The Jets Finally Have Hope
It's impossible to understand if you aren't a fan of a dismal franchise. A win against the Jacoby Brissett-led Cleveland Browns should not be reason to celebrate. You can make a case that since they were given an expansion team in 1999, the Browns have been the worst team in North American professional sports.
Someone can look at the Jets upcoming schedule and predict that people will have already attended Halloween parties before they win again.
9/25 Bengals
10/2 @ Steelers
10/9 Dolphins
10/16 @ Packers
10/23 @ Broncos
10/30 Patriots
11/6 Bills
I am sure the Jets will be the underdog in all of those games. Guessing that the Patriots game is the most winnable game of that slate (although as I type this, the Bengals look impossibly bad).
When the team you root for hasn't made the playoffs in a dozen years, none of that shit matters when you win a early season game. The last time the Jets made the playoffs, Obama was in his first term. It's been a long fucking time. Jets fans are desperate for anything positive.
Things happened in that that game that don't happen to the Jets. A recovered onside kick? The top 10 draft pick isn't a bust and instead makes two TD catches? Two rookies leave the game due to injury…and actually return? Joe Flacco throws 4 TD's and no INT? Joe Flacco hadn't won an NFL game since before the pandemic. I'm so inclined to expect the worst, I tweeted this during the game:
When everything goes bad for so long, you come to always expect the worst. As Jets fans, it's all we've known for many years. Adam Gase. Geno Smith. John Idzik. Christian Hackenberg. It's not a litany of almost or just misses. It's just constant beatdowns and 4-12 seasons. When your team gets 9 or 10 wins and sneaks into the playoffs, you can trick yourself into thinking you have a shot. I did it myself with the Jets in the first decade of the century. If Chad Pennington does this or that, MAYBE the Jets can get past the Raiders or the Steelers. You can believe anything if you try hard enough.
That hasn't been the case over the last decade. You can allow yourself to get excited about a draft or a free agent acquisition but once the season starts, reality walks into the room and the season is over before you can turn the calendar to October.
One day, the Jets will win a Super Bowl. It will mean so much more to people than if the Patriots or Giants or Steelers win again. Those fan bases will never understand how great it will feel. Look at those old Red Sox and Cubs fans when those teams finally won titles. You can't have the sweet without the sour. You don't think Andy Dufresne enjoys his freedom more than the rest of us?