New York is the Jets' town now, as Dalvin Cook joins the fun
Jets wide receiver Garrett Wilson celebrates after a long gain against the Minnesota Vikings at U.S. Bank Stadium on Dec. 4, 2022, in Minneapolis. Credit: TNS/Adam Bettcher
We live in a world that would have seemed preposterous just a few short months ago.
It’s a world where New York sports is littered with shattered dreams and shattered teams, where nearly every glance in any direction is met with despair, disappointment or, worse, apathy. But it’s also one where a lone light shines bright from previously neglected regions to provide us with hope, to show us that all is not lost.
The Jets, of all teams, have become that beacon.
The Jets, the team of butt fumbles and fake spikes and mud bowls and a long list of other indignities, are now New York’s best contender for breaking the city’s too-long title drought.
Even more significantly, they may be the only interesting team left in town.
Imagine that!
Baseball season has been wrecked by the dismantling of the hard-to-watch Mets and the swooning of the last-place Yankees. Basketball and hockey seasons are still far off and, quite frankly, not promising propositions for any of the locals. We have the Liberty, in second place in the WNBA and chasing the Las Vegas Aces. We have the Giants, a returning playoff team that has, by design it seems, all the charisma of cardboard. Rooting for them is fine, being entertained and excited by them is nearly impossible. For a few days we had the Massapequa Little League softball team whose glory was sure and fun, but their quest has already been completed.
That leaves us — our sports psyches, our daily back pages, our pair of 24-hour all-sports radio stations, our countless fan sites and forums and fantasy leagues, our barstools and water coolers — with only one real option to fill our thoughts and raise our hopes.
It’s absurd to even write it out. It’s the J-E-T-S.
Somehow, someway, the bumblers have become the torchbearers. Just as Gatsby once stared longingly at that green bulb across the harbor, so too do we now gaze toward this emerald lamp that represents joy and fulfillment.
It’s become almost impossible to look away from their sparkly new quarterback, Aaron Rodgers, as he pilots them through this new existence. It’s incredible to watch their dominant defensive front destroy would-be blockers. Seeing Sauce Gardner and Garrett Wilson on the field feels like watching the beginnings of what can become sustained and long-term greatness.
And now they’ve gone and made themselves a whole lot more fascinating — and probably better — by agreeing to terms with four-time Pro Bowl running back Dalvin Cook on Monday night.
It’s a one-year deal so they’ve basically hired themselves a temp to fill in until Breece Hall can completely recover from his ACL surgery and then, with any luck, have the two of them splitting reps in the second half of the season and throughout the playoffs. There was no mortgaging of the future, no squeezing cents under the salary cap with this one. There aren’t even any long-term goals. They are simply renting a really good player for a year and hoping it pushes them closer to a Super Bowl.
Even the mechanics of the acquisition were dramatic. Two weeks ago, Cook came to watch practice and meet with the team and then walked away, and many believed he had just used the Jets and their interest to leverage a deal with the Dolphins. Nope. Turns out Cook was legitimately interested in playing in New York, in playing for what has become the biggest story in New York.
There are still many, many weeks to go before we find out if all of these moves will, in fact, lift the Jets to their first championship since the 1968 season. But that just means there are many storylines that will fill the vacuums left by baseball and the other sports.
Consider all that should and could take place on Sept. 11 at MetLife Stadium when the Jets host the Bills in the Monday Night Football opener.
It will be Rodgers’ debut for the Jets.
It will be a clash between Cook and his younger brother James Cook, the running back for Buffalo.
It could be the return of Damar Hamlin to regular-season football.
It might be the return of future Hall of Famer Von Miller to the Bills’ pass rush.
It’s a game that could eventually weigh heavily in deciding the AFC East title, which decides home-field advantages in the playoffs, which has long been a key to reaching the big game in February.
And that’s just Week 1! In Week 2 the Jets play the Cowboys. Week 3, the Patriots!
Buckle up, New York. This is the Jets’ town now.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
