Open Letter by a Jet fan to the Football Gods

[dalers2k]

Any long time Jet fans could have written this. I know I could have. If you are a Jet fan you might enjoy this letter .....or it might be painful.....read at your own risk.


An Open Letter to the Football Gods

January 17, 2011 by nyysports



I have been a Jet fan for all my life. I could have been a Giant fan, Patriot fan, or even a lowly Dolphin fan. However, I am a fan of the New York Jets. I’m sure all Jet fans would agree with me when I say we have been more than a futile franchise. After winning the Super Bowl in 1969, we have only averaged less than one playoff win every three seasons. We’ve had three conference championship appearances before this season, and we’ve lost every one of them in dramatic, heartbreaking fashion. There is only so much one fanbase can take.
After eleven years out of the playoffs, things started to go good for us in the 80s. Richard Todd and Ken O’Brein were decent enough quarterbacks. We passed on Dan Marino, but that’s ok. He didn’t win a title either. We made the playoffs four times that decade, but we only managed to put together three playoff wins. Two of those wins came en route to an AFC title game against the Dolphins. Yeah, we got shutout that game, 14-0.
Then came the 90s. From 1987-1997, we made the playoffs one time. Heck, in 1996 we went 1-15. We screwed up the draft just about every year too, even passing on Warren Sapp for Kyle Brady. But something weird happened in 1997. Under a man named Bill Parcells, this 1-15 team from 1996 won nine games the following seasons. For the first time since 1986 we finally had a respectable team.
The next year we won twelve games and our first division title in thirty years. After crushing the Jaguars in the divisional round after a bye, we took our talents to Denver for a showdown with John Elway. You already know the story. The best Jets team since the Namath Era blew a 10-0 lead and was sent home as Elway ended up wining the Super Bowl.
After an 8-8 season under Parcells, Al Groh took over in 2000. Besides the Monday Night Miracle, nothing of significance happened as the Dolphins won the division over our 9-7 team. Groh left the following offseason and was replaced by Herm Edwards. We won ten games in 2001, but lost to the Raiders in the first round. After a 1-4 start in 2002, Chad Pennington took over for Vinny Testaverde in the middle of the fifth game. They’d go on to lose the game, but we’d win eight of our last eleven to win the division. After beating Peyton Manning and the Colts 41-0, we lost to the Raiders again in the divisional round.
After a down season (6-10) in 2003, we bounced back in 2004 and made the playoffs at 10-6. After a win against the Chargers, Jet fans suffered an unimaginable defeat to the Steelers in the divisional round. The name Doug Brien still haunts Jet fans to this day. The next four years were crazy. Spygate, Eric Mangini, Kellen Clemens, Brett Favre, the Wildcat, Super Bowl 42, etc. It all cumulated in a former defensive coordinator from Baltimore being named the head coach of the Jets. Rex Ryan.
Honestly, I wasn’t even sure if I wanted Eric Mangini fired. I thought the franchise was lost and no one could help at this point. I wanted a young, energetic coach that could get in your face and develop a unique style of football. I didn’t want an old man like Rex looked that would probably play a boring style of football. Well, that all changed with his first press conference. I was wrong. I had found the coach I’d been looking for all this time.
Rex changed the culture of the team immediately. He built a disciplined team that played “Jets football”. What is Jets football? Just watch one of our games and you will find out. Not only did Ryan change the culture, he was aggressive in bringing in star names such as Mark Sanchez. Unfortunately, the team got off to a slow start that put the 2009-2010 playoffs in serious doubt.
After declaring the Jets “out of the playoffs”, Rex and the gang won their last two to make the playoffs. After this, people started the claim the Jets got lucky and didn’t deserve to be in the playoffs. The charge was led by WFAN’s Mike Francesca, who began to handwave so called “classless” Jet fans. Big Mike even forbid anyone even remotely related to the Jets from coming on his show.
Despite the hate, the Jets won two straight playoff games on the road before being eliminated again in the AFC title game against the Colts after once more holding a lead at halftime. Despite the loss, the Jets had changed their culture. The momentum continued into the offseason, as the Jets landed big names and starred in HBO’s reality show Hard Knocks. The 2010 season was our best since 1998, as we won eleven games for only the fourth time in franchise history. After two more shocking upsets on the road in Indianapolis and New England, the Jets once again find themselves in the AFC Championship game. This time it’s in Pittsburgh.
All Jet fans ask for is one year. We haven’t been to the Super Bowl in over forty years. We’ve been waiting a lifetime for one break to go our way. We have the team this year, but we’ve had the same quality team in other years as well. Some fans believe that we’ll never win the Super Bowl, but for me there is hope. We’re two wins away from reaching our ultimate goal, but I’ll take a win on Sunday for now.

A cautiously optimistic lifelong Jet fan,

- Nick

[QuadzillaXXX]

when i see a fan write a letter in hopes it'll help their team i always think loser lol

any fan, doesn't matter what team or sport, if you actually sit down to write out a letter or make a youtube video or whatever like that, you are a douche

[Sweetleaf22]