It was 1978 and a lawyer named Peter Valentine, a Giants fan, was the one who employed the aircraft to fly over the Meadowlands with this message: “15 Years of Lousy Football – We’ve Had Enough.” Fan protests are typically just like the previous line in regards to the climate, everyone speaking about it however no person ever doing something about it. However this turned one of the vital well-known protests in sports activities historical past, at the least round right here.
Now it’s all this time later, and the Meadowlands is as soon as once more a capital of awful soccer, for each the Giants and the Jets, coming off a Sunday in Germany and within the Arizona desert – desert being an acceptable spot for the Jets, proper? – that’s as a lot a bottoming-out as something that has occurred for both group for the reason that Giants final received a Tremendous Bowl.
When that banner flew over Giants Stadium, the Giants had been enjoying what could be their seventh shedding season out of the final eight. The present Giants are on their solution to their seventh shedding season out of their final eight. And out of the 15 seasons that Peter Valentine’s banner spoke to, the Giants had 4 groups that didn’t end with a shedding file. For the reason that final Tremendous Bowl in Indy, over the Patriots, the Giants have had 4 non-losing seasons.
So with them, to be truthful, we’re engaged on 14 seasons of typically awful soccer that did embody two playoff appearances, although as Giants followers know, every of these ended up with the Giants ultimately getting their doorways and home windows blown out.
The Jets? The Jets haven’t performed a postseason recreation for the reason that AFC Championship in opposition to the Steelers in Jan. of 2011, the 12 months earlier than the Giants received that second Tremendous Bowl off Belichick and Brady and them. And within the final 14 seasons THEY’VE performed, they’ve had precisely one profitable season and their mixed file is 83-141, 58 video games beneath .500, which is beginning to seem like Aaron Rodgers’ precise age.
Giants followers, of their hearts, and Giants’ followers have nice ones, knew their season was over after that loss on their opening Sunday, at dwelling – the place they nonetheless haven’t received a recreation this season – in opposition to the Vikings. It took longer for Jets followers to come back to the identical conclusion, this previous Sunday in opposition to the Cardinals, after they obtained rolled by the Cardinals as a lot as any group within the league has gotten rolled this season. Rodgers barely threw for 151 yards, couldn’t produce a landing, the Jets couldn’t run the ball and couldn’t cease the run and couldn’t sort out and made Kyler Murray seem like Patrick Mahomes.
“They were not prepared to play, we didn’t execute even close to our standard,” Jets interim coach Jeff Ulbrich mentioned.
All people within the room was too well mannered to ask this followup query:
What normal?
When it was mercifully over, although, you wished to ask Ambassador Woody, the proprietor of the group, if he nonetheless thinks that is all Robert Saleh’s fault. And then you definately wished to ask him if he nonetheless thinks that is one of the best Jets group he’s had in 25 years.
The one constructive factor you’ll be able to say in regards to the Jets of Ambassador Woody and Mister Rodgers is that they aren’t as unhealthy because the Giants are, now that the Giants couldn’t even beat the Carolina Panthers on Sunday in Munich. It wasn’t too way back that we thought the Panthers had been the worst group in all of the land. Or two lands. Or any land. Foolish us.
One other ugly season for the 2 groups enjoying their dwelling soccer in that ugly grey bowl referred to as MetLife Stadium. The Giants do not know who their quarterback goes to be subsequent season, as a result of if there’s life on Mars, even they know that the Giants are lastly going to maneuver on from Daniel Jones after six seasons. And why ought to we expect that the Jets, after what they’ve seen out of Rodgers, their very own coronary heart’s need, that they received’t transfer on from him, fairly than convey him again within the season when he’ll flip 42 after what they’ve seen within the season throughout which he’ll flip 41 in three weeks?
However guess what? This Jets season is not an Aaron Rodgers story, even if all of us obtained the thought over the previous 12 months or in order that the Earth would cease spinning on its axis if we went greater than a few days with out some form of Rodgers story. This isn’t about Joe Douglas, the outgoing normal supervisor, or the interim coach. That is all in regards to the proprietor, who has as soon as once more turned the New York Jets right into a dumpster fireplace by trying utterly out of his depth.
“We’re going to kick…..you can fill in the word,” Ambassador Woody mentioned after he fired Saleh.
What the ambassador meant to say is that they had been going to get their fill-in-the-word kicked.
They’re nowhere. Once more. Seeking to begin another time. Once more. John Mara mentioned this about Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll not so very way back: “We do not make any adjustments this season and I don’t anticipate making any adjustments within the offseason both.” Solely that was earlier than the Giants obtained handed by the Panthers within the general standings. Like they are saying in that TV industrial, life comes at you quick.
So right here everyone is. The Giants have the worst file within the league together with the Jaguars. The Jets are one recreation higher and what the actual soccer season is in New York and New Jersey? Looking forward to the draft. when recognition for the Google search “2025 NFL draft” spiked in New York space for Giants followers? After Week 1. With the Jets, it wasn’t till they misplaced in London to the Vikings.
The Giants haven’t received a recreation in a month. The Jets have received one for the reason that finish of September. One other season of awful soccer. Fairly quickly will probably be 15 for each of them. And counting.
