Ramblings from Jets Rehab

That's right: even considering the Jets long suffering history, which is filled with painful losses, Sunday's 24-19 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers ranks as the most painful. Yes, I am a Long Suffering Jets fan, and I have suffered longer and harder than most people I know - certainly more so than the recent wave of bandwagon fans who don't remember the 1970's during which they didn't have a single winning season, or the 80's when they gave us our first glimmers of false hope, or the 1990's, the era of the Fake Snap and the Mile High Meltdown. No, this most recent loss is the Loss to End All Losses, because this is the year we were supposed to win it all.

All the signs pointed to the Jets being a team of destiny. The opening of a new stadium helped to bury the past and remove all inklings of being second-class citizens. The overexposure, starting with HBO Hard Knocks, which documented a pre-season laced with F-bombs and rife with worry over the contract holdout of the Jets' best and most important player. The polarizing influence of their loudmouth coach and his band of renegades, which includes a pot-smoking Super Bowl MVP, a drunkard wide receiver and a cornerback who has fathered more children (9) by more women (8) in more states (6) than he has had interceptions in each of the past two seasons (3). Like the 1985 Bears (whose defensive coach was Rex Ryan's father, Buddy) this year's Jets were a team that was easy to hate and even easier to love if you already loved them (couldn't you just see them doing a Super Bowl Shuffle video?). But unlike that Bears team, these jets also had the "nobody believed in us" factor working for them. Because of their history and their erratic sophomore QB; because their coach seemed to have a lot more of bluster than skill; because they couldn't beat any quality teams during the season (struggling to get by such NFL dregs Detroit and Cleveland), it was easy to dismiss the Jets as serious Super Bowl contenders. And that made it easier for a diehard like me to believe in them.

This was our year. Last year we were glad to be there; we were playing with house money. Nobody expected us to be there (with the obvious exception of our eternally optimistic head coach). Last year was a dress rehearsal. This was the year we were supposed to do it. We were better than last year. We bought in a Super Bowl MVP to make the offense more explosive, and a lockdown cornerback to shore up the D. We brought in two future Hall of Famers, one on each side of the ball, both ready to make a final run at an elusive title. They brought with them a high degree of class and character, much needed in the Jets' raucous locker room. The Jets were seasoned, hardened by their 2010 playoff run. They players were hungrier because they had had a taste. And we fans believed in them like never before.

This was the year we got over the hump. Went into the House of Manning and came out on top, avenging the 2010 AFC Championship loss. We beat Brady and Belichick in their own backyard, outplaying them in every facet of the game when it was all on the line, and finally exorcising the demons that have haunted us since Belichick's 24-hour tenure as Head Coach. After that victory, nothing could stop us -- or so we thought. The Jets were on the road to glory, and a loss to the Steelers just wasn't the logical next step.

It all adds up to the most crushing football loss in my life. Being a Jets fan, that says a lot. Take a look at a sampling of heartbreak from the past thirty years:

5. January 23, 1983 : Dolphins 14, Jets 0. This was early in my life as a Jets fan. I was young and oblivious to the disappointment to come. But even then I had a healthy hatred for the Dolphins, our natural rival, and couldn't tolerate the thought of them getting in the way of a Super Bowl berth. In a game that will go down in history as the Mud Bowl, Richard Todd threw five interceptions and the Jets were never really in it. Dolphins linebacker AJ Duhe had three interceptions, one of which he returned for a touchdown that all but settled it. It was my first bitter taste of playoff disappointment.

4. January 17, 1999, AFC Championship Game: Denver 27, Jets 10. This game reminds me of last year's championship game because at one point, the Jets were seemingly less than 30 minutes away from a Super Bowl bid. After Blake Spence blocked a punt and recovered it in the end zone, giving the Jets a 10-0 lead, I got a phone call from my good friend Tad, another diehard Jets fan. I remember us celebrating the lead and him saying "the Jets are going to the Super Bowl," before hanging up the phone. No sooner did that happen then John Elway and Terrell Davis woke up and hit us with a barrage of yards and points and before we knew it, our hopes were dashed. The "wait 'til next year" conversation ended on opening day of the next season when QB Vinnie Testaverde blew out his Achilles.

3. Saturday January 15, 2005 : AFC Divisional Playoffs: Steelers 20, Jets 17 (OT). The Rothelisberger Era should have never happened. The Jets frustrated and confused the rookie QB throughout the game, and had two chances to end it in regulation. But Doug Brien missed two potential game-winning field goals -one with two minutes remaining and the other at the end of regulation- and the Steelers won it in overtime. For reasons I won't go into here, this was one of the worst days of my life - not as a sports fan, but as a human being. And that's all I have to say about that.

2. Sunday, January 3, 1987 : AFC Divisional Playoffs: Cleveland 23, Jets 20 (2OT). I was so emotionally spent after this one, I cried inconsolably for ten minutes. Going into a week 12 Monday Night Football matchup with the Dolphins that season, the Jets were riding high with a 10-1 record. For the first time I can remember, there was realistic talk of a Jets-Giants Super Bowl. But Miami demolished the Jets 45-3, the Jets lost the rest of their regular season games, and they were clearly reeling as they backed into the playoffs. They recovered in time for an opening round win 35-15 against the Chiefs and were in control against the Browns, leading by ten points with four minutes remaining. The details are sketchy in my mind, but the Browns somehow came back and tied it, and actually had a chance to win it in regulation. They had the ball inside the five yard line with seven seconds remaining but opted for the field goal to send it into overtime. I almost they had gone for the touchdown and gotten it to end the game in regulation, because the two overtimes were excruciating. It's important to note that the Browns went on to lose the AFC title game for the second year in a row - an accomplishment that hadn't been duplicated until...

1. Sunday, January 23, 2011: AFC Championship: Steelers 24, Jets 19. I didn't cry after this one because I am older, wiser and hardened by the disappointments of the past. But it was simply a crusher like no other. All I want to do is forget it ever happened. Forget how Willie Parker looked like a man among boys as he ran through the Jets' feeble arm tackles. The Jets vaunted defense has hung its hat on its ability to stop the run and then confuse QBs with complex blitzes and coverage schemes in passing situations. But they were never able to do that on Sunday because the Steelers ran the ball down their throats from the very start. And when they had the chance to execute their game plan, Big Ben looked like Michael Vick as he shredded the defense with nimble scrambling.

I want to forget how the offensive game plan didn't exploit the Jets' one clear advantage - their wide receivers versus the Steelers secondary. How nether of the two guys they brought in to electrify the offense touched the ball in the first half - or even came close. I don't want to try to figure out how the Jets forgot that they were a "ground and pound" team and decided to pass the ball - TWICE - when they only needed one yard to get back in the game. I don't want to know why they didn't attempt an onsides kick after cutting the lead to five with three minutes left (what really did they have to lose, field position? Give me a break).

What makes this year that much worse than the others is that, not only was this their best chance yet, but there is no guarantee that they will have the opportunity to make another run with this unit. Their nucleus is pretty much young and intact (Revis, Sanchez, Mangold, Brick), but no less than 12 key players are free agents, and financial considerations pretty much guarantee that not all of them will return. There is labor uncertainty in the NFL. Most people in the know believe there will be a lockout, and extreme pessimists wonder if there will even be a 2011 season. Losses like these are emotionally debilitating and can negatively affect a team's psyche, so there is no assurance that this unit will be as hungry as it once was. And even if they do come back hungrier, every NFL team is always one freak injury away from having their hopes dashed (see #4 above). No, this was the year it was supposed to happen. And as I struggle through the five stages of grief, I don't see a silver lining. All I can see is that pretty soon, Rex Ryan's Super Bowl proclamations will start to ring hollow. And when they do, he will be run out of town and we will have to start all over. And that will leave us Jets fans in an all too familiar place:

Suffering.