Toughest job in sports? Being a Jets fan
Jets fans cheer in the second half against the Bills at MetLife Stadium on Monday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
There’s an old saying that hitting a round ball with a round bat squarely is the toughest thing to do in sports. Maybe. Other pursuits have challenges, too, from the leg-buckling grind of distance running to the graceful strength of gymnasts to the ever-deepening range of NBA outside shooters.
As for football, there often are discussions on which positions are the most difficult to play. Some think it’s quarterback, with all the mental challenges and precision required, while others point to defensive backs, particularly in this era of the game when they essentially are shadow dancers to receivers, unable to inflict any of the contact they once did.
There’s one lower-profile candidate for the toughest job in all of sports, though, one that has been overlooked in plain sight for quite some time.
It’s being a Jets fan.
There is no gig that is as soul-sucking and mind-maddening and heartbreaking as pulling for the Green and White, and this past week provided the latest evidence for that claim. Mike Rowe could do a three-hour special on the masochism of the past few days alone.
It was almost payday for those who toil in this thankless pursuit, or so many people thought, when Aaron Rodgers elected to come to the Jets and lift the franchise to heights previously unimagined. But those who have worked the line long enough knew not to be sucked into the optimism and confidence that swelled to a pyrotechnic roar when the quarterback ran onto the field waving an American flag on Monday night.
Four plays later, it was all over.
That wasn’t the worst of it. Because then the Jets had to do something that was an insult to each and every person who has ever had even a passing interest in their success. They had to turn this otherwise championship-caliber team over to Zach Wilson.
It would have been bad enough to lose the Hall of Famer and then be asked to rely on some otherwise anonymous backup they knew nothing about. But no, that’s what would happen to fans of other teams. Fans who got to witness the births of Tom Brady and Kurt Warner and Brock Purdy from the ashes of a starter’s injury.
Jets fans have it worse. They now have to go crawling back to Wilson and feign self-preserving belief that the player whose performance last season was so pitiful, it literally necessitated the acquisition of Rodgers, the quarterback they booed mercilessly off the field last December in favor of CFL scrambler Chris Streveler, the smug and unlikable punk who lost the locker room and had his teammates run to the nearest warm body that happened to be Mike White . . . can keep this season afloat.
At least these Jets have a coach who seems to get what it’s like for the fans. His most quotable segment on “Hard Knocks” this summer referenced the “stink” the organization has had “for a very long time.” He smells it too.
“You can’t avoid the emotional rollercoaster that this game gives you,” Saleh said on Friday. “Everyone says you want to be even-keeled, but I think that is all coach speak.”
The players feel the dips just as much as the fans.
“I feel like we’ve been able to keep the main thing the main thing,” Sauce Gardner said Friday. “Of course it's not easy losing a guy like Aaron … It is a little strange [not having him in the locker room], I ain’t gonna lie. But things happen.”
To the Jets, they seem to happen almost annually.
Being a Jets fan isn't just being tethered to a team that loses. There are plenty of those. Rooting for the Jets is having your hopes yo-yoed to dizziness. It is pushing the button for the observation deck in the elevator of a building that doesn't have one. It's buying a Favre jersey because he'll be different only to swiftly replace it with a Sanchez one, then a Smith one, then a Darnold one, then a Wilson one, then a Rodgers one . . . and now having to buy a whole new Wilson one because you burned yours last year.
If there is an Animal House quote to sum up this coming season, it likely won’t be about Germans and Pearl Harbor. It’ll be “Thank you sir, may I have another?”
And if Wilson does exceed low expectations? Gosh, that’ll only make things even more dreadful. If the Jets somehow manage to defend and run and circumvent the overarching theory that this is a league driven by elite quarterback play to finally return to the playoffs, unless they win the Super Bowl, fans will be left wondering what might have been had Rodgers remained healthy. It’s a lens through which every loss this year will be scrutinized.
This was going to be the first time this century that the Jets were going to face the Patriots with a clear advantage at quarterback. That’s gone now. They have to go up against Kansas City and Philadelphia and their top-tier passers in the coming weeks. With Rodgers, getting into a high-scoring 30-something to 30-something game with those teams would have been at least enjoyable to watch. The Jets would have had a chance in them. Now it’s the worst-case scenario.
What about the Bills fans, you ask. Don’t they have a miserable existence too? Didn’t they just lose to the Jets?
Yes. Losing four straight Super Bowls, including one on a missed field goal as time expired, was terrible. And not having at least one Lombardi Trophy is pretty stinky for not only Buffalo but Cleveland and Detroit and other cursed franchises that have seen too many ungodly seasons to count. At least the Jets have one, right?
Wrong. That only compounds the misery, especially as the years go by and there are fewer and fewer fans who were alive to even remember it firsthand. It becomes the stuff of fable, not football. You could be a grandfather at the top of three generations of cognizant Jets fans right now in your late 50s to early 60s and have no living memory of the 1968 team that won it all.
Then to live in the same area as Giants fans, many of whom have four Super Bowl victories DVR’ed in their heads? Rough.
Surely there are baseball fans who have it worse?
Maybe. Cleveland. Seattle’s never even been to a World Series, much less won one. But at least that’s a long, drawn-out, day-to-day season. You can jump off the train at any bumpy point from April to October and then jump back on when the ride smooths out. Football doesn’t allow for such easy transferring. Every week your attendance is required no matter the record, no matter the circumstances, no matter the opponent. No matter the quarterback. It is an all-in or all-out relationship with the team of your choice.
Nope, being a Jets fan is the toughest task in sports. It’s not for the soft or the weak or those who desire instant compensation for their toil. It is a drudgery unlike any other pursuit, particularly in times such as these when the sludge is rising and the skies are darkening and the quarterback who was supposed to make it all worthwhile is off listening to dolphins do whatever it is they do.
And in the background of all this angst and agita? The Jets are 1-0 thanks to a thrilling comeback overtime win. That victory was a temporary balm, though. Jets fans have seen those before, too. They have no fear of the Pyrrhic victory.
Raise a glass in cheers and respect, then, for these soldiers of misfortune who trudge into every game chanting the letters of their favorite team. No matter how awful things get, Jets fans are always on time for their next shift, always ready to face whatever unlikely inanity is hurled at them. There is dignity in their despair and value in their valor.
In a sick way, it’s what makes it so compelling to watch them watching the Jets.
It’s not fair to say of Jets fans that ‘'they wouldn’t want it any other way.’' Of course they would. And they thought this year, more than most, it would be another way.
It just probably won’t be now.
Jets fans understand that as just part of the job.
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.
