Palladino: Jets' Place On NFL 'Pain Rankings' No Surprise
By Ernie Palladino
» More Ernie Palladino Columns
Somebody finally did it!
In an age where metrics reign supreme, where everything from on-base plus slugging in baseball to yards-after-catch in football are measured to the nth degree, one writer from NFL.com managed to quantify something we all knew existed, but nobody really delved into.
Franchise pain. Or more aptly put, the anguish franchise failure exerts on its loyal followers.
Dan Hanzus, who should probably add his abilities as a psychologist to his journalistic resume, ranked the seven NFL franchises that have given their fans the most agita over the years. The list includes the Buffalo Bills at No. 3, thanks to "Wide Right" Scott Norwood's field goal try against the Giants in Super Bowl XXV. The Vikings placed No. 5 on the strength of Gary Anderson's missed field goal in the 1998 NFC Championship game against Atlanta and the great Jim Marshall's "Wrong-Way Run" for a safety in 1964.
Detroit, Cincinnati and Kansas City also appear on the list respectively at Nos. 4, 6 and 7.
But guess who pulled in at No. 2.
The Jets.
The only surprise was that Hanzus didn't place them at the very top. That honor belonged to the Browns because they haven't won anything since before the Super Bowl era. Besides, they had an owner who walked out on their city.
But Hanzus easily could have put Gang Green up there. Those who actually strode the planet when the Jets won their only title 26 years ago know well about a history of fan torture only a medievalist could love. The writer, a self-proclaimed Jets lover and attendee at the Dan Marino fake-spike game in 1994, may have wanted to spare his team the cruelty of a No. 1 ranking. More likely, though, No. 2 may well represent his own touch of literary license, for the Jets have done to their fans what pigeons do to Central Park statues for decades.
The process of breaking the agonizing legacy the writer so deftly laid out over a thousand words or so begins next Thursday. Head coach Todd Bowles' real work of preparing a defensive front that will play short the first four games as Sheldon Richardson sits out a substance abuse suspension and a starting offense that will operate with an ethereal Geno Smith at center starts with the opening of training camp, and won't stop until he either gets fired a couple of years down the road or he reverses the whole 46-year malaise with one, magical season.
At this point, simply avoiding another chapter in the Jets' sad litany will suffice for both Bowles and GM Mike Maccagnan.
Actually, that's not exactly a pressure job. The list of things gone bad is so extensive now that the two new guys would have to commit something close to felonies to earn a spot.
It's all in the piece. The Butt Fumble, by far the Jets' most embarrassing single moment in a history that includes a 377-451-8 regular-season mark, a 12-13 playoff record, and nary a Super Bowl appearance since SB III in Jan. 1969. Marino's fake spike/touchdown pass that beat them in Giants Stadium in '94. Bill Belichick's "I resign as HC of the NYJ" love note the day of his introductory press conference in 2000, and his subsequent landing in New England where he won four of six Super Bowl trips.
There's the drafting of Kenny O'Brien three picks before the Marino went to the Dolphins in 1983, Vinny Testaverde's blown Achilles in Game 1 that flushed the entire 1999 season down the drain, the case of football amnesia as the Jets dug a 24-0 first-half hole against Pittsburgh in the 2010 AFC Championship game that followed a gigantic, 28-21 upset of the Pats in the semifinal.
Tebowmania? Yep. The worst trade in franchise history is in there, too.
It's quite a list. And it doesn't even include busted picks like Roger Vick or Browning Nagle, Rex Ryan's tootsie tapes, or the John Idzik nightmare Maccagnan worked so hard to reverse this offseason.
Geno, for goodness sake!
That's understandable. One can fit only so much onto a website.
Bowles just needs to make sure the 2015 season leaves the others where they belong.
In the dustbin of history.
