A few weeks ago the Mets had their tribute to the Miracle. Being the old, senile, Gomer that I? am, I started looking back at the events of 1969. Fortunately it?s only the short term memory that seems to be gone. A neighbor?s kid reminded me that the Pats were a recent Dynasty and the Dolphins won our division last year. I knew there was a reason I didn?t like the kid. 4 decades, 40 years, more than half the average life span for men living in the US, (another reason to move to France). We sent a Man to the Moon, Dick Nixon became President, 747?s hit the friendly skies for the first time, the Saturday Evening Post died. The God Father was published, the US secretly bombs Cambodia, a secret that that was on the front page of every daily newspaper. The SDS took over the Administration building at Harvard. Midnight Cowboy, The Stonewall riots, Ted Kennedy drives off a bridge to somewhere. The Manson Cult murders Sharon Tate. The Mi Lai Massacre, Abbey Road, the Brady Bunch, Monty Python, Sesame Street, Wall Mart Incorporates. 500,000 march on Washington to end the war. Judy Garland dies. Woodstock defines a generation. Watching those overweight 60 something in their Mets uniform begs the questions: Does Tom Seaver have enough fiber in his diet? Does Ed Kranepool sit in twin bath tubs in the forest with his wife waiting for the time to be right? Was squeezing that ball in his mitt ending that beautiful fall day the defining moment of Cleon Jones?s life or was it being caught naked with a young lady in a VW bus? 1969 was also a pretty significant year for our NY Jets. Not only was it the year we actually won the SB, the 69 season was the first and only season the NY Jets were the defending Super Bowl champions. We have a member who goes by the handle ChampionJets69, affectionately known as Champ. He kept a daily tally of NY Jets futility that went all the way back to the SB victory in January of 69. I always felt his numbers were a gross exaggeration of our futility. Our futility didn?t really start until December 20th, 1969. Champ hasn?t been around since June and I just wanted to take this opportunity to say I miss him and wish him well. December, 20th 1969 was also the birth of a bad seed. I know what you?re thinking, Regan MacNeil. Wrong Pigskin breadth, that bad seed wasn?t born until 1973. I?m talking about Same Old Jets. Of course at the time we were as clueless as a drunk sleeping it off passed out at a Rail Road intersection when the 12:20 to Loser Ville was passing through. In 69 it looked like just another Jets championship team dethroned the first of many. We were totally clueless of what was really coming. I mean you got the sense that something about this team was off in those early days of the 70?s but who wants to face up to it. The loosing of the 70?s that drifted into a few bright spots in the 80?s created a sense that something about this team wasn?t right. The pouring rain and futility in the AFC finals in Miami almost turned on the light bulb. Blair Thomas, Lam Jones and Ron Faurot brought it into focus. Rich Kotite removed all doubt. By the 90?s we were affectionately calling it Same Old but it didn?t hide the truth of the hideous monster that had grown out of the beloved sweet child of our youth. We were hooked just like a heroin addict with the 800 hundred pound Gorilla on his back. As much as we wanted to kick the habit come Sunday morning we would tie off a vein, break at the works and start heating the spoon. Maybe this Sunday the Jets would deliver the good stuff? For those of you who don?t believe in bad luck, jinxes, a spell, Karma, kismet, the evil eye, a deal with the devil, or that the team that you grew up with and loved was a bad seed. The Jets futility is simply a series of seasons of futility stacked up like wood year after year waiting for the winter of all winters to light the bon fire of all bon fires, next year is finally here. The 2009 NY Jets, the ones that won?t kiss BB rings the ones that used to play to win, read the Commissioners letters inviting them to the playoffs the ones that this year play to take one swipe to give two swipes, are ready to take the field. We got Rex, we got the young gun, but this year it?s not quite enough. 8 and 8 seems a high water mark. 6 or 7 more likely, it could get ugly? It?s not just the rookie HC, inexperienced QB, the lack of depth on the DL, the bust outside LB, the 4 game suspension of Pace, the one game suspension of Ellis, the unproven WR?s, the schedule, The OC, the punter. That the Pats are better and the Dolphins and Bills don?t suck as much as we want them to or think they do, it?s this team. As much as I try, I can?t buy into the great D matched with the over powering running game. Smash mouth teams like fine wines develop, they don?t happen by fading down the stretch of the previous year, having their will tested and beaten like a drum by the dregs of the league. Smash mouth teams that can stand toe to toe and trade punches are built. How is this team going to respond when it?s punched in the mouth? Will the knees buckle, the wheels fall off, will everyone fight back or will some quit? You have to crawl before you can walk that?s nature. This year Rex and Sanchez are about to meet the same old Jets and while hope spring eternal, I?m betting big on Same Old. This season is a classic rebuilding year, a year to take a few punches in the mouth and see who gets up. I?m not saying don?t have high expectations I?m just saying if you do it?s going to hurt. Those cruel hard stats called wins and losses may well be the ugly truth of this season. That doesn?t mean there aren?t bright spots. Sanchez looks to have all the smarts and intangibles of a young Chad Pennington with a better arm, quicker release and much better foot work. Unlike Pennington he is being thrown in year 1. You can?t meet the President without winning the trophy and the Jets can?t win the trophy without a good old fashion exorcism. I love the addition of Rex, Sanchez and Scott but Mike couldn?t you spend a few bucks on a Priest or a Witch doctor? Tie Dye like Nostalgia isn?t always pretty. This year we make some progress but Same Old still has at least one more season to add more wood to the pile. I?m not complaining I still would rather tie off a vein and watch 48 hours of losing Jets football than spend Sundays at Wall Mart or watching Brady Bunch reruns. Old habits die hard and without a serious intervention or a visit from the grim Reaper, I?m ready for some football, are you?
I'm always ready for some football. Like Curtis Martin said, I'd rather lose with the Jets than win with someone else.
Fantastic post. Very lyrical and hints of the cursed darkside but not really just the point of a long time fan who's seen pretty much everything Jets football has to offer but not about giving up on the team.
Great stuff Winston! :beer: Your post makes me wonder: Is it better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all? Does the pain you feel from having experienced the ecstasy of victory, only heighten with each passing lost season? For someone like me, born in 1968, with no memory of Super Bowl III, I only know Same Old Jets. In a lot of ways it provides comfort....the Berlin Wall comes down....Same Old Jets.....9/11......Same Old Jets......Jon and Kate split-up.....Same Old Jets. If there is one thing you can count on in this crazy world, it is that come winter, a certain franchise will find a way to rip the heart out of every green-blooded man, woman and child. But remember....just as an infinite number of monkeys typing for an infinite amount of time will eventually type the Complete Works of Shakespeare, so too will this Jets team win a Super Bowl (given an infinite number of seasons). Until then we'll keep the sunshiners on suicide watch. DbJ
You forgot to mention Bud Harrelson, and glossed over the Knicks.... Frazier to the limping Reed... SWISH!
I was watching a re-run of the movie Seabiscuit a few weeks ago. Tom Smith the trainer had two great lines. It's our team, we're fans no good reason to stop now.
Excellent post, winston. I can't say I disagree with any of it, but damn I hope you're wrong just this once. I also hope everything is okay with champ. It's been a while.
Maybe Tanny surprises us and instead of picking up a hair brained WR he picks up a stud DL man. My biggest doubt lies with the D right now. I don't think it's really that good or that deep at the point of attack. I don't think points are going to be the issue if we can actually stop teams and give the O the ball.
I share your concern for the D. The defense is certainly going to stumble out of the gate without Ellis and Pace at the beginning. I think our run defense will end up being fine this year, it's the short passing game that we continue to be sliced apart by from what I have seen in the preseason. It's not just the cornerbacks at fault, either - the LB corp is still apparently suspect as ever, and without a screaming pass rush the weak secondary players are exposed. If Rex's defensive prowess is truly what we hope it is, he will have to have some amazing blitzes designed to mask that until our coverage personnel all get on the same page. I love the way Jimmy Leonhard looks, Kerry could end up having a rebirth of sorts, but I have no hope at corner past Revis and team are going to spread us out to avoid the 4-3/3-4/46 blitzing that Ryan is known for. That means we're going to see a lot of #30 and #33 in nickel packages and neither of them knows how to cover a park bench. If Sexy Rexy is what we think he is, he'll probably get things hammered out by mid-season, but we have deficiencies that are hard to overcome. As far as Tanny picking a stud DL... I figure he'll probably err on the side of Woody and go for the hype WR pick in round one. Hope he proves me wrong.
It was.... but the Jets won the Supe in 1970 actually. It was January. I consider the Mets/Jets/Knicks championships to all be 1969 triumphs. That is when those seasons all started. The Knicks and Jets won their championship games in 1970.
The Jets won the SB in January 69. It was the 68 Season. The loss to the Chiefs was the 69 season playoffs.
Winston - As Jets fans and by virtue of human nature, we like to attribute all 40 years of unsuccess to other wordly interventions. Several years ago, I believe Vanity Fair published an article about Joe Namath selling his soul to the devil for SB III. The fact of the matter is that we as fans conjure up all these excuses to explain our years of misery because we don't want to face the inconvenient truth: The Jets "organization" sucks. See the Jets "suck" because the ownership and management have sucked. They drafted crappy players, signed over the hill vets or hired crappy coaches. It is actually quite simple really. Because of human nature, egos, $$$$, incompetence, whatever, those in the front office over the past few years continue to make the same mistakes. It isn't that history repeats itself, it is people that repeat themselves. This doesn't mean we haven't had bright shining moments or players since SB III. Actually we have had quite a few great players - who would/should have been in the HOF if they were lucky enough to play for another team. We have had a couple of great coaches as well - Weeb, BP and I even throw in Walt Michaels as well if he could have stayed sober. The problem and frustration for Jets fans is that we have had all these things seperately - and sometimes tantalizing close, but have not had that convergence of necessary factors in the 40 intervening years since SB III. The years we have the coaching, offensive line and defense, we have no QB = 1999 and 1981 The years we have the offensive line, defense and QB, we have no coach = 2004 And the year where we had everything we needed - 1998 - we ran into a great football team on the road and a Bill Belichick coached defense gave up the lead in the 2nd half. Fortunately for us Jets fans, the three years where the Jets could have made the run were very recently within the past 10 years. 1981 was a bit of an exception that was unfortunately derailed because of gamesmanship by one of the NFL's so-called great coaches - Don Shula. However between 1997-2004, the Jets success was because of BP and the fact that he had a plan to build this team. You can say what you want about free agency, the draft, the salary cap, but at the end of the day Herm Edwards inherited a pretty darn good football team that he successfully ran into the ground. And that wasn't an anomaly for Herm - he did the same to the Chiefs. So what does this all mean? Well the Jets have to make a committment to success: #1 - Find a HC (Rex Ryan??? maybe) #2 - Find a QB (Mark Sanchez??? maybe) #3 - Build a Great offensive line (check) #4 - Build a great defense (??? maybe) This season will prove alot about #1 and #2 and hopefully #4. I think we already have a great offensive line but we need to continue drafting and developing those o-linemen. IMO, the Jets are actually 1-2 years away from being a "potentially" great football team - provided that they picked the right HC, right QB and can get this defense running like the Ravens. And heck signing Seymour next year for 3-4 years for big money may help that defense take the next step!!!
Nice post, WB. As to your question, DbJ, to me it's easy - seeing the 1969-era miracles of the Jets, Mets, and Knicks are memories I wouldn't give up for the world, and they don't in any way make it worse when the SOJ show up.
Spot on Klecko. If Sanchez and Rex are who we think they are and we build up that defensive front this team will be well on its way.
This is a much better analysis than the OP's. It's more balanced and accurate, and places the blame squarely where it belongs. It's not about older posters seeing a long unbroken line of misery. There have been Jet teams over the years that were better than, say, any Detroit team since Bobby Layne played, or really any NO team since they were formed. It's the reasons why the team fell short (for the most part attributable to failures of the FO and ownership) that we should focus on. There is no real darkside. In hindsight the team's ownership was frequently just plugging holes, having no consistent theory or approach to building a winner. 1981, the team came very close, but as Kleck pointed out with a mediocre Qb an a great D stymied by the machinations of NFL favorite Don Shula. How did the team respond? They could have tried to work it out with Michaels, but they ditched him for the supposed safe bet of promoting OC Joe Walton, which was a devastating mistake. Walton was just good enough to last long enough to take a very good team into the depths of mediocrity. 1986 saw a team with great talent but a mediocre CS who couldn't figure out a way to keep O'Brien on his feet, and the decline thereafter continued. Hess was not serious until he hired Parcells. You can criticize BP for many moves and for the way he left, but from the owner's perspective, the only serious move made at that level since SBIII was hiring him. The move to Groh and then Badway and the Verminator was not serious, and that of course can be laid on the team's current owner. Replacing Herm, who after all basicaly quit on the team first, with Belichik's gofer Mangini was not a strong, confident and inspired move. It was the decision of a copy cat who doesn't really know the game. Woody is perhaps the same man he's been all along, but that should not mean he's incapable of making a good decision, and hiring Rex may be the best move made at that level since BP's hiring. But they still have Tanny who, let's face it, is something of a mixed bag. Where the team is right now with a mix of aging vets and a few promising young players, along with a lot of mediocre players, is not inspiring all that much confidence in me. I am concerned that this team will not really return to greatness until there's a new owner, but at least theoretically it can do so without that. But it's the people in charge, not the dark side, that has been behind the team's history.
