Jared Max: Jets Fans Stuck In Long, Dark, Depressing Tunnel
By Jared Max
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Driving to work before dawn every weekend, I experience something that New York Jets fans feel regularly. Puzzlement. Disgust. Resignation.
Regardless of how many times I drive across the George Washington Bridge in the absence of sunlight, I carry hope that there will be light at the end of the ... um ... well, you know. But despite delusional expectations that street lamps will properly function on the ramp leading to the southbound Henry Hudson Parkway, my wish gets extinguished every time.
To many who have rooted for the Jets their entire lives, every season feels like an overnight ride over the GWB. Absent from the Super Bowl title from their AFL days, the Jets have kept their fans in the dark for nearly 46 years. What are fans to do? Options are void.
While I can turn on the high beams to remain safe and wonder what kind of travesty would have to occur to wake the powers that be into enlightenment -- to acknowledge this dangerous, dark entrance to Manhattan and implement an obviously needed change -- I must live with conditions as they are. Or I can choose to drive another route. It's not a choice on any true sports fan's menu to abandon interest in his or his team, regardless of how dire things get.
Jets fans probably feel like Roy Hobbs in "The Natural," forced to listen to psychobabble about how losing is a disease.
What do Jets fans talk about with their psychologists? Do they wonder what they can do to increase chances that one-third of each year can be more entertaining than frustrating? Do Jets fans talk about football with their therapists? "What do you think Rex Ryan's next job will be? Defensive coordinator? Defensive line coach? Linebackers coach?"
If I owned a professional sports franchise rooted in losing, I would interview the soon-to-be-former head coach. Unsure that any of the aforementioned coaching gigs bring out the best in Rex, I would offer him a position as head of team branding, marketing and advertising. I might try to revive the sitcom "Spin City," making Rex the star. Has anybody been more successful packaging dog poop, selling it as pleasantly scented body spray?
Sounding like the head coach talking about his starting quarterbacks year after year, Jets general manager John Idzik was unable to hide his Rex Ryan tattoo yesterday.
In what may be the most universally criticized "I have no answers" press conference by a pro team's GM, Idzik defended his head coach by revealing that he, too, has been seduced by the lovable lug.
"The last time I checked, all the traits that make Rex Ryan our leader -- our head coach -- are still intact," Idzik said. "He's an excellent football mind. A teacher. A coach. A motivator. A mentor. He's able to adapt. He sees both short and long-term vision. He's a competitor to soul and will never quit. It comes as no surprise that our players want to play so hard for Rex Ryan and his staff."
OK, but what does this have to with a 1-7 record?
While Idzik's face resembles a cross between Hall-of-Fame quarterbacks John Elway and Fran Tarkenton, in 21 months, he has yet to lead any "Drive" or display an ability to scramble loose from detractors to reach the end zone. As executive vice president of football operations for the Broncos, Elway got Peyton Manning. As salary-cap-guru GM of the Jets, Idzik found Geno Smith and Michael Vick. He has not successfully addressed the team's weaknesses. Despite the Jets' most glaring void over decades, Idzik not only failed to find a bona fide quarterback, he helped create this current malaise by ignoring one of his head coach's greatest needs -- a strong secondary.
The Jets are better at building ad campaigns than 53-man rosters. They tell fans that they know "What it means to be green." This say-nothing slogan seems like it was derived from another Rexy gem -- "Play like a Jet!" -- adopted from his days in Baltimore, a line that my colleague Jeff Capellini wondered about four years ago. Because they know more what it means to feel blue, Jets fans should market their own mantra on T-shirts: "Don't Get Me Started."
Jets fans have many reasons to feel scrappy.
Because of their team's roots in Queens, Jets fans tend to be Mets fans, too. By the time NFL training camp begins each summer, Mets/Jets fans are used to turning their sole focus to football. When one failed season leads into another, frustration becomes compounded. Regardless of which sales pitch each team creates annually, the slogan that fans of both teams know best is "Wait 'til next year."
For Jets fans, now seems an appropriate time to start counting the days until spring training. Better yet, since Jets/Mets fans tend to be Islanders fans, get knee-deep into the NHL season. The Isles lead the Metropolitan Division with the NHL's third-highest point total.
Like a home-seller who keeps lowering his price, the Mets are reconstructing the outfield walls at Citi Field for the second time in three years in hopes they can increase the team's likelihood of hitting more home runs. While general manager Sandy Alderson recently boasted that Curtis Granderson would have hit seven more homers this season if Citi Field dimensions were of 2015 stature, he did not mention how many more times Granderson might have struck out, swinging for shorter fences.
Whether it is Alderson or Idzik, Mike Tannenbaum or Omar Minaya, each has specialized in telling fans about light at the end of the tunnel, without illuminating the way.
We choose to honor our favorite teams by wearing their badges. But sometimes I wonder if it is worth the honor we allow it to be. Even if the Vegas line states the odds against success are 99:1, we stand by our teams.
As the sports doctor told the Knights in "The Natural":
Losing is a disease... as contagious as polio.
Losing is a disease... as contagious as syphilis.
Losing is a disease... as contagious as bubonic plague.
... attacking one...
... but infecting all.
Ah, but curable.
Jared Max is a multi-award winning sportscaster. He hosted a No. 1 rated New York City sports talk show, "Maxed Out" — in addition to previously serving as longtime Sports Director at WCBS 880, where he currently anchors weekend sports. Follow and communicate with Jared on Twitter @jared_max.
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