Getty An injured Mike White exits the field after a New York Jets loss on November 4, 2021.
There seem to be two contingents of New York Jets fans right now.
The more optimistic half that sees a bright future in the core that was promised — Joe Douglas, Robert Saleh, Zach Wilson and company — and the more realistic half that’s sick and tired of losing, and will get behind whoever and whatever wins them football games.
I hope I don’t offend anyone in that analogy and I say it knowing full well that I identify with the half glass full side that is willing to wait on the growth of Wilson and the youth because I believe that long-term potential is greater. I also feel like I understand the other side and the fan that’s been beaten down by Jets misery for decades, or even the half-century crowd.
Let me be clear here, there is no right or wrong here. We all want the same thing as fans and at the end of the day, if we do reach the top of the mountain no one will care how we got there, but there does seem to be a strong difference in opinions at this time.
Having said that, there’s one thing Jets fans can always agree on. It’s not easy being us, and it’s not often we catch a break from the mythical “football gods.”
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Why Can’t the Jets Have Nice Things?
Whether you’re a Mike White fan or a Wilson one, or you really don’t care who the quarterback is, it was nice to feel a different mood surrounding the franchise entering the Thursday night game. Hope is a fleeting emotion within this organization but the Week 8 upset brought some back — if only for a moment.
A White injury and another primetime debacle quickly snuffed that feeling out, however, and NFL Network host Rich Eisen spoke for all Jets fans in a rant for the ages.
After recapping the start of the game, Eisen broke down White’s touchdown pass to Elijah Moore and this is where the monologue really started getting good.
Maybe that upside is showing for Mike White and I’m sitting there thinking what you guys are thinking… I don’t care, I’m sick and tired of getting my brains beaten in. I’m sick and tired of it. I’m sick and tired of a 50-burger loss to the Patriots and getting swept by them while their rookie quarterback looks like Tom Brady. I’m sick and tired of all the jokes and the butts of jokes, and the fact that [people mock], oh Mike White could be the guy instead of Zach Wilson and my point was let him show Zach Wilson what it’s like… so on that Thursday night football here he comes out there and I don’t care, this is a nice thing. I like seeing the nice thing, and then all of a sudden he’s doing this thing with the touchdown and he’s doing like the guns and I’m like this is great! And then all of a sudden, what’s he doing shaking his hand on the sideline? What’s going on? Why is he being surrounded by men in tweed jackets? You don’t want to be around tweed-jacketed guys… [and] he couldn’t grip the football, and so he ties the game, he’s looking great, it’s possible Mike White is going to show up on a Thursday night. As I said for the Jets, I could show up here on Friday and say this is a high-class problem… words that aren’t associated with the Jets because the other words are same old Jets, and this isn’t anything done by the coach, or the general manager, or the owner, it’s the football gods who keep hitting the Jets in deez nuts. The Jets apparently, still, are not allowed to have nice things.
Eisen continued on and he’s right. I’ve said it all year on Twitter, anytime a player has a breakout performance for the Green & White you almost expect them to get injured on the next play, or in the next game.
It’s incredibly disheartening and it definitely doesn’t seem fair. Who decides this cruel fate though? If not some higher power — the ominous football gods.
The uncertainty of that question is almost as troublesome as the uncertainty of whether or not Gang Green will ever win another Super Bowl.
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Eisen Makes Plea for the Fanbase
Later in the monologue, and I do recommend watching it in its entirety, Eisen brings up the Marcus Maye season-ending Achilles tear. This is actually the franchise’s third torn Achilles of the season after Carl Lawson and Jamien Sherwood, which is almost unheard of.
The talk show host also admitted that the team does have some “nice things,” like Michael Carter, Moore and Alijah Vera-Tucker. “It’s just tough to see [them] amongst all the nut-kicking from the football gods,” Eisen added.
For the Wilson fans, he also voiced that the BYU product “could [run the offense] better than the other two of them because he’s supremely talented and he’s just got to get out of the [college] mentality.”
Eisen ended by making one final plea to the football gods. He said: “I want to take this microphone and look directly into the camera radio audience and ask the football gods directly, what do you need? What do you need? What can we in Jets fandom give you? What more do you want from us?… Do you need some sort of sacrifice, is that what you need?… What do you need? What can we do?”
Many supporters of this franchise can surely empathize with Eisen, I know I can.
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