Are You Ready For Some Football? Pats-Jets Has It All!
Monday, November 29, 2010
It’s still a full week away and already I can’t wait! While we football junkies have to suffer through tonight’s Monday Night offering of San Francisco at Arizona, we can look forward to the match-up of the season next Monday night when the Patriots host the Jets in Foxboro.
If ESPN could “flex” tonight’s 49ers-Cardinals game right off of the network and on to ESPN 360, it would. But the reward for Mike Tirico, Jon Gruden and Ron Jaworski for suffering through tonight’s snoozer is getting to call next week’s tantalizing treat.
Now add the implications of a win or a loss. The winner will have the inside track at not only winning the division, but also the top overall seed in the AFC come playoff time. That means a first round bye and two home playoff games is all that would stand between that team and the Super Bowl.
Now add the recent history between these two franchises. Parcells left Bob Kraft and the Patriots following Super Bowl XXXI to coach the Jets. The Patriots were compensated with draft picks but the damage was done.
Parcells and the Jets signed free agent running back Curtis Martin away from New England adding even more insult to injury. And, while the Tuna was taking the Jets to the AFC Championship game following the 1998 season, the Patriots were getting progressively worse under nice guy Pete Carroll.
Then in 2000, Kraft wanted to hire Bill Belichick away from the Jets and give him complete control of the football operation here and Belichick wanted the job. Parcells caught wind of this and abruptly resigned triggering a clause in Belichick’s contract making him the head coach of the Jets.
Belichick, who wanted to escape the oversized shadow of the Tuna, then resigned as the “H.C. of the N.Y.J.” and bolted for New England. The league ordered the Patriots to surrender draft pick compensation to the Jets in return.
Fast forward to today where the stoic Belichick remains in charge here in New England giving us nothing more than name, rank and serial number. His press conferences are nothing more than a cure for insomnia as the man lights up a room when he leaves it.
Meanwhile, down in the swamp lands of New Jersey, sexy Rexy (aka Rex Ryan) is like E.F. Hutton. When he talks, people listen. The man had lap-band surgery to reduce his over-sized waist. Patriots fans would like to see him have sweat-sock surgery as well where doctors insert a dirty sock in his mouth to shut him up.
The Patriots have the veteran hall of fame bound quarterback Tom Brady. The Jets have the second year quarterback who their fans hope will be the next Brady.
It’s Boston versus New York (okay, New Jersey). No matter what the sport, if you’re raised in either city you root for two teams: your hometown team and whoever is playing the team from that other city.
So deal with tonight’s yawner if you must. But join me in counting down the days to the real life soap opera that is Patriots-Jets next Monday night at the Razor.
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