By David Levy-Fan Experience Reporter-Football Reporters Online.com
With no talk about free agency, contract negotiations, or off season workouts, there is not much football talk going on. All people can do right now is discuss the draft in a few weeks and make their predictions. It reminds me of the book/movie "All Quiet On The Western Front".
Every football fan looks forward to going to the games. Not just to see their favorite team, but to be with friends and family. It is a time to relax, have fun, and have experiences that will turn into memories. I am sure a lot of people are reflecting on some now, hoping there will be a season this year. If not, they will reflect on seasons past and the fun they had. For many Jet s fans, the memories are all we have the past 40 years.
Many of us reflect on previous seasons. Games we attended with our father, brother, mother, sister, grandfather, uncle, or other family members who may not be with us anymore. It did not matter how bad the game was, one would always find something good to remember about the day. Even if it was a bad game, there was something about it that made it a positive experience. Many talk about how much they hated Shea Stadium and Giants Stadium. But they will always mention how much fun those times were in those bad situations.
If you are like me, you recall games you attended with someone who passed away. I always think about my dad when I think about the Jets. Every time I went to a game without him and sat in Section 226 Row 8, Seats 7 and 8 in Giants Stadium, I would think about him. Walking around the new stadium while filming, I would thin about him and wonder what he would think about the new structure built for the financially elite. Sometimes I would talk aloud to him, as if he was walking next to me.
A funny story my dad would always tell me was about the time he was headed to the AFL Championship game between the Jets and Oakland Raiders. He was speeding and was pulled over. He was sitting in a line of a dozen cars that were pulled over, dead last behind them all. He was running late and wanted to be there by kick off. He calls an officer over and explains he knows he was speeding and deserves the ticket. He then explains to the officer why he was speeding and shows him the tickets to the game. The officer tells him to hold on and be patient. Less than five minutes later, the officer returns with the ticket and tells my father to leave. He left before the other cars pulled over did.
He was the type that would have looked at the new stadium in amazement. Amazed at all the technology that was put into it and laugh when I would have to explain the reasons why. He was the type that just liked to watch the game, not much else. He would follow the changes in the game, but laugh and smile at the tech advances that are interwoven into it. He would have been 76 today. Still feels like yesterday. Every time the football season begins I think of all those games we went to. I know some others who feel the same as I do.
While filming in the parking lot at Giants Stadium in 2008, I came across Tommy Wilson. Such a dedicated Jets fan he owned the license plates "JETS" & "12 JETS". I later find out Jets owner Woody Johnson offered to buy the "JETS" plate from him. Always wearing his #12 Joe Namath jersey and always at the games, his personality and presence felt like my father's. I guess that is why his story touches me even more than others I met while filming.
Tommy was honored in 2002 by the NFL and Visa Pro Football Hall for Fans. He wrote the winning essay as to why he should be the fan to represent the Jets in the Hall of Fans. He held 10 season tickets for close to 40 years. His restaurants was named after the lot he tailgated in, Lot 12A. A true "Super" Fan in my book.
There is more I can say about Tommy but do not want to give away his entire story. I went back to get a follow up in September of 2009 and he pushed it to another game. When I emailed him about it in early November of 2009, his wife Mary Lou informed me he passed away in early October. I was deeply saddened to hear the news. He had purchased several PSL's too. Tommy lived and breathed the Jets, helped to pay for the new stadium, is in the Hall of Fans for the Jets, but yet was just another fan to the Jets organization.
I met up with his widow Mary Lou and her son Tommy Jr this past October. Mary Lou thought about giving up the seats after he passed but knew Tommy would not have wanted that. Last year was a hard season but this year was different. Once again, many people who used to tailgate with them at 13A were not there. Some did not get PSL’s, others did not have the right parking permits, while others feel it is not the same without Tommy. For the remainder of tailgating last year, it was very somber without Tommy. He was the nucleus that held that tailgate together. Tommy Jr. got a tattoo to remember his father, even though his father did not like tattoos.
Mary Lou and Tommy Jr. always reflect on their memories about Tommy. It makes them smile and feel good about being a Jet fan. Even with next season uncertain, they still reflect and always will. Tommy was one of those fans that made you feel good when he talked. I guess he holds a place in my heart because he reminded me of my own father. There is a strange connection to fans from a certain era in football. An era where it was about the game, not the politics.
Everyone knows the kind of fans I refer to. The ones where they smile when they talk about past seasons. When memories were about actions on the field, not battles in courts off the field. Older generations of fans seem to have this glow in their eyes. Where you do not mind listening to their stories. The kind where you can sit with a beer and listen for hours if you need a reason to smile.
Right now fans need a reason to smile. They need a reason to believe a season will happen this year. Many look forward to those home games, not just to tailgate, but to create memories with friends and family. 50% of ticket money was already due, PSL payment in several months. Do the Jets think the season will happen? But when a season looks like it may not happen, there is nothing to look forward to.
As it stands, all we can do is think ahead to a season that may or may not happen. We can reflect about the games we have all been to before. Many will talk about the past two seasons as they ended in trips to the AFC Championship game. Looking forward to a season where a Super Bowl could be in the Jets grasp for the first time n over 40 years. But all we can do is sit back and wait.
There may be no season. Then all we can do is reflect on the 2011 season that never was. How we all waited for players and owners to come to an agreement to end a lockout. Where the courts made the decision instead of the NFL. In 1987 at least there were some games played. Who knows what will happen this year. Ahh, the memories
(Eds. Note: I know exactly how David feels. I had the same relationship with my Dad regarding Football. I often wonder if he were still with us what he would think of the internet and what we were doing these days..B.C.)
Showing posts with label Ny Jets. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ny Jets. Show all posts
FRO's TJ Rosenthal on Why it's The Steelers Playing today and not the NY JETS
CAN’T WAIT: THE HEIGHT OF THE 201O NY JETS By TJ Rosenthal-Jets Reporter-Football Reporters Online
As they wake up today on Super Bowl Sunday, many Gang Green loyalists will still fight the reality that Bart Scott’s post game “Can’t Wait” rant in Foxboro was as high as the Jets could fly in 2010.
Losing to the league’s number one defense, a franchise that owns six titles was one thing. Coming out as flat as they did in Pittsburgh, for a Jets team that fed off of it’s own swagger, was another. A Jet team that enjoyed proving their many new found enemies wrong all year long, while overcoming scandal after scandal.
Once they packed up their gear in Foxboro, the Jets essentially packed up their championship attitude along with it. Only to roll it back out onto the field, while down 24-3 in the third quarter at Heinz Field. When it was too late.
The unguarded thoughts that Scott shared after the upset of the Pats with ESPN reporter Sal Palantonio showed us what the playing speed on the field had to be, in order to dismantle hall of famers like Tom Brady. Or the great Peyton Manning for that matter, as the Jets had done the week before.
Paradoxically, the club’s first ten minutes at Heinz Field became the failed science experiment of what a nice and cooperative Rex Ryan team could look like. A meandering group that for much of the first half, couldn’t move the chains on offense as they missed tackles and mounted penalties on defense.
After the hated Patriots were gone, Rex Ryan addressed the AFC Championship game with an uncustomary approach: Kid gloves. He spoke publicly about the Steelers with respect. Kindness. All of the warm hearted personality traits that THIS Jets team decided to disregard a long time ago.
This 2010 Jets playoff run was not about making friends. It was about being disrespected. From analysts and opponents alike. If in fact, there weren’t as many naysayers as the Jets believed there were, they made them up in their collective mind. For inspiration. For an edge, that translated into a pair of playoff upsets.
Maybe Ryan WAS being honest the whole way this January, and NOT playing psychological tricks with his players through the media. When Ryan made the first two rounds “personal,” perhaps he truly meant it.
If so, then it is possible that in Ryan’s heart, he felt that the Steelers, unlike the Colts and Pats who had hurt the Jets over the past year when it counted, deserved admiration before condemnation. That a third straight road playoff game, this time against the league’s most physical defense, truly WAS the toughest part of what he termed “mission impossible:” A brutal road run to Dallas that included three of the league’s top teams for the past decade.
If Ryan’s honesty was blindly directing the course of events during the week leading up to each playoff tilt, well then a little acting on the part of Ryan and the Jets before the AFC Championship might have helped. A bit more of that familiar Ryan era Jets chatter. If nothing more than for the purpose of maintaining the same wave length the organization had been on since July. When all of the talk initiated by the Jets in Florham Park was about reaching the Super Bowl.
If a shift in the Jets personality leading up to the AFC Championship game was NOT the primary reason for the season ending slow start that day, then HOW DID Ryan’s loud and proud Jets, in the biggest game of their two year run, become so congenial right out of the gates? So pedestrian?
Some will argue that the primary cause for the early three score deficit was nothing more than a faulty Jets gameplan. One that failed to put eight in the box against Rashard Mendenhall in zero degree temperature, forcing the Steelers to throw from the onset. One that in addition, tried to establish the run on offense, too often in the early going, against the NFL’s top run stoppers.
As the Steelers prepare to kick things off in Dallas today, many who bleed Green and White will ponder “what happened” that day, to themselves. Torturing their Gang Green infected souls. Many wondering where the Jets would be today, had they been able to ride the “Can’t Wait” emotions that Bart Scott exemplified in Foxboro, all the way to Pittsburgh.
The Jet Report
twitter@thejetreport
tumblr: thejetreport.tumblr.com
As they wake up today on Super Bowl Sunday, many Gang Green loyalists will still fight the reality that Bart Scott’s post game “Can’t Wait” rant in Foxboro was as high as the Jets could fly in 2010.
Losing to the league’s number one defense, a franchise that owns six titles was one thing. Coming out as flat as they did in Pittsburgh, for a Jets team that fed off of it’s own swagger, was another. A Jet team that enjoyed proving their many new found enemies wrong all year long, while overcoming scandal after scandal.
Once they packed up their gear in Foxboro, the Jets essentially packed up their championship attitude along with it. Only to roll it back out onto the field, while down 24-3 in the third quarter at Heinz Field. When it was too late.
The unguarded thoughts that Scott shared after the upset of the Pats with ESPN reporter Sal Palantonio showed us what the playing speed on the field had to be, in order to dismantle hall of famers like Tom Brady. Or the great Peyton Manning for that matter, as the Jets had done the week before.
Paradoxically, the club’s first ten minutes at Heinz Field became the failed science experiment of what a nice and cooperative Rex Ryan team could look like. A meandering group that for much of the first half, couldn’t move the chains on offense as they missed tackles and mounted penalties on defense.
After the hated Patriots were gone, Rex Ryan addressed the AFC Championship game with an uncustomary approach: Kid gloves. He spoke publicly about the Steelers with respect. Kindness. All of the warm hearted personality traits that THIS Jets team decided to disregard a long time ago.
This 2010 Jets playoff run was not about making friends. It was about being disrespected. From analysts and opponents alike. If in fact, there weren’t as many naysayers as the Jets believed there were, they made them up in their collective mind. For inspiration. For an edge, that translated into a pair of playoff upsets.
Maybe Ryan WAS being honest the whole way this January, and NOT playing psychological tricks with his players through the media. When Ryan made the first two rounds “personal,” perhaps he truly meant it.
If so, then it is possible that in Ryan’s heart, he felt that the Steelers, unlike the Colts and Pats who had hurt the Jets over the past year when it counted, deserved admiration before condemnation. That a third straight road playoff game, this time against the league’s most physical defense, truly WAS the toughest part of what he termed “mission impossible:” A brutal road run to Dallas that included three of the league’s top teams for the past decade.
If Ryan’s honesty was blindly directing the course of events during the week leading up to each playoff tilt, well then a little acting on the part of Ryan and the Jets before the AFC Championship might have helped. A bit more of that familiar Ryan era Jets chatter. If nothing more than for the purpose of maintaining the same wave length the organization had been on since July. When all of the talk initiated by the Jets in Florham Park was about reaching the Super Bowl.
If a shift in the Jets personality leading up to the AFC Championship game was NOT the primary reason for the season ending slow start that day, then HOW DID Ryan’s loud and proud Jets, in the biggest game of their two year run, become so congenial right out of the gates? So pedestrian?
Some will argue that the primary cause for the early three score deficit was nothing more than a faulty Jets gameplan. One that failed to put eight in the box against Rashard Mendenhall in zero degree temperature, forcing the Steelers to throw from the onset. One that in addition, tried to establish the run on offense, too often in the early going, against the NFL’s top run stoppers.
As the Steelers prepare to kick things off in Dallas today, many who bleed Green and White will ponder “what happened” that day, to themselves. Torturing their Gang Green infected souls. Many wondering where the Jets would be today, had they been able to ride the “Can’t Wait” emotions that Bart Scott exemplified in Foxboro, all the way to Pittsburgh.
The Jet Report
twitter@thejetreport
tumblr: thejetreport.tumblr.com
Labels:
Ny Jets,
Pittsburgh Steelers,
super bowl
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
