I see the in-fighting rearing up again--it's natural, we all want take out our anger on somebody and Mike Martz and this goofball SF QB who's just became "the latest guy to become an overnight sensation because he played the Jets" are 3000 miles away. Mangini, Sutton, or whoever else you're blaming for the loss...are 35,000 miles up in the air...can't hit them either. So we tear into each other. Fact is, we are the only ones who really ride this ride from start to finish. At some point, all the tormentors jump off the train...the Waltons, the Coslets and Kotites all step away and return to their lives...only we--the true fans-- are shackled to the nomadic, rambling raft called NYJ. We've not had a captain of substance to guide us since Sonny Werblin left the ship just before the Super Bowl season...fortunately, he left us with enough momentum to carry the Jets to shore in Miami in January of 1969. Since then, we've had Hess who only woke up just before the end of his life, and now the Trust Fund Vampire. With each passing year, I have more and more love for Joe Namath and the 68 Jets. You see how unbelievable it was that they won when you see what has followed. In honor of the 1968 Jets 40th anniversary, the Jets should retire one player's number from the team each year until we win it again. You can hang Winston Hill's #75 on the wall right now. And if all 50 guys go up, so what. That means it will be 90 years and no championship...wouldn't they deserve the honor in that case. Point is, WE ARE THE JETS. We pay the frieght, financial and emotional, we ride every year until the bitter end of the season and then ride again. TRUE FANS KNOW THIS...YOU KNOW YOU HAVE NO HOPE OF LETTING GO OF YOUR ALLEGIANCE. YOU ARE TRAPPED, LIKE I AM TRAPPED. WE CAN ONLY PRAY FOR ANOTHER SAVIOR IN OUR LIFETIMES. In the meantime, last not tear each other up too much...we're alone on a raft in the middle of the ocean and shore and God are nowhere in sight.
That last line was funny as hell. Good stuff, and I agree. I will probably die a Jets fan, I am not some fair weather Pats fan that will disappear once the good times are over for them.
Thanks...trying to suck the poison out of my soul and get back to my responsibilites as a parent. Really have to question my investment in the entire sport...too much.
i've always equated being a jetfan to being in an abusive relationship.every year about this time i decide i don't need/deserve this i can do better.than around the draft they start calling me and i think it'll be different this time they won't hurt me again.and sure enough come monday i'm at work talking about how i just fell down the stairs or the door hit me.i'm gonna use the door excuse tommorrow
Good post, except that paying the freight keeps costing more and more emotionally (not to mention financially). Forty years of this shit have left a lot of scars.
