Gang Green Nation
This week, the New York Jets once again went head and embarrassed themselves in a nationally televised game of professional football. The latest feat? Three lost fumbles, including one at the one yard line. Perhaps an even more impressive one? A fair catch caught at the two yard line.
These are just not the sorts of things that happen to a serious team.
And in previous years of my life, this type of stuff would’ve had me looking like this.
I think that was just about what I looked like after the New York Jets beat the Buffalo Bills in 2017 to start the late season “surge” that moved them from a spot that guaranteed them one of the draft’s presumed top quarterbacks to one that would eventually require a pretty costly trade up. It was a similar reaction when the team seemingly opted not to bid on wide receiver Amari Cooper when the Dallas Cowboys traded him, presumably to leave the wide receiver room wide open for that offseason’s “up-and-coming star” (turned deserving castoff once games were actually played), Elijah Moore, to take the lead as second year quarterback Zach Wilson’s pre-draft top target.
The team used to enrage me. I cared enough about this team that their failures were bothersome. In fact, those failures were really, really, REALLY bothersome. Embarrassingly so in hindsight, but that’s fandom, right? Nowadays though? I usually just laugh when “Jets stuff” (very derogatory) happens to the Jets. I expect so little from this team that their failures don’t bother me one iota anymore as their failures have come to be what I expect.
I can’t imagine that I’m the only previous diehard Jets fan that has experienced this change. In fact, I have to imagine it’s been most at this point.
I mean they lost ME as a fan who their losses hurt, and I really did not think that was possible for a very long time. If they lost that level of care from me? Well, then they had to lose many, many, many other fans along the way. It’s anecdotal but based on my lived experiences, I have to imagine that the apathy is common because I meet more people who tell me that they’re Jets fans who just make fun of the team when we realize that we’re both privy to the same sad displays than I do fans who are hopeful and optimistic.
My dad though? My dad still has hope. He watches every week. He plans his days around their schedule. He went to opening day. He spends all offseason hoping that they’re going to be a good team. It’s admirable and it’s a level of hope that I wish I still had. He was disappointed when they stunk yet again on Monday, same way he was in the weeks from this season that preceded it.
So with that said, I hope that this reaches someone in the Jets office because it’s a message that needs to be...
