Being Jets-green in a Giants-blue town

According to the Most Valuable Player of Super Bowl XLII, Hoboken resident and New York Giants Quarterback Eli Manning, “losing hurts.”
If there’s any doubt, just ask the New York Jets, who lost eight times in the 16-week 2011-2012 season. Or just ask their poor fans, who for the last several weeks have had to endure an excruciating post-season without an appearance from their grounded team, followed by an almost story-book win streak by the other home NFL franchise.
It takes a special fan to support a team that coulda-shoulda-woulda, but year after year…doesn’t. And it takes a really special fan to perpetually support the losing team in a two-team town, especially when that “other” golden team is making a run for the championship – again. What must it be like to be a Mets fan, when the Yankees are in the World Series? What’s it like to be wearing Jets green on a weekend when everyone else seems to be part of the Big Blue Wrecking Crew?

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It takes a special fan to support a team that coulda-shoulda-woulda, but year after year… doesn’t.
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“I’ll actually be going to my parents’ place in Vermont to help my mother clean out my grandmother’s home,” said Jersey City resident Tom Swail, a longtime Jets fan. “My grandmother died last year and my mother wants to put her house up for sale. There’s no TV at the house. So, I’ll be avoiding the Super Bowl altogether. Ordinarily, this is a chore I’d avoid, or try to put off as long as I can. But when my mom suggested this weekend, I thought, ‘Yeah, that’ll be a good way to avoid the whole Giants weekend.’”
Swail, who said he became a Jets fan while attending New York University and, later, Rutgers University for undergrad and law school, admits he still won’t be able to avoid the Super Bowl hype. Many people in his family and hometown are New England Patriots fans.

Hard weekend for Jets fans

“But at least I’ll be able to get away from all my friends who are rooting for the Giants and [who] keep making really annoying comments about the Jets not making the playoffs,” said Swail.
“I’ve been invited to three or four Super Bowl parties. But I know everybody at these parties is going to be Giants fans. I’ll probably just stay home Sunday,” said Jersey City native Nick Castelli, another Jets fan. “I’d probably go if we had at least been in the playoffs, or if we had a better [season] record. But I know all my friends are just going to give me s–t ’cause we did so badly this year.”
Like a few others interviewed, Castelli said much of the pain of seeing the Giants in XLVI has to do with the pre-season belief that the Jets would have an impressive winning record this year, one that might have even been capped off with a trip to the division championships.
But no, 8-8 was all the team could muster. Hardly a reason to hold one’s head high as the Giants take the field Sunday night.
“I refuse to subject myself to any punishment from my family. They’re all Giants fans,” said Hoboken resident Robert Tyree. As both a Jets and New York Mets fan, Tyree admits, “I know a lot about punishment. My teams choke every year like a cheap used car. I will be going to a Super Bowl party. I plan to have a good time. I got a big mouth. I got a mouth like [Jets head coach] Rex Ryan. I can handle myself if anyone gives me [crap] about my team.”
But not everyone is so brave. Jets fan Mindy Clark, who recently moved to Hoboken from East Rutherford, said she’ll be going to a sports bar Sunday to watch the Super Bowl with some friends – but “I plan to remain in the closet! Most of the people I’ll be with probably don’t know I’m a big Jets fan, and I won’t go out of my way to tell them.”
Clark’s boyfriend, Kyle Thomas of North Bergen, said he plans a similar strategy.
“Yeah, we’ll just keep that under the lid. No need to tell everybody [I’m a Jets fan] just so they can ask me what happened to the team this season,” he said.
“Honestly, I don’t really mind that the Jets aren’t in the Super Bowl,” said Kelly Kist, also of North Bergen. “Honestly, I didn’t really think this was going to be ‘their year’ to get to the Super Bowl anyway. But I remember when the Giants went a few years ago. And…there is this feeling of being that dateless kid at the high school dance or, you know, being the last one picked for the soccer team. I did feel a little left out.”
But, like losing, it only hurts for a little while.
“In a few weeks, nobody will still be talking about the Super Bowl,” said Kist. “One team will win. One team will lose. And we’ll all be talking about something else.”
As for who all these Jets fans hope will win, not one wanted to see the Pats get another W – but they all stopped a little short of saying they were rooting for the Boys in Blue.
E-mail E. Assata Wright at awright@hudsonreporter.com.