A Bitter Giants Fan Reacts to the Jets' Playoff Run

Up is down, black is white, cats and dogs are living together: the New York Jets are in the AFC Championship game.

My Giants, meanwhile, are gone. Kaput. Exiled to the offseason after failing rather spectacularly, quitting where they would have won the past two seasons and looking nothing like the world-beating team that upset New England in ’07 and rampaged through the league in 2008 before their unceremonious belly-flop in the playoffs. And I, meanwhile, am lost at sea in this topsy-turvy version of New York City where the Giants choked in high style and the Jets (!!!) have a legitimate shot at winning a world championship.

I’m Manhattan-born, New Jersey-raised and now I go to NYU. My mom worked at the Meadowlands back in the day. I have deep ties to this city, and having been to the mountaintop with an NY team before (the Giants’ big win was during my freshman year), I love the idea of a New York team going deep into the NFL postseason, not to mention right after the Yankees added World Series No. 27 to the shelf. I wouldn’t even mind if it was the Jets, but did it have to come in a year where my beloved G-Men completely blew it? It’s like seeing your on-friendly-but-shaky-terms ex-girlfriend out with a guy far better-looking than you in the same month you two break up while you’re still striking out on the rebound.

Side note: I have yet to see my actual ex-girlfriend out with a better looking guy than myself, but her team is the Denver Broncos. So, if nothing else, I can at least hang my hat on the fact that my football team is better than hers. Thanksgiving Day game? Never happened. They lost to the Raiders and Chiefs. My logic is undeniable.

So here I am, torn, waking up every day unsure whether to support my city or my team. I’ve heard of “Jets-For-Giants” or “Giants-For-Jets” fans, and I even know a Jet fan or two who gamely stumped for Big Blue during their miracle run to the championship a couple years back. But the overwhelming consensus among J-E-T-S Nation is that Giants fans are a bunch of white-collar wimps, while Jets supporters are the salt of the earth; blue-collar men hardened by 41 years of failure. Success, they seem to think, has made Giants fans soft. I just read an article in the New York Times about a guy, a real hardcore Jets fan, who wouldn’t even speak the word “Giants” when referring to Giants Stadium. He called it “G-Stadium.”

So, yeah. I’ll admit it. Our team is generally good, while yours is generally bad. If that makes us wimps in someone’s eyes, so be it. Besides, nobody’s ever accused me of being a fair-weather fan and never ever will. I’m rocking my Osi Umenyiora jersey every Sunday when my boys take the field to play, win or lose. And this season it’s been rough. A Jet fan should know that feeling, right?

OK, maybe that was a cheap shot. Like I said, I’m torn. But in all honesty, I’m thoroughly impressed by the Jets this year, have been since Week 2 (anyone who beats Bill Belichick is OK in my book). True, they had a so-so season by anyone’s standards and only got to the playoffs because Indy laid down in Week 16, but since the wild-card round they’ve been a different team. Thomas Jones rumbles like Brandon Jacobs was supposed to this past year. Darrelle Revis lives up to every inch of his hype. And Sanchez, God help me, is transforming into the Sanchize before our very eyes. Not necessarily in completions. His numbers are still eh. But he’s a leader out there, skanky playoff beard and all.

And for the first time in a long time, they believe. I’m no football scholar, but I know a miracle team when I see one. Even if the Jets lose, to the Colts or in the Super Bowl, I don’t see a Same-Old-Jets meltdown coming. They’ll go kicking and screaming, and Brees, Peyton or Favre will be lying exhausted on the turf at the end of it all from the effort of putting them away.

That’s if the Jets go at all. I love teams like this, and wouldn’t be so unsure about supporting them if it weren’t for the fact that most Jets fans, if Mr. NY Times is the prototype for a Jets fan, would rather give Rex Ryan a sponge bath than openly support the Giants in anything.

So while it pains me to see the Empire State Building lit up green instead of blue these last couple of weekends, I have to suck it up with the knowledge that, whether or not they got into the playoffs because Jim Caldwell basically let them (they did), the J-E-T-S-Jets-Jets-Jets are playing dangerous, unpredictable football. The Giants played it safe (Jacobs up the gut on first, second, and third downs) and it got them embarrassed. Gang Green might not have seemed like the better team at first, but they played like champs and continue to do so, and now they’re two games away from the Canyon of Heroes. Like I said, I know a miracle team when I see one. Dealing with a Jets championship wouldn’t be tough. Like I said, I’m a New Yorker. I love it when my city beats all other cities, especially in football.

Dealing with Jets fans after a potential championship? I guess that, as a Giants fan, that’s going to be my biggest test.

NFL Week 8 Recap

Favre. Favre! FAAAAAVVVRE!

In case you didn't hear, Brett Favre played his first game in Lambeau as a Viking this weekend, and it pretty much went the same way as the Minnesota/Green Bay game had a few weeks ago: Favre and Co. heartily dismantled the Pack, despite a He-Man comeback mounted by Green Bay's Aaron Rodgers and his big 2nd-half resurgence. Say what you will about the old man's waffling (chances are you won't be wrong, either), but the fact remains that Favre can still flat-out play. And the '09 Vikings are much, much better all around than the Packers have been recently. Expect this circus to continue for at least another season, if not more, should the Vikes make as big a postseason run as everyone thinks they will.

Big vindication weeks for Vince Young and Steven Jackson this week; Young made his first start as a Titan since his alleged Chappelle-ian mental breakdown last season and he led the embattled Tennesee squad to its first win of the season over Jacksonville. Rams RB Steven Jackson, meanwhile, has quietly been building up some of the best stats in the NFL - going into Sunday he was ranked 3rd in rushing yards and 2nd in total from scrimmage, and on Sunday his team finally got its first win of the year under first-year coach Steve Spagnuolo. Jacksonville and Detroit aren't exactly elite teams, but a W is a W, and those teams needed 'em.

The Chargers and Ravens got much-needed wins this week, as San Diego became the latest squad to beat up on the lowly Oakland Raiders. Baltimore's win was much more significant, as they dealt the stampeding Denver Broncos their first loss of the season. There are certainly worse teams to drop one to, though: the Ravens defense is still one of the most intimidating groups in the league. And I can't reiterate this enough: Ray Lewis is freaking scary. Has anyone seen those NFL network commercials where they slow-mo his Raven dance? Oof.

And thank God for the Yankees, because New York football is in a sorry state right now. The Jets lost again to the Dolphins, 25-30, in a game I didn't watch so can't comment very much on. But all those grumblings that Rex Ryan's green meanies were more talk than walk is starting to look legit since their 3-0 start led to a 1-4 skid that included two losses to Miami and one to the confounding Buffalo Bills. Counting the Jets out is premature at this point (one thing clear about this Jets team is that they will not go quietly, if anything), but they definitely have work to do.

They certainly seem more competitive than the Giants, who were unceremoniously demolished by the Philadelphia Eagles in a humiliating, 40-10 defeat. Big Blue's skid right now can't really be understated; its defense looks confused and frustrated (after a Saints game where they under-pressured Drew Brees, the Giants' game plan has become to bring the house on the QB and leave a diminished secondary to stop the passing game), and an offense that thrives on ball control and a running game is trying to re-cast itself midseason as a long-ball threat. It's safe to say that opponents have figured out Brandon Jacobs' MO right now and are going out of their way to clog the holes up front so the big man can't get his wheels turning. Eli Manning hasn't found a way to compensate for this against solid opponents, and as a result his INTs are climbing at an alarming rate. A game against the Chargers, whose defense has been spotty, will be a big opportunity for the Giants to find their stride again.

Oh, and apparently the GM of the Cleveland Browns is getting fired. Unless I'm misunderstanding something, I'm thinking Eric Mangini dodged a biiiig bullet right now.

Another Old Article

This one actually did run in the WSN, but heavily edited and minus the bit about Brandon Jacobs. I like my verison better...

The Top 5 Characters in the NFL:

The NFL is full of lunatics. Year in year out, we’re bombarded enough scandal, intrigue and mystery and sex to make us think we’ve wandered into an Elmore Leonard novel, lest we forget that pro football is rarely about actual football-playing. Here are the men who keep the season as close to a three-ring circus as possible. God bless you all.

Ray Lewis, LB – Baltimore Ravens
---Maybe it’s just me, but that interview Lewis gave after the New England game was the most terrifying thing I’ve seen on TV all year. Without exaggeration, he looked like he was about to stab everyone in that locker room when discussing the penalty calls on his fellow defensemen. He gave off every crazy signal in the book short of spouting Ezekiel 25:17. If he had barged into Tom Brady’s press conference and beaten him to a pulp, I doubt anyone would have been remotely surprised.


Ice in his veins, malice in his heart: Ray “the Hitman” Lewis.





Rex Ryan, Head Coach – NY Jets
---First off: Dude. Put. The Twinkie. DOWN. That said, it’s hard not to love the guy who barged into the Meadowlands like he owned the place, talked smack right out of the gate and then put a team together that could back it up. Mark Sanchez has a tendency to play hot potato with the football, and that Saints loss was an overall failure on Gang Green’s part. But you’ve got to admire that fake punt call against Miami. That stuff is only supposed to happen in “Madden.” It takes a special kind of coach to actually try it out on national television.

Brett Favre, QB – Minnesota Vikings
---No. 4 has been a hot topic in the NFL for the last few years now; this year it’s for jumping ship to his archrivals of 16 years. Obviously, this isn’t the first time this has happened in sports. But after Favre unceremoniously dispatched the Packers, he unwittingly turned himself into one of the league’s most polarizing players. Even at 40, Favre will have success with the Vikings and he could damn well reach the Super Bowl with them. But unless Green Bay gets in an F-You game where Favre gets thumped at Lambeau, the Cheeseheads will never be able to forgive him and Favre may well be left without a home city when he finally does hang up his pads. Forget interesting, this story is becoming more of a Greek tragedy with every passing week.

TIE: Jerry Jones/Al Davis, Owners – Dallas Cowboys/Oakland Raiders
---These two are like the Batman and Joker of NFL owners: always in constant competition for who’s the bigger eccentric. It’s still too close to call. I’m pretty sure Jerry “What Recession?” Jones only has the better public image because he channels his crazy through the piles and piles of money he accumulates and not outlandish personnel machinations, which is why Dallas ended up with Cowboys Stadium and not a bizarre, eleventh-hour trade for Richard Seymour. Davis, meanwhile, is becoming more and more like Citizen Kane every day; he lords over his empire even as it crumbles around him, his “Just Win Baby” motto is no longer applicable or even appropriate given Oakland’s sorry state. Plus, his quarterback is an ungodly mess and his head coach beats up his own staff. Somebody stop him!

Brandon Jacobs, RB – NY Giants
---He should have more yards than he does, but that’s only because he prefers to slam into defenders like Optimus Prime instead of skirting them with quick cuts. The Jacobs Way is an entertaining but predictable game plan, and it’s admittedly worked better in the past than it is right now. But still, it’s been a while since a runningback seemed to base his play solely on “number of 300-pounders I’ve knocked into next week with a full-body charge.” Even big boy Albert Haynesworth looked like George of the Jungle hitting the tree when Jacobs cracked him in week 1. Now that's football, baby.

My first NFL post

I used to play football once upon a time, but since NYU has no team, I've channeled all my repressed energy into the NFL. I'm trying to get into sports writing a little more, so here's my first shot at an NFL post. I'll start with my own team: the New York Giants.

My boys just lost their second straight, which is what tends to happen when you fall asleep on the field in the 3rd quarter against a Super Bowl team from the previous year. Goodness gracious. I can see losing to the Saints, who will be in the Super Bowl barring an act of God or a hit on Drew Brees (my realistic pick for the Super Bowl right now is Saints/Colts). That team is unquestionably legit and is as close to the '07 Patriots as we're going to get this season. But the Cardinals? Certainly beatable, although nobody expected a cakewalk. This was a statement game for New York and they came out swinging early. But after a lethargic 3rd quarter it took the Giants too long to get their mojo back and the rust cost them two turnovers: one on Ahmad Bradshaw's fumble and the last on Eli Manning's pick in the final minutes, both of which came during important, and up till then, textbook, drives. Big Blue has the Eagles next week, a game that has me nervous to no end. On the one hand, Philly did just drop one to Oakland. But on the other hand, the Eagles knocked off the Giants in the playoffs last year, AND they hate the Giants to begin with, AND the NFC East is in kind of a tailspin right now, so the teams in it are going to be scrambling against each other to determine who's top dog. I'll never give up on my G-Men, but they've got more questions than answers at this point; they've got some tough games coming up that will show their true colors. This is still a playoff team, but they coasted for too long on gimme games and they need to get used to earning their wins again. I see a good, not great finish and a likely shot at the wild card spot and conference title, provided the next few games go well.

In other NFL news, Brett Favre finally got knocked off his 6-0 pedestal by the Steelers, who I had pegged as too inconsistent to slow down the stampeeding Vikings. Shows what I know. Favre goes to Lambeau next week to play Green Bay, a game even people who hate football might tune in to watch. Peyton Manning and the Colts devoured St. Louis 46-6, but Peyton did NOT throw his 6th consecutive 300-yarder, which analysts and talking heads are pegging as an act of mercy. But...the Rams still lost by 40, so I'm not sure if they'd exactly agree right now.

The Bengals destroyed the Bears in Cedric Benson's revenge game, and the Cowboys dominated Atlanta in Tony Romo's vindication game. The Patriots also murdered the Bucs in London, which is just what happens when Bill Belichick loses to his division rivals and former underling within 3 weeks: he hits the kill switch hard.

Speaking of which, Denver has a bye and the Jets beat up on Oakland, who finally switched quarterbacks to minimal effect (kudos to JaMarcus Russell for keeping his hat on and not sitting on the bench. If nothing else, he is certainly a professional with a lot of heart - it takes a lot of heart to get thumped on live TV and in the press week after week and still show up for more beatings). Mark Sanchez needed a pick-me-up game, and I'm sure the win feels good for a New York team that just dropped 3 in a row, but as any Giants fan can tell you, crushing the Raiders does little to prepare you for competitive games.