Stop buying into the SOJ mantra and most of the hated Jets beat writers' careers soon evaporate. They make their living off of your misery (like most "journalism" in general). After a tough loss, or a bad season - it's helpful to commiserate at work or the bar or at home. We feel it, but do we need to continuously read about it to have it penetrate us? To continually be reminded of something? It's kind of like a Jew who can ONLY talk about the Holocaust, but never the achievements of Jews since. I'm not saying you're supposed to ever forget, but do we really need the "Never Forget" tag with all things Holocaust, 9/11 and SOJ to remember? Have we lost our minds as a society so far that we constantly need this text ingrained upon us to remember? I'm seriously asking because I feel like I'm either one of the smartest guys on the planet or the dumbest. As soon as we balance away from the darksider mentality, they'll be forced to bring in fresh "writers" with 21st Century attitudes who generate positivity instead of negativity. Maybe the Jets need a sunshiner as a beat writer because there are obviously more followers than free thinkers, and if it's sunshine they're blowing up your ass instead of the darkside - a lot of the sheep might actually buy into it and make that their battle cry instead. And I mean no disrespect to the actual darksiders - the guys that really lived and died with the SOJ. But a lot of these new darksiders that have come to the Jets since Parcells arrived and have no idea how bad it really was for as long as it was, just need another outlet for their negativity because they're simply posers who crave the "misery loves company" motto. To them, I say shop your goth mentality over to a Hot Topic and wallow in the blight that is reality tv at the food court. I've always gone against the tide. Raised a catholic and grew into agnosticism. Raised a republican and grew into a democrat. Raised a New yorker and became a Californian. Raised a darksider and became a sunshiner. Evolution goes a long way for the soul, as does cresting your own identity instead of inheriting it. And if you don't think the attitude of a fanbase can actually affect the players you supposedly love, think again. It trickles down. The Packers went a long time between championships, but they never earned the nickname Gang Green either.
I don't even know what same old Jets means anymore? I thought I understood during the 90s but now it is used after every loss no matter the type of loss that I have just lost all understanding of the term. Now it has become if the team loses a game they are the same old Jets if they win a game they aren't. The funny thing is the people that use this term for the most part have no clue what it means either.
fantastic post. it really is used after every loss, no matter which way its done: Top team in the league feasts on a rookie QB? SOJ!!!! Division rival plays better at home against a defense that didn't show up? SOJ!!!! Rookie QB throws ball downfield in 25 MPH winds? SOJ!!!! I thought the phrase was for a fledgling shit Jets team that is pissed on annually by everyone? The teams of the early 90's and the teams of the 70's. Somewhere along the line it became the title of every loss imaginable. I think if I met someone with the initials S.O.J. they wouldn't know why i hate them so much. I feel bad for that person.
If you have been a fan for more than 25 years, you know what SOJ means. Its not just losing, it is a certain style of losing that this franchise has made its signature over the last 40 years. And its not just losing on the field - its the managment and personnel follies that are also a part of it. Its not just SOJ - the whole idea is "SOJ - yet I'm still a die hard fan that lives and dies with them". And hopes that someday they will turn it around, and SOJ will be a thing of the past. Kinda like the Red Sox "loser" mentality. How did they end it? By beating the Yankees and winning a championship. When the Jets do that, SOJ will go away. Till then, its always lurking, with each heartbreaking and perplexing loss, each dumb personnel move, each ridiculous coaching hire. But I'm a Jet fan forever.
i forgot about the drafting. That was also SOJ. But thats currently gone. There are potential HOFers on this team. Revis and Mangold could easily continue to be pro bowlers and make all pro teams which will help their case for Canton. The last player the Jets have that will go into the HOF as mostly a Jets is Curtis Martin. He was drafted by the Pats.... thats pathetically SOJ. Passing on Sapp, Lam Jones, Blair Thomas, Roger fucking Vick, those are embarrassing picks that equal what the Raiders are doing now.
he exists!! hahahahaha he even wrote a review for a product on amazon. Fuck Shawn otis johnson. Damn SOJ. :grin: I hope olympic hottie Shawn Johnson's middle name isn't olivia or something like that
I agree man. Using the term SOJ shouldn't make you any more, or less of a fan. Who cares what Beningo says...he is speaking for 40+yrs of heartache. SOJ pretty much refers to the ever changing guard of coaches, players, stadiums, and uniforms. The only constant is the results. When we should win, or must win, we always fall short. Sure, we came close 3 years that I can think of. I still love the team, I still bleed green and white...but these are the Same Old Jets, until they can prove otherwise.
I just hate it, I mean the Chiefs don't say oh its the same old chiefs, and the list can go on and on. I mostly hate the phrase because my entire life of going to games, since I was a kid, The guys behind me chant that whenever something bad happens, it is just old and tired to me. Since we have been losing for so long you'd think our brilliant fan base could think of something new. I guess that would require a change on their part and there in lies the problem.
now that i agree with. It seems as if the players see the spread and expect an easy win ahead of them.
I don't know exactly what SOJ means to those writers, or for that matter others here. To me SOJ doesn't mean that one year to the next is the same or even similar as to the particulars. What it means is how many different ways can the Jets come along after you've built up an interest in the season with some varying degree of hope for the team's progress and have them piss all over it. Sometimes the piss starts early. Sometimes later. Sometimes all season. Sometimes they beat the fish twice in a losing season. Sometimes they make hte playoffs only to score two field goals. Sometimes a big FA signing or two turns to crap. the particulars don't really matter. In the end you enter the off season pretty much just like every year before. In the end, it's another SOJ season.
