Was born and raised to Kansas City. Was never a big Chiefs fan as a kid, always kept an eye on the Jets. Along as an adult, I liked Parcels and became a fan during his reign, and stayed. Always, admired Namath.
I was 11 years old, my pop sat me down in front of the tube, and said we are watching the super bowl...Jets 16 colts 7.....every year after that i have been a Jets fan. Namath was my hero....i'VE BEEN BLEEDING JET GREEN EVER SINCE!......i WILL ALWAYS BELIEVE IN US!................Go Jets!.........And Joe Klecko has been the closest thing to joe Willie since.......if only John Riggins had stayed!
Since I was a little boy and namath was all over the Tv i have been a fan. He was By far the coolest football player of that time. Since then we have had some brite spots , freeman mcneal,the ny sack exchange,toon,walker. Not all gloom.
I was 9 years old and first started watching the Jets late during the 1980 season. I remember the upset win over Houston at Shea. I can remember flashes of the Rams loss the following week and observing the California sunshine on TV lighting up our living room on a dark dreary afternoon in NY. I also remember the Saints game at Shea being blacked out and watching an update with Bryant Gumbel saying ' And the New York Jets have done something this year that no other team has been able to do - LOSE to the New Orleans Saints'.....the following summer (1981) I saw a commerical on Channel 5 advertising the first exhibition game between the Jets and Broncos. That's when I fell in love. Maybe it was the green uniforms. I listened to the Jets blow out Denver on the radio that night (dont remember why no TV) and telling my father excitedly how the Jets were winning 33-7. He chuckled and rolled his eyes. My first heartbreak was the wildcard loss to Buffalo later that year. Moments after the Joe Simpson INT to end the Jets comeback I stared out the window watching the rain fall with a lump in my throat too upset to talk. My father telling me (I wouldn't even turn around to look at him) how the Jets were on the right path and their poor start that season cost them first place and they would be much better 'next year'....... 30 years later not much has changed......
I only started watching football this past year. I'm a big hockey fan (Canadian, what can I say?) and thought football was pretty boring, only watched the Super Bowl every year. Then after the Packers won it last year I decided I was going to take up watching it, learn the rules and see if I like it. I do. A lot. Don't even find hockey as exciting as I used to. Although I'll admit I have a lot to learn about football. I can't really explain how I ended up cheering for the Jets but it just felt right and, for better or worse, now I'm a Jets fan for life. I also went to my first game this year, it was the Jets in Buffalo (closest team to me) in November. So my first game was a Jets win at least. It's definitely interesting to see some people on here who have lived it for decades when I'm so new to the scene. Any advice for a newbie? Other than "get out while you still can" that is :wink:
my earliest jets memory is an adrian murrell td in Arizona to put the jets up for good in our lone win of the 1996 season....hooked ever since... FML I really wish my dad had explained to me that his exuberance was pure sarcasm. Kids just dont get that shit....
By the way crazy trend-- most people became a fan at 9, and in the darkest years of the franchise (86-96)....actually makes sense. 9 yrs old is when u develop ur messed up sadistic side.
I became a fan when we signed Joe Willie Namath, my dad and I went to see the Jets and the Bills in Buffalo at the "old rockpile" War Memorial stadium .... Have bled Green and White ever since ... So that was 1965 ... I was 7
I'm a little older than you. I remember that Buffalo game well. I never went from euphoria and a sure comeback win (down 34-13 late in the 3rd) to depression so quickly in my life as after that interception.
Those days are long gone though. There has never been a better time in my lifetime to be a Jet fan than w/ this current era.
I remember I started watching games for the first time when Chrebet started playing. But the first season I actually paid attention to week in and week out was the 2000 season.
I loved that season, it was the first time I ever saw the Jets good--meaning over 500 and in the playoffs. From 1974 to that point 8-8 was the best we could do, and the 0-3 start made it look like nothing would be different, then they went on that run, fueled by the NY Sack Exchange. I was at that game, my first trip home from college, September of freshman year. Coming off a 31-0 opening day loss to the Raiders, that game was the beginning of the Toooooon chant, and a big day for Freeman McNeil.
Strange as it is, I remembered we opened 1981 with a 31-0 road loss at Buffalo so I knew even then we could still be good. Those two seasons were very similar, clinched the Wild Card with a home win in the final week, then a frustrating home playoff loss to a division rival we had beaten at home earlier.
Hey Italian Seafood....years later in 1993 I met Kerry Glenn and Marvin Jones at a draft party in a now defunct South Florida bar which was owned at the time by a Dolphins RB named Mark Higgs. Unlike Jones, Glenn seemed friendly and I brought up that 1985 games vs the Bills because I remembered him intercepting Vince Ferragamo and running it back for a TD. His eyes lit up and he was like 'WOW...that's right'....he walked me around the entire bar with his arm draped around me telling everybody I remembered his first ever TD. The next weekend was Easter and I bet he sat at the dinner table telling his entire family the story. I bet he still remembers today too....
That's a great story. There are so many football players and so many things happen that most people forget them all after a while. So when someone remembers it has to be cool for those guys. I mentioned my friend played in the league, he scored one TD in his 8-year career--he was a LB, it was a tipped-pass INT off Jeff George. We were talking on Facebook, I told him I was at a wedding and never got to see the play, asked him if he had a video to post. He said he has it saved on a VHS tape but nothing to upload, it dawned on me that only a handful of people in the world even remember it ever happened.
