I’m not a big football fan, but I’ve been following the Jets pretty closely since December. And the Jets, a so-so team for the first 8 or 9 games, started playing miracle football since then. I’m not always sure exactly what a tight end or a fullback or a defensive safety is supposed to be doing at any one time, and the plays often look like a big blur to me. I’m still pretty confused about the shotgun formation and just what an off-sides punt is supposed to do.
But I do know that the Jets went thru a psychological phase-sift over the past few weeks, and now they’ve made it to the AFC championship game this Sunday against the Colts. It’s pretty clear that the team is starting to really like itself and its new coach, Rex Ryan. The resentment over “the hotshot kid in the limelight”, i.e. rookie quarterback Mark Sanchez, has dropped away as Sanchez started throwing more carefully and avoided the big flashy (and very risky) long throws. Sanchez has obviously signed on to being another one of “Rex’s guys”, and not to being his own little enterprise, as happens too often with high-publicity quarterbacks.
It’s pretty clear that the Jets have “gone Cinderella” because of something rare, something that hardly ever happens amidst 30 or so big, over-payed, ego-hyped athletes (again, please forgive my lack of knowledge as to the exact roster size of the Jets, or even of the main players). They’ve found a mutual groove, they’ve learned to appreciate one another. They’re feeling like they’re a part of something bigger than any one of them. That is becoming so rare in the high-money world of pro sports these days. So you can’t help but love it when you see something ‘really real’ happening on network TV.
Well, I’m not counting on the Jets winning this Sunday and going on to the Superbowl in Miami in 2 weeks. But I do know that they’re going to give Payton Manning and the Colts a real good fight. I’ll be in a bar somewhere with my brother and his friends this Sunday at 3, when the Jets and Colts kick off. I’ll be wearing my green Jets cap (which was supposed to be a Christmas gift to my brother, but I inadvertent ordered the small size, which doesn’t fit him. It works fine on my little head, so I kept it and got him something else). And I’ll be getting emotional along with the rest of the crowd. It will probably be the end of the season for the Jets, but it turned out to be a really good season despite the unpromising start.
Ryan and most of the Jets will be back next year; they’re a relatively young team. So my little fling with NFL football these past weeks may carry over into the fall. Perhaps by then I’ll figure out how an offside penalty works, and what a 1 point safety conversion is about. When a group of guys start putting their hearts into what they do, it’s worth knowing more about it. Too bad that has become so rare in the sports-entertainment-financial complex of 21st Century America.
JETS! JETS! JETS!
Jim,
I can't say that I have been following the Super Bowl play offs and who might end up playing in it.
But I must say that much of what you say here is very much like the time some 20(+?) years ago the Bears played in the Super Bowl. (They even had a guy name Payton–except that was his last name and maybe the spelling was different; I'm not sure about the spelling. Nobody in the Chicago area will ever forget "Sweetness" himself, Walter Payton.) But let me explain what I mean here.
I do think there was a difference in the '80s because the Bears were a good team from the beginning of that year. However, when it was clear the Bears were to be in the Super Bowl, Bear-mania and Super Bowl-mania broke out in even somebody like me.
I don't like football, have never liked football because I think it is a game that puts men in a wheelchair sooner rather than later in their lives, makes their lives massively painful from injuries, etc.
But as I say, even somebody like me "caught" Bear-mania and even Super Bowl-mania back some twenty years ago. It's a thing that is most contageous–that "thing" being the possibility that one's home team may take the "big prize."
So I say, totally enjoy the ride–however long it lasts.
MCS
Comment by MCS — January 23, 2010 @ 8:01 pm