In addition to what I posted above, I would like to undergo the same procedure as Jim Carey in "The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" so that I can't remember ever having been a Jets fan.
Im glad im not the only one feeling this way. Thank you everyone for your comments. Reading all of them made me feel a hell of a lot better than watching a Jets game.
Most of my takes are from others who know much more about football and the Jets than me. On Youtube: Jake Asman, Jetscentral and others. Websites: jetsxfactor.com
This is me, except I do have rooting interests, and my fandom stretches back further, and intensified once the European leagues and competitions became widely televised/streamed, and MLS became a... watchable... league. If you told younger me that football would be replaced as my favorite sport to follow and the Jets would become third at best in my passion tier list, I would not have believed you. But here we are. Now I'm New York City FC first, Tottenham second, Jets third, a distant third for the last 5 years or so (since the hiring of Gase I'd say, that really killed me). Admittedly, Tottenham doesn't do me much better than the Jets, haha. But NYCFC has a recent championship! (as does Gotham FC.) But like you said, beyond that, I LOVE watching Champions League and Europa League (even more the latter, in a way), the big domestic leagues, and even MLS and Liga MX. It's all over the world, and I love the histories of the clubs, the fan culture, the players' backstories, the tactical stuff, all of it.
At this point I am pretty much apathetic..I will not watch Thursday . My alert goes off on my phone I can check the score (meh)
I would say it's been almost 6 years for me. The champions league. Premier league. Bundesliga. The Euros have been just out of this world for me. Of course the world cup with Messi. I also started watching rugby (NRL) My 2 fav hours every Sunday is the lead up to the NFL by watching the EPL. And Saturdays of course
I'm pretty much the same way. I'm way too numb to get "angry" like I used to. It's more like a dull haze that falls over me for about 24 hours. I feel like we've hit rock bottom this season but I continue to be proven wrong on that point.
For context, I'm from the UK and have followed The Jets since the mid 1980's. Football started being shown over here weekly in 1983. I have missed one Superbowl in that time (mandatory work shit), and since NFL Game Pass (or it's predecessors) has been available here, I've not missed a Jets game in 12 years. That is not about to start now. I regularly visit New York with my sons-in-law for games. It cost me $750 for 3 tickets in London last month. My family and I are away for a long weekend in a few days, but The Jets play at 00:15 GMT Friday morning vs Houston. I will be watching the whole game live, getting 3 hours sleep and then getting up to drive the car. I do get excitable when games are taking place, but I'm over it within moments of them finishing. I can understand apathy and people choosing to not follow the game at all. I cannot, for the life of me, remotely see what people get by changing allegiance and rooting for another team and I'm not going to do it. That does not make me a fan of the ownership, or a loser or any other some-such. I can't influence how it plays out. So I'm going to support my team, come what may, so fuck it. When they get good, and they will, I will be there to see it.
At this pointing I'm thinking more along the lines of, "What reason do I have to ever watch another game?" But then again, every time I feel this low, the Jets do something crazy to inject us all with a big dose of false hope so the servitude continues as long as profits go up. Maybe it's time to cancel Woody.
Here in Jetland it has become much more likely that the "f-a-n" should stand for "fantasy" because the fantasy that the Jets might one day become a legitimate NFL team refuses to die.
Maybe one day it will happen, but I started watching the Jets in the Coslet era and besides a few years with Parcells and the first two Rex Ryan years, it's been more down than up with this franchise. At least from Parcells until Rex even with all of the misfortune and dashed hopes, the Jets felt like a decent team that could potentially be a contender in any given season if the cards fell right. They were actually competitive in most years. They haven't felt that way past the preseason in a LONG time (maybe the first Bowles year?). If you haven't made the playoffs in 14 years and still can't put together a stacked team, is there really any hope of turning it around? The Jets aren't giving you any return for your investment of time (and maybe even money). That should be your determinant. At the end of the day football is entertainment.
You might better pose that question to those of irrational exuberance who have for far longer than fourteen years not only predicted such turnarounds at the drop of every draft, free agent signing and coaching and management change but have seen fit to berate those of us more firmly grounded in reality who refuse to board the unicorn express.