It's Rough Being A Jets Fan...Once More

  I figured this would be an easy week to write something about the MLB playoffs, college football and some thoughts about the NFL and the start of the NHL season. Which I will get to. 

One of the topics I was going to write about regarding the NFL was the New York Jets and the team’s abysmal performance against former Jets quarterback Sam Darnold. The 23-17 dreary loss in London made it seem like the Jets were in a fog. Minnesota ran its record to 5-0, looking every bit like a playoff team in the NFC—even if the NFC North has roadblocks to an undefeated season or even the divisional title, as strong teams are in Detroit and Green Bay and improved Chicago also lies in wait. 

I got the post-game could have beens, should have beens from Head Coach Robert Saleh and quarterback Aaron Rodgers. The team would lick its wounds on the flight back from England and start to prepare for divisional foe Buffalo on Monday night. 

Except my phone began to light up like a Christmas tree on Monday morning. I recognize it is October, not December. 

Team owner Robert Wood Johnson IV, a.k.a. Woody, had enough of the inexcusable start. Losses to San Francisco, Denver and now Minnesota had the team heading in the wrong direction. Again.

So Johnson did something atypical for him. He fired a head coach in season. His way of doing things had been to fire them at the end of the season. 

Gone was Robert Saleh, who said plenty of nice if not vacuous things. His 20-36 record placed him 181st of 201 head coaches who have coached into their fourth season. 

Given that Johnson had been told by Saleh and GM Joe Douglas that this was a team which was to legitimately compete for the Super Bowl, he saw this was heading towards another disastrous season—this time with Rodgers not on the shelf as he had been after five plays in 2023. So he reacted and made Defensive Coordinator Jeff Ulbrich, a former NFL player of some note and leader of a staunch NYJ defense acting Head Coach, in an effort to immediately breathe some life into the team with his energetic style of coaching. 

A day later, Ulbrich demoted Offensive Coordinator Nathaniel Hackett, a close friend and confidant of Rodgers, making Quarterbacks Coach Todd Downing, a former OC most recently in Tennessee, as the man in charge of the offensive game plan and making the play calls during the games. Rodgers has purportedly signed o to the changes while steadfastly denying he had anything to do with Saleh’s ouster. 

Whether this awakens the offense remains to be seen. Rodgers seemed to be fighting for his survival behind an offensive line which either allowed too much pressure on him or caused the future Hall of Fame QB to throw quickly, at times before the receivers were ready or had completed their routes. And it was a line which committed way too many penalties, forcing the offense to start drives with longer yardage to the first down marker. It wasn’t a pretty picture. 

What has been the common denominator here is Johnson, the heir to the Johnson & Johnson fortune and a former ambassador to Great Britain. Since becoming co-owner in 2000, this now marks the seventh had coach fired by the owner. This includes chasing away Bill Belichick and forcing Bill Parcells to move on. 

In that time, the Jets have drafted five quarterbacks in the first round and acquired two aging Green Bay Hall of Fame QB’s who seemingly had lost their stuff. With a points differential over a negative 1000, it is hardly surprising that the Jets have a cumulative record well below .500. 

The team can’t get it right because the owner and his General Managers repeatedly bring in the wrong people because they, themselves, are a bad fit for what his team desperately needs—a winning culture. The swagger and talent of the Joe Namath Super Bowl III winning team is not here. Hasn’t been for a long time. 

Since 1999 through last season, the Jets have won a grand total of six playoff games. The last time the team won the AFC East was 2002. The team’s last trip to the AFC Championship was on January 23, 2011, when, after victories over Indianapolis and New England, the Jets lost in the title game to Pittsburgh. That game also marked the last time the made the playoffs. 

I saw an article by Mike Vaccaro in the New York Post calling Johnson the worst owner in New York. That moniker had rightfully belonged to James Dolan, the owner of the Rangers and Knicks. But now there are good vibes at MSG, along with the Yankees and Mets in their respective League Championship Series; the Giants have recently been playing much better; the Islanders and Devils have promising futures; only the Brooklyn Nets seem to rival the Jets for the worst franchise in New York right now. 

I knew three things coming into this season and now well into the games. All of which could impact the team. Rodgers, coming off of his Achilles tendon surgery, was an aging 40 year old. How much rust would there be and how agile could he be? The early returns haven’t been encouraging. 

Second—what kind of relationship did Rodgers have with Saleh? When I saw Saleh go to hug his QB on the sidelines during the New England victory, I realized the chemistry wasn’t there. 

And third—what was happening with All Pro defensive lineman Haason Reddick? The demand echoed by Johnson to the holdout, whose agent, Creative Artists Agency (CAA), disengaged with their client, with rumors that Reddick was being counseled by someone else, didn’t help. The fact that the Jets wouldn’t discuss a new contract until Reddick reported to Florham Park, where the Jets training facility is, showed me an unwillingness to really compete. 

Add it all up. The history. The quarterbacks. The general managers. The ownership. It is hard to envision a meaningful change which might propel this team into the playoffs. The AFC East is not that strong. 

Could the Jets win it with a 9-8 record, the figure I predicted before the season began? Yes. And that would only mean a worse draft choice for  a team which will have to start over sooner than later. 

I look longingly at Washington, Chicago and Houston as teams which made the right call on young and able quarterbacks. Then I think of who New York has drafted and I wonder if there will ever be the right move in a franchise so bereft of talent—on the field and from the top down. 

I wanted to write about the Yankees winning a tough series from a gritty Kansas City team—without Aaron Judge hitting a ton and actually led by the apparent playoff monster, Giancarlo Stanton. The Bombers draw a tough team in Cleveland, winners over Detroit in a five game ALDS series. 

The there are the Mets. First they take apart the NL Central champion Brewers. Then they easily dismantle Philadelphia, the NL East champs. Now the Mets can go for the trifecta and beat the NL West champion Dodgers for a trip to the World Series.  

The New York Rangers look even tougher this season. I wonder how much the fallout from top goaltender Igor Shesterkin’s rejection of a record 8 year, $88 million contract offer will impact his play?

And finally, I was stunned, as the college football world was, with Vanderbilt’s monumental upset of then-# 1 Alabama last Saturday night in Nashville. Vandy is now 1-61 against Top 5 teams. Top 5 and Top 10 teams have had their hands full this year with no shortage of upsets and tight battles—see Ohio State and Oregon’s battle Saturday night in Eugene as proof. Which will continue until the College Football Playoffs begin. Thankfully there are 12 teams instead of 4; heaven knows who will still be standing strong when the selections are made. 

However, with what has happened with the New York Jets, how could I have devoted time to other subjects? It’s rough being a Jets fan…once more.

Maybe I Will Get It Right This Time

  For the sports maven some people mistakenly think I am—there are a lot more people more knowledgeable about the sporting world than me. Like a lot of others, I have opinions about what I see and read. 

What I do know is that, even with the rigorous demands of retired life (ask some retirees other than the rich ones sipping Pina coladas on their yacht anchored in some sub-tropical area and have so many others doing so much for them), I find time for sports. It’s just sometimes being in the right place at the right time for an event—live or on TV. 

Example #1: Georgia at Alabama last Saturday night. Alabama absolutely swamps the Bulldogs into the fourth quarter. I went to bed. I figured game over. Georgia wasn’t going to make a comeback. 

Was I ever dead wrong on that thought. Georgia came all the way back and actually started to celebrate an improbable victory. Except that the Crimson Tide have this incredible 17 year old wide receiver who is electric when he touches the ball. 

His name? Ryan Williams, who is listed at 6’0”, 175 pounds, a recent graduate of Saraland High School who happened to be Mr. Football in Alabama in both 2022 and 2023. He wears #2 for now, as he is headed to the NFL as a high draft choice when he is ready to leave Tuscaloosa. 

In four games, he has caught 16 passes, five of them for touchdowns, while averaging 28.9 yards per reception. There will be many more highlights this season. 

But none will be more important than the last one he caught from Tide QB Jalen Milroe. Taking a simple pass, he used a bevy of moves to get past Georgia defenders en route to a game-winning 75 yard touchdown. 

Which I had to see on Sunday morning. Because I gave up on the game. I had to get some sleep, as I had errands to do before going to the Meadowlands for Denver and the New York Jets.

Example #2: Denver and the Jets on Sunday afternoon. It was a rainy, gloomy day—for a plethora of reasons. None more than the game itself.

While the weather forecast called for the misty rain to end around 1:00, a fact a drunken fan in the row below me continually harped on, I was soaked through my poncho and deck shoes by the time I left Met Life Stadium. 

Denver is not a good team. Rookie Denver QB Bo Nix only threw for 60 total yards and 1 TD. Yet he did better than veteran Aaron Rodgers, who tried to keep his Jets team in the game with his passing and running—only to leave the game bruised and battered in a brutal loss to the Broncos. 

With Denver ahead and driving towards another score, my friend, Fan X, and I had seen enough. When we came out of the men’s room, we checked the video screen in the concourse, only to watch Denver miss a 50 yard field goal which, if successful, would have required the Jets to score a touchdown to win. 

What did we do? We scampered back to our wet seats to watch the Jets get into field goal range without any timeouts remaining. Whereupon the Jets kicker missed from the same distance in the opposite direction. Talk about timing and choices gone wrong. 

Example #3: Mets and Braves Game 1 Monday afternoon. I tuned in to see Atlanta go ahead. Only to go elsewhere and see from a MLB Network notification that the Mets had forged ahead. 

So I watched more of the game—specifically the bottom of the 8th inning. Where the Braves went ahead again. 

Only to have to do something which made me miss Francisco Lindor’s dramatic ninth inning home run which put New York ahead for good. I was back in time to see the bottom of the ninth and the Mets clinch a Wild Card berth. Karma wasn’t with me on Monday, either. 

Example #4: Monday Night Football. I missed the entire Tennessee-Miami game. I never saw Jared Goff go 18 for 18 passing nor did I see him catch a touchdown pass. Instead, I saw the end of the game, which was just ugly. Once more my timing was off. 

Example #5: Mets and Brewers Game 3 Thursday night. I saw Milwaukee inch ahead in the seventh inning after Jake Bauers and Sal Frelick slugged back-to-back home runs. But I didn’t stay with the game. Which meant that I missed Pete Alonso’s opposite field home run which catapulted the Mets into the NLDS against Philadelphia. Nope, all I saw was the bottom of the ninth when NYM closed it out. 

Example #6: Buffalo-New Jersey NHL opener, Friday in Prague, Czechoslovakia. I watchedalmost the entire first period and I managed to see only one goal. Same thing as I periodically checked in the contest, a 4-1 NJD win. Only saw that one goal. 

Six examples of why I have missed some pretty good stuff live. It is not to say that I didn’t see all the Yankees games from Oakland, versus Baltimore and against Pittsburgh—where I saw all the scoring plays I chose to watch. Plus when I was home from the Jets game I saw the Kansas City— LA Charges game and I tuned into the Tampa Bay—Atlanta game in time to see the Falcons tie the game then win it in OT on Thursday night. 

You simply cannot spend enough time watching games. That is why sports fanatics like me rely on the  influx of ESPN and other networks showing replays of what I missed. Although it still is better to see it in real time. Unless you stupidly opt to go back to your seats to watch the Jets. After 47 years, I should have learned by now. 

Some nuggets from this week. First, my son is in South Florida this weekend, for an event related to the University of Miami, where he attended law school. The Hurricanes football team, ranked #9, traveled a long way to Berkeley, California to play the Cal Golden Bears in one of those ridiculous makes no sense distance-wise ACC matchups. 

ESPN decided to have its College GameDay program originate from Cal’s campus. This is the first time ESPN has had its pre-game show go there. 

What is even more unique is that of all the FBS schools, only six schools have never hosted ESPN before a game. Who are those lucky schools? SMU, Rutgers, Maryland, Virginia, Illinois and Syracuse. And I wouldn’t hold my breath for any of them to become a host this season. 

In another wacky meeting, UCLA, in its first year in the Big Ten, travels to State College, Pennsylvania to face Penn State. That absurd distance to travel for a conference game is too much. 

I looked at Penn State’s all-time records in football. The teams they played the most were Pitt, West Virginia, Maryland, Syracuse and one that I would not have thought of—the University of Pennsylvania, with the last game between the two taking place in 1958. 

Most of the Big Ten rivals have become staples of the PSU schedule. Not anymore with the likes of Washington, Oregon, USC and UCLA in the conference. Those are made-for-TV games, not anything realistically resembling a rivalry. Unlike the Western Pennsylvania battle with Pitt, where both schools can’t seem to make a continuous affair lest they lose a precious non-conference date, where, ostensibly, they shell out money to come in to be thrashed. It would have made a lot more sense to include Pitt and Syracuse in the Big Ten way back when before they had to settle by joining the ACC.  

Switching gears completely, two very different and unique individuals from basketball and baseball passed away this week. Dikembe Mutombo and Pete Rose. I mourn them both for very different reasons. 

I had followed Mutombo since he burst upon the collegiate basketball scene at Georgetown, following Patrick Ewing and growing under the tutelage of Head Coach John Thompson. He was a great basketball player. He used his college education from a great school to help others after his marvelous playing days ended and after his worthy enshrinement into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. I was deeply saddened to see this robust man, an international ambassador of good will, tragically die of brain cancer at age 58.

On the other hand, Rose was a true enigma. There wasn’t a lot to like about him as a person. He lied. He cheated. He gambled and that cost him a spot in Cooperstown. Maybe forever. 

What he could do was play baseball. And he knew how to hit and run hard. He earned the nickname “Charlie Hustle” from his take-no-prisoners style of play. When Rose left the game as a player, he had the most hits ever. An exceptional achievement from a great ballplayer. 

My sadness about Rose dying is twofold. Had he been honest and not broken the rules, he would be in the Hall of Fame. Such a shame. 

Moreover, another piece of my teens into my twenties is gone. I know it’s inevitable that all of the stars of that era will leave us. That’s a fact of life and growing older. 

I still have the present. Beginning with a full slate of college football and the Divisional Series in both the American and National Leagues. And pro football kicks off with a 9:30 am EDT start Sunday when the Jets play Minnesota and the resurgent, former NYJ QB Sam Darnold in London. Plus Dallas-Pittsburgh on Sunday night and another Chiefs game on national TV on Monday night. 

Maybe I will get it right this time and see a majority of the real action. I might even see Taylor Swift cheering her beau if I am so lucky.