Self-Reflection Time

The two biggest Boston Red Sox fans I know lived and breathed for that team for decades-- 2004 was the biggest, greatest, most fantastic thing that ever happened to them.

Then 2007 was awesome. 2013 was nice. 2018 was just fine-- it's just a game.


I can only imagine it would go the same way for us Jets fans-- one championship and we can just let it all go.

 

I'm still on my Darkside honeymoon and now you post this insecure dribble?
You talked me into giving the Darkside a shot just a few weeks ago...
I almost changed my username... so inspired was I by your bravery in doing so.

At least @Cman is unwavering in his contempt for the team.
I think I'll hang out with him... plus he's got an 4K 85" TV...

 

Nah, I truly hate this franchise for how dumb they are and how bad it's resulted in them being for so long. I'd much rather support a smart winner. I'm not "old" by any means but I've been a fan for ~25 years and the Jets have been a shockingly dumb, inept franchise for about 18 of those years.

 

I still love the unis and I still love the players.

I detest and have utter contempt for Woody.

I have zero respect for our bunch of phoney coaches.

I am increasingly contemptuous of the league and its blatant lust for money over everything else - player safety, fan experience, game quality. This is a declining product and Goodell is too stupid to realise it because revenues are rising.

In short, I flipped over to the dark side this year.

 

Sounds like the cost of loyalty. We can only hope that one day in our lifetime this blind and perhaps foolish loyalty will finally payoff and we'll be rewarded with a championship. We can only hope.

 

I am finding that I care a little less every day. Woody is probably the worst, or close to it, owner in the league. Our coaches are basically frauds.

The NFL product seems to decline each week. Refs are terrible and the gambling influx has hurt the game. The constant pursuit of the almighty dollar is alienating many older fans.

I am, and will remain, a darksider who will never contribute financially to a team with such lack of respect for their own fanbase.

In closing I hope Flacco lights them up big time.

 

You guys realize you’re rooting for a pro football team and weren’t held captive in Vietnam, right?

 

i thought it was just me lol.

 

Interesting...what is this loyalty thing you speak of?

I've been wondering about that a lot lately and thanks for putting this thread up. I've mentioned a couple times, in other threads, similar things. My wife LITERALLY, took my face in her hands and looked me dead in the eyes and asked, "why do you bother watching this team? You are angry BEFORE the game even starts because you know, 95% of the time, how it's going to end. Come root for the 49'ers because at least you'll be rooting for competency." Then she gives me the whole song and dance about living in California long enough that I should shed my East Coast roots etc... etc...yada yada...

I've been trying to determine what, exactly, this team has done to garner such loyalty. I guess, if you are a part of a family that has been watching this team for generations, there are family pressures? I know a guy where his Giants rooting family are VERY vocal about ALL family members must be Giants fans or they are shunned. What is that? Back to my original question. EXACTLY WHAT has the NY Jets done, as an organization, that fosters such loyalty? They have hired ONE legitimate head coach in their entire history. They have been to the playoffs FOURTEEN times in their entire history. They have been considered one of the worst drafting teams year in and year out missing faaaarrr more than hitting. As I looked back over the drafts I would have to guess that they have a success rate of less than 15%. They do perplexing things like go bat shit crazy to go get a player like Rodgers. They fly the whole damn FO to California and wine and dine this guy like he's the next coming of Ghandi yet don't give guys like Sean Payton or Mike McCarthy a second look. Almost dismissing out of hand. Maybe, had they done something like throw the whole Brinks truck at a guy like Payton they wouldn't have had to go get a guy like Rodgers. Who knows...but it is perplexing.

So, I ask one more time, exactly WHAT has this organization done to garner fan loyalty? In my humble opinion, nothing. Nothing. By the time Leon Hess finally "got it" he died. The moment Woodrow Johnson won the bid to buy this team the NY Jets were doomed. It has been an ever increasing shitty clown show with head coaching hires more head scratching than the previous. IF this team is ever to claw it's way to respectability someone is going to have to finally pull the trigger and hire an honest to goodness REAL head coach with previous HC experience. Make that hire and then get out of the way. Unfortunately, ALL, and I mean ALL their previous history supports the contrary. They are doubling down on Saleh and that batch of fools and WHEN they fail they will 100% hire another head scratcher to be HC of the Jets. Some random name on a pile, with no experience, to further add to the fans pain.

WHAT HAS THIS TEAM DONE TO GARNER ANY LOYALTY???

 

I'll leave my feelings for the Jets out of this, because I've already vented on other threads. I'll limit myself to my thoughts on the league itself.

1. I still can't wrap my head around the league's embrace of gambling. For decades, gambling was the ultimate evil. Just ask the ghosts of Paul Hornung and Alex Karras. Now the league tell us it's great thing. WTF?

I'm waiting for the first big gambling scandal. I'm sure the honchos like Goodell, Jerry Jones and Robert Kraft will express shock, just like Captain Renault did in the film "Casablanca."

2. The league's greed is getting tiresome. How many subscriptions to cable and streaming services will we eventually need to watch playoff games? There will come a saturation point where even hard-core fans say that enough it enough.

3. Officiating is bad, but there's probably nothing that can be done about it. The game is just too fast. Think of it this way: can't miss QB prospects become busts because they can't process the game quickly enough. Why should we expect all NFL officials to be able to do what these hot-shot QBs can't?

You could probably call holding or pass-interference on every play (and some crews seem to do just that). Ultimately, it's a matter of judgment as to how tightly you call a game and how much you let the players get away with. Whenever judgment and discretion are involved, there is plenty of room for dispute. The problem becomes more acute when you have bettors with a lot of money riding on whether certain calls are or aren't made.

4. Player safety? Making football safe is about as likely as someone developing dry water or sweet-smelling shit.

The league cares about player safety only when necessary to protect its own ass. It wants to cover itself against lawsuits by former players whose brains have been turned into oatmeal. It wants to avoid the ratings dips when ratings go down the shitter because a viewer-magnet player is on IR.

 

You do know this isn't a football forum, right?

It's an addiction support group.

 

I will always root for them until the day I die but I no longer have those Charlie Brown trying to kick the football from Lucy moments. I didn't buy into the hype last offseason when they signed Rodgers, and I won't buy into it again if they have another good offseason. I root/hope for the best but if they fail to meet expectations (which is usually every fucking time) I am not really that disappointed at this point as I expect it.

 

I would love for any of the teams I follow (in soccer or football) to win something big so I can share in that enjoyment (even though I did nothing to achieve it - the best kind of win!) as I have (according to averages) about 30 years of life left and probably about 10-15 years where I will give any kind of shit about sports compared to my chronic ailments

It's much easier just to hate on them and ridicule how inept they are - it's much more stressful when they do well and the 2010 season nearly finished me off! If they were to get a to Superbowl and then lose I fear it would tip me over the edge (I always feel sorry for Bills fans after getting to those finals and losing every one).

 

At this point, I'm just consistently expecting the worst to happen. I wasn't even excited week one because I had a very bad feeling about the Aaron Rodgers experiment. I told my wife before the game started that I don't feel good about it.

Anything good that I see from the Jets is just gravy at this point.

I'm not sure if just growing up and having kids and stuff is why I care less, or if its just because they've sucked since I was in college. If they put together a nice season I'm sure the superfan in me will come back out. Hopefully we see that next year.

 

We're like the guy who puts everything he owns on red. If red, he's very very happy. If black, not so much.

That's actually better than putting our emotional health into the outcome of an entire NFL season. At least that dude has a 50/50 shot. Us? Even with a good team managed by a good coaching staff, less than 10%. Over 95% if NFL fans end up miserable.

 

The team moves to Jersey. It wears those shitty uniforms. It has the most obviously stupid and inane ownership, FO and coaching. It’s games are boring as fuck.

I’ll never root against them, but at this point about the only thing left that I think is interesting about the Jets is what new and unusual way they will fall apart. And last weekend they even fucked that up.

 

I would describe myself as realistic, as opposed to a homer or darksider. BUT - The older I get the less 'passionate', for the want of a better word, I become about the outcome of sports events.

As a Londoner, based in England, I recognise this from Premier League Football (or soccer, as you would call it). I used to regularly watch a team called Arsenal that play in North London. The game has descended into corporate greed and on-field farce so much over the last 20 years or so that I no longer give a shit what happens, even though my team is good and playing well.

To map this to The Jets, as a non-American I guess it is not 'in my face' as much as it is for most of you. I don't have work or social friends digging me out about the latest Jets debacle, although they might with Arsenal even though I'm no longer interested, so I can immediately forget about a Jets game once it is concluded. That said, I remain enthusiastic about our team primarily because I find it entertaining. I do, of course, expect that a professional organisation in a league that claims to want parity should put in the occasional competitive season, but they don't.

I think I still hang on to small signs of hope, such as the 2022 draft and the trade for Rodgers. Of course it has not worked out, and after 40 years of following the team, not missing a snap (NFL Game Pass) in over 10 years, seeing both International games in London, and travelling to New York to watch games in person with my sons-in-law I should know better. But I don't.

I'll be here for life because, despite everything, it is still fun. My daughter brought my elder Grandson his first Jets game jersey for Christmas. He is utterly delighted with it. So I am passing it on through generations of my family. Sorry son. It's just how it is.