If anyone deserves to be posting "long winded" posts, it's you. It's the real long time Jets fans that make this even more special for us younger guys. You give us insight and perspective. The understanding of how special this occasion is. We should be grateful that you take the time to share your experiences with us. That goes for Abdul, Fred Mertz and all the other long time fans. Don't apologize, know that you're an integral part of this fan base. We're better because of you. We are a generation of instant gratification, but it's long time fans like you that have taught us what it is to be a genuine fan. We learn from your example. No apologies are necessary whatsoever, you have earned every single word. At this point, I want this win for you, my father and all the guys who have stuck by this team for the ride as well. Wherever they are, still with us or not. Honestly it would mean more to me to see the joy on my Dad's face after the game than anything else. I don't care about sportscasters eating crow, bragging rights, or whatever else comes with a Superbowl victory. Lock it up Rex, we believe!!!
Great posts! Thank you guys for your stories. Makes me think about how long I have been watching the Jets with my dad. I started watching them in the early 80's as a kid in Ct, and have been hooked ever since. I finally got to where watching only nationally televised games, or hitting a sports bar wasn't enough. I was so tired of either TB, Jac or Miami being televised. I had to get the NFL Sunday Ticket for my dad and I to enjoy the Jets every week. I purchased it back in 2004, and have seen every game since either live, or via Tivo. NOW STOP GETTING ME SO EMOTIONAL! :rofl: I have been passing along the obsessed passion to both of my boys as well. They are starting to enjoy it more and more. I can't wait for the game today.
Great post!!! It's been a long time in the making. We're heavy underdogs today but as Jets fans we wouldn't have it any other way.
I've been a Jets fan since about... well, they were called the Titans. That was not an easy team to root for, but they had Maynard. AfterJoe Willie came here, and Werblin took over, the Jets were a good AFL team. They weren't big underdogs until the Super Bowl came around. This year is different. Very different. Rookie HC, rookie QB. Underdogs the whole year (except for the 3-0 mirage) but the brashness is back. Ryan brought that with him. Namath brought it with him. It's been 41 years. In 69 I watched on a 6 inch B&W TV, alone. Today, it's a big screen HDTV. I too, will watch alone. No party, no guests. Even the family knows to stay away. No distractions. Some snacks, some brews, me and the TV. No chatting on line. This is a moment to be savored. There are very few things in life as sweet as a Jets Super Bowl win. If it happens, I don't want to miss a single second of it.
This run, this team, and you fellow fans, make me very proud to be a Jets Fan!!! Now let's go and kick some ass!!!
I believe JETS will win today! 4 Hours and 17 mins to go! I've never bought anything thats related to jets since 1998, but yesterday I bought a Sanchez T-shirt. LETS GO JETS! J-E-T-S! Jets! Jets! Jets!
GREAT POST...... I'm 35, and probably share the same perspective. Our Sunday JETS ritual has definitely brought my Father and I closer together. We'll be at the bar together today, but if they win, there will be more than just a little tear in my eye.
I'm 33 and unlike most of you my father is a Giants fan so I never really got that father-son football experience most of you write beautifully about. My parents bought me Giants shirts, Giants pajamas, Giants comforter, etc., and no matter what they could buy me or tell me I had the green pumping through my veins, so to speak. At 33 I'm one of those so-called tweeners, I guess. Obviously not born yet for the SB of '69 and not born or too young for the worst decade of our franchise (the 70s). But, I'm certainly old enough to remember the Mud Bowl (barely), Gastineau roughing the passer, Blair Thomas fumbling on Monday night in Chicago, Marino fake spiking us in '93, Browning Nagle, Vinny tearing his achilles, right up until Herm Edwards afraid to win in Pittsburgh when, you guessed it, Doug Brien missed 2 FGs in less than 2 minutes. Why bring up all these incidents? Because today is the day we add to our new legacy, when WE bring up moments like last week, and moments like TODAY, not the moments I listed above. I like to joke around with everybody, especially my fellow Jets fans, that dealing with life is a lot easier when you root for a team like this because of all the disappointments. But, Today is a New Day, a Day which I've never felt in my life. A day I never felt like this in January of '98 or January of '86. I have a feeling that TODAY IS OUR DAY, Some of us have waited our whole lives for this day and it's finally here. Seize the day. Found out 3 days ago we're going to have a baby. It took us 11 months for it to finally take (knock on wood). That's gotta be a sign, right?? Let's do it, boys. It's right there in front of us.
Thanks deef, That was very nice to say. Here is an article from todays Daily News...enjoy: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/f...10-01-23_hope_dad_has_best_seat_in_house.html Hope dad has best seat in the house for New York Jets vs. Indianapolis Colts BY Bill Price DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER Sunday morning Jet fans - at least the ones who were able to sleep Saturday night - will wake up, put on their favorite Jet jersey and hat, and start counting the seconds until 3 p.m. Some will pass the time by reading the papers, others will listen to the radio, while most will just pace about their homes until kickoff. At some point before 3 p.m., I will grab a Jet hat and go visit my father, Willie, the biggest Jet fan I know. I will tell him how excited I am for him and Jet fans all over the world. I will tell him how much I will be pulling for the Jets. I will tell him how much he would've loved this Rex Ryan guy, not as much as he loved Namath, Gastineau and Klecko, but he would be one of his favorites. And then I will place the Jet hat on his gravestone and say a little prayer. I won't pray for the Jets to win - I've tried that with the Mets and Rams too many times to count to no avail - but I will ask the man upstairs to somehow let my dad be aware that this game is taking place, somehow let him enjoy it. Because as long as I could remember, up until the day he died, nothing brought him as much enjoyment as Jets football. Sure, they gave him plenty of losing and heartbreak in his lifetime, but every Sunday, come hell or high water, he would be in front of the TV - or, on occasion, at Shea Stadium or the Meadowlands - rooting on his boys. I can still see him now, sitting in his favorite chair, clapping after every Jet touchdown, or yelling at the TV after every Richard Caster drop. While he wasn't a sports nut - throwing horseshoes and a bowling ball was his real sports passion - he was a Jets nut. Every game. Every Sunday. And even if it wasn't gameday, he would proudly wear his Jet hat around town. Even during the Kotite years, he busted out the green lid with the awful '80s Jet logo. He was never embarrassed, never ashamed to let the world know he was a Jets fan. Sunday morning will be the first time we discuss football since that February afternoon in 2008 when the Giants shocked the world and the Patriots in the Super Bowl. On my way to the Daily News' offices that day, I stopped off at the hospital to see him. He was undergoing radiation treatment on the cancer that had spread to his hip. He would have to watch the big game from his hospital bed, not his favorite chair, but he was excited about the game, even though it was the Giants playing and not his Jets. We talked awhile about our general dislike for Bill Belichick and Tom Brady, and before I left, he asked me if I thought the Giants could win. I told him "no way," but he said something to the effect of "you never know," relying on the same optimism that had gotten him through so many years of Jets football and his awful battle with pancreatic cancer. As I left the hospital that day, I knew - despite his incredible will to live - that would be the last Super Sunday I would spend with my dad. He died about a month later. I have thought about him a lot in the 22 months since his death - especially on Sundays - but he will be in the forefront of my thoughts when the Jets take the field in Indy. I will be thinking about him, hoping that he somehow gets to see what's going on, somehow - win or lose - gets to enjoy the moment. And who knows? If Rex and his boys pull off the miracle, I will get to spend another Super Sunday with my dad, praying in that same cemetery that he gets to see the Jets win it all. As he told me hours before the Giants shocked the mighty Patriots that day two years ago, "You never know."
