N.Y. JETS ~ RESPECT; There's Your Angle

N.Y. JETS:  TAKE TWO

NEW YORK JETS:  When They Knocked on RESPECT's Door It Didn't Answer.  So, Bart Scott Knocked It Down.

BUT FIRST:  Let's you (Jet fan) and I (Giant fan)....Talk.

As a Giants fan, I think I've been playing it down the middle in treating your team's quest towards a Super Bowl.  And if you're a Jets fan, I think I've been writing stuff a fan of the Jets might want to read and enjoy.  I will tell you I've had a ball with some of the nonsense I've come up with.  I'm just a fan like you, trying to have a little fun with our local teams.

Am I a "FAN" of the Jets?  Like you?  Hell no!  Right?  That would be Insulting and Disrespectful to you. But I will tell you what I am.  I'm a native N.Y.er who saw Joe Namath's last year here and who has watched every game on every "Sunday" (like my Giants) ever since.  I hate all your division rivals because of you, to include the Colts.  I despise the Dolphins!  And watching the Jets lose to them in the Mud Bowl AFC Championship Game back in the day was depressing.  I hated the Bills because of you even before Super Bowl XXV (for me).  I used to hate the Patriots with you too.  But sorry, I don't any more since the Parcells/Belichick link.  I still like Belichick.  But in the lead-ups to the Big Games against them,  I still think I did you guys right and kept faithful to the hometown spin.  Colts?  Yea I hate them also for a long time because they used to be in the Jets' division once.  I hated the old and new Browns for you guys too, because that's what you did watching Jet games.

With the obvious Parcells/Bleichick link again, I rooted hard for V-V-Vinny and the JETS against the Broncos during that Championship Game.  From Joe Klecko and Freeman McNeil all the way through Curtis Martin, Keyshawn and Chrebet..and into the present day, the Jets have been cool with me.  C'mon, as a Mets, Rangers, Knicks fan, we all know what the pain of Almost, Hardly, and Never feels like.

I even have a couple of stacks of newspapers building up in my cave just in case you guys do win the Super Bowl, because I'll stay up countless nights making a scrapbook out of it (but I do that with a lot of our locals whether I am a fan or not).   I only HATE the Islanders.  But I like to HATE-ON the Yankees too (but that's a different animal).

However, recently,  many of you Jets fans have gotten out of control with your derisive treatment of Giants fans these last few years.  It started when Brett Fvarebvravrevara came to town.  Me?   I'm a, whatever Dude (but maybe that's only my side of the coin?).  I'm a secure Giants fan and don't get bent out of shape other than by my own team.  But I say the better our local teams are, the more better and more enjoyable for everyone, one way or another.  The Jets have certainly given me something fun to work with for sure.  However, for the first time EVER (!), a Jets fan actually pissed me off this year - Not in this blog;  but in life, with his pomposity.  But you guys know some of your fan base are out of control; and perhaps deservedly so.   Sooooo...., Live it up!   We may not have been any better in '07 during our run.  You can be judge.  But, I won't let a few bad Green-Apple Jet fans make me lose my respect for the majority or your team.  Now how's that for being square with you? 

So...To the Victors go the Spoils of PIGSKIN.  I'm down with that.  Just as long as we all understand each-other I think respect will continue to rule the day.  But I speak for myself, and this is what you'll get from me.  Why go there?  Because Bart Scott went there!  Because I'm feeling the heat that man was generating after the Patriots game!

The spoils of the Jets' latest conquest in Foxborough weren't quite what Bart Scott and Coach Rex had in mind; not quite..  Yes, the Jets are going back to the AFC Championship Game after great winning efforts over the Colts and Pats, and by doing it on the road.  But now that the Jets have bullied themselves all the way back to the Big Game again, the NFL was forced to scurry and find an open stationary store and buy a Hallmark Card so as to invite and welcome them to the Final Four Production when it seemed everyone had other plans.

The Jets have returned to the Conference Championship Game but discovered a profound lack of respect when they arrived..

So thinking back on that game in New England....  After beating the Patriots in Foxborough, the Jets turned the field into a riotous scene of overt celebration; GangGreen style.  Having someone else dance on your grass like that is both humbling and humiliating.  But Patriot players exiting the field knew to leave well-enough alone.  What? To the Victor go the Spoils, right?  If that's the way the Jets wanted to savor their moment, so be it. Kudos to the Jets for turning Foxborough into something right out of the old Palladium on 14th Street after the final whistle.  In the Age of the No Fun League, you can't get a flag thrown at you when the game is over.  It was as if they were waving a prideful finger at everybody in Foxborough not dressed in Green in response to the major lack of respect with which they've been treated along the way.

What you saw on the field, some might call defiant, riotous jubilation.  But what you should be taking away from that scene is the message; the more they are disrespected, that harder they come back.  The message the Jets were trying to send didn't stop when the clock struck zero.  They continued to deliver their message all the way off the field, through the tunnels, into the locker-room, on the bus and on the plane ride back home.  They told every Expert, Beat-Writer, Dot.Com'er, Prognosticator, Commentator, Opinionator, Vegas Liquidator, Handicapper, Sooth-Sayer, Nay-Sayer, Radio-Talker, Blogger, Editor, News-Hawker, SportsCenter Gawker, in the country to stick IT where only your Mother, Mate or Doctor is willing to venture.

They belonged here and proved it.  How dare you invite them.  This is no longer about REXorcising Demons named Peyton or about getting Revenge against the Mighty Bill Belichick, Brady and the Patriots.  No, instead this is now about feeling insulted.  To a Man; there's almost nothing more disrespectful than that.

So, the N.Y. Jets took their invitation to the AFC Championship Game, tossed it in the dirt, stomped on it, ripped it into little pieces, and threw it back in the face of the NFL.

If respect is won on the field, then all that's left for the Jets is to play the game.  It's clear the Jets and Steelers are not getting into a war of words like the Jets did last week against New England.  Instead, this week's pillow fight lacked the sizzle of last weeks lead-in, but the game itself will be far more intense.  Make no mistake this game will be far more physical and brutally punishing for both teams.

Respect comes with a price.

"CAN'T WAIT!"

I just can't get enough of this!




Mike.BTB