday when he was rallying all of the Jets fans? What was your beef with Fireman Ed even back then, before he quit the team?
Don't really have a concrete reason. I just didn't think we needed one person to stand up and lead the chant. That's why we have cheerleaders. Who was he? Why should we do the chant because some knucklehead in a fireman's hat stood up and started trying to lead it? I just always thought that he was very presumptuous and thought he looked dumb leading the chant.
There was no Firemam Ed when I first starting going to games in 1986. It was just an end zone vs end zone thing. One end would go and the other side would try to be louder. It was fun since I had tickets in one if the end zones. I don't really remember when Ed became a thing. It was like one day my buddy said, "Hey look! There's a guy with a fireman hat on leading the chant. Then I found out he was a former Dolphins fan. And then opposing fans started using him as a way to troll us. So honestly I hope he stays away. Same for that fucking imbecile "Mr. Jet." What an embarrassment that asshole is.
I saw him at Hofstra in '08 shortly after the Favre trade, not sure if it was right after he started doing that but I had never seen him before. He was in the shaded area under the trees hamming it up for photos. Seemed like a toolbag.
I've always thought all those guys that dress up in excessive amounts of apparel are gigantic toolbags except the Black Hole Raiders idiots. They embraced the whole thing being a giant moshpit of dickheads appropriately. https://forums.theganggreen.com/threads/jetbo.60242/ The only cool strange game time apparel I used to approve of is the construction hard hat.
Back in 2015, my colleague and I saw Fireman Ed outside of our office building in midtown by Madison Square park- he was working construction with a Jets bandana. I always found this strange since I thought he was injured on disability. He said he would never return to the spotlight because of how he was treated after the fiasco Thanksgiving Night by Jets fans. He seemed pretty genuine, but then 2-3 years later(Not sure the exact game) he was doing "guest appearances" at games probably paid for by the Johnsons. Then you started seeing him more and more at games leading the intro Jets chant before the game started and then some Jets chants after scores, and then some defense chants throughout the game. Like it or not, he was easing back into it, and I think he will be back.
They don't need anyone leading the chant. If it's not going to be a thing during the bad times, then once parts of the fanbase believe that things are beginning to turn around, it shouldn't just become a thing again.
This topic always fascinates me. Only NY Jets fans would turn on a guy who becomes synonymous with "us" - nationally. He brought attention to US. In '99 I knew a fellow fan who disliked him during Ed's heyday, and that guy was a total narcissist so I think some fans were jealous that Ed was known to be a "better fan" than the rest of us. "what about ME!" If you were in the crowd at some of those games back when he became "a thing" you know it was absolutely awesome. Probably the best "crowd-thing" ever experienced at a game, any sport, and (aside from reward points) a prime reason to attend a game in person. The silence prior to chant was incredible. 70,000 quiet people. Then the roar. We were young. We were happy. We PAID far less to be there... I met citizen Ed in person once and was not impressed, he was wild-eyed, distracted... but I still liked Fireman Ed. Who cares that he might have once rooted for the Dolphins? Personally I love the converts more. Need more! Winning football solves a lot of problems so the "Ed situation" will work itself out. There's so much annoying crap at MetLife that I'm dying for more Fireman Ed moments and the play on the field that encourages him. Those are my thoughts.