To the extent I agree with you here, which is partial if not wholehearted, I discount that effect. I would say that is part of the coverage the Jets get, but there are other factors. One of course is Woody Johnson. For understandable reasons I don't think the sportswriters in town think all that much of him.
I can't really blame it on Woody. It's been like this since the mid 80s. The early 60s were first about ignoring the Jets, then not taking them seriously. By Joe Willie's time, they had a little respect, but were never considered the equal of the Giants. That really didn't change until they beat the Giants in the pre-season the year after the Super Bowl. For a while the Jets were treated with kid gloves, even though they were disappointing through the end of Namath's tenure. The Giants on the other hand, over-reacted to the Jets success and paid the price, both on the field and in the press. By the late 70s, both teams were held in little regard by the press. The Jets had a small window in the early 80s for some media respect. Despite the '82 AFC championship game loss and the Walt Michaels fiasco, the '83 Jets were definitely the darlings of the NY press. I think that had to do with the Jets actually playing in NYC. They picked up a little cachet as "New York's team". They were '83 Super Bowl favorites. Then they flopped in '83, moved to the Meadowlands and it been a Giants town ever since. Since the mid-80s, the "Giants good, Jets bad" script has been in full force. It was definitely ratcheted up during Rex"s tenure. A corollary of the "Giants good Jets bad" theme is how classy the Maras are, so Woody gets dumped on for everything he does, mostly to fit the narrative. We're constantly bombarded with polls telling us how worthless and unloved the Jets are compared to the Giants. Br4dw4y 5ux essentially says that at this juncture, Jets trashing sells, and there is no market for Giants' trashing. I'm inclined to agree with that. Its been ingrained for 30 years.
