love/hate

AP - Vinny Testaverde, who spent some of his best NFL seasons with the New York Jets, is set to rejoin the team to replace Chad Pennington, lost for the season with a shoulder injury.

"Only a fool breaks his own heart..."
-Julio Iglesias

I've been a Jets fan for as long as I can remember. Our fam got the season tickets when I was 2, and I started going to the games regularly when I was about 8. In case you're not really a football fan, I'll give you a little inside info. The Jets haven't been to the Superbowl since 1969. For the 80s and most of the 90s, they were one of the worst (if not the worst) franchises in the league. As it turns out, though, attending games on those 8 sundays a year was great. The games were horrendous, but our pre-game (and occasional post-game) tailgates were amazing. It wasn't even a matter of liking the Jets; in fact, I probably would've said that I hated them, but I loved the Jets game experience. If I was ever bored during the week, or sad about something, I knew that on Sunday morning, we'd be heading out to the Meadowlands at 10:00 for an awesome tailgating party. We had seven tickets, and as bad as the Jets played, we'd almost always have seven people ready cheer them on. The tailgates were so much fun (and had such good food) that we'd sometimes get other family members or friends to come out to the games just for the pre-game party; once it was time to go into the stadium, the extra tailgaters would head home. Fun times.

1997, however, was where rooting for the Jets went from being a fun fall activity to a serious emotional commitment. After being the laughing stock of pro-sports teams in the NY/NJ area for my entire lifetime, the Jets acquired Bill Parcells, arguably the best head coach in the history of the NFL. He won two Super Bowls with the Giants, and just a few years later led the Patriots to big game. It was time to actually care about how the team played. Their first season under Parcells, they were 9-7 (a winning season? what is that?). The next season, they went 12-4 and made it to within one game of the Super Bowl. Most fans would consider those two seasons "mediocre" or "pretty good" at best, but for a Jets fan, those are the kinds of season that one could only dream about. The success of those couple seasons taught Jets fans (or at least, this Jets fan) to love. We didn't have to see the tailgate parties as the sole reason for being a ticketholder; we could look forward to going to the actual games, too. We could get emotionally invested in the team, because we knew that they weren't the terrible pushovers that we'd grown up with. They were willing to play good football, and we were willing to believe in them. I could honestly say it for the first time: I loved the Jets.

And then, like most relationships, we hit a rough patch. In 1999, our starting quarterback was hurt in the first game of the season. It hurt a little bit, but we knew that he'd be back for next season. In 2000, Parcells stepped down as our head coach, but stayed with the team in an administrative role. While not optimal, we ended the season with a winning record, and it was easy to keep the faith; we were still on solid footing. In 2001, we brought in new head coach, and while we made the playoffs, we lost in a somewhat embarassing first round game. In 2002, we just squeaked into the playoffs and didn't do particularly well, but we were introduced to a Mr. Chad Pennington, and received a glimpse of a potentially glorious future. In 2003, the heartache became a little more intense, when the boys in Green fell back to their first losing season since 1996, due to a combination of injuries and and an inconsistent offense. In 2004, we had our most succesful season since '98, and even though our team had talent, that same thread of inconsistency from the 80s came back, and they weren't able to take advantage of making the playoffs. Throughout all of these years, although the team wasn't nearly as bad has it's known to have been, there were little signs here and there that all wasn't well in Jetsdom. They would play well enough to get our hopes up, and then lose in such a terrible way that we would hate ourselves for caring so much about 22 guys who run around for 3 hours a week. The fact that they were almost good, and yet not even close to being great, was painful. I wanted to love them. I'd been waiting all of my life to find a love like this. And yet, I couldn't help but hate them for the pain they'd caused.

And now, the sky is falling. Chad's not injured, but he missed training camp so he's a little rusty. Well, Chad's arm is a little sore, but it's nothing serious. Oh, Chad's arm is sore, we're going to take him out of the game, but we'll put him back in at the end of the game. Um, yeah... Chad is going to have season-ending surgery, and the two quarterbacks at our disposal now are a kid who hasn't taken more than 20 snaps in a live game, and a 42-yr-old dude getting ready to apply for Social Security. Terrible. I hate them. There is no reason to have any confidence in this team. All the experts say they're terrible. They're in the same division in as the reigning champion New England Patriots. And the emotional leader of the offense is out for the season. There is no logical reason to divert any physical or emotional effort towards this sorry collection of bums.

...and if you're looking for me this Sunday, I'll be the one at the Sports Depot, dressed up in all green, rooting for those no-talent ass-clowns to take it to the Ravens.

...I guess that's love.