NFL
What on earth did New York football fans do to deserve this endless Giants and Jets dreck?
If you’re an NFL fan who roots for one of the New York football teams and you’re not pissed off, disgusted and/or at the end of your rope of patience, you probably don’t have a pulse.
Why can’t New York football fans have nice things?
The Yankees made it to their first World Series in 15 years.
The Mets rose to prominent relevance this season, winning 89 games and advancing to the NLCS, where they gave the heavily favored Dodgers a scare before they succumbed and sicced them on the Yankees.
The Knicks finally made the Garden come alive last season, and have higher hopes for this one.
The Rangers, who didn’t even fall from relevance after Garden management sent that warning letter to season-ticket holders about a rebuild, are one of the best teams in the NHL, a Stanley Cup favorite, having made it to the conference finals in two of the past three seasons.
The Liberty just celebrated their first WNBA title with a parade through the Canyon of Heroes.
Both MLS locals, the Red Bulls and NYCFC, are beginning their playoff series. NYCFC won the MLS Cup in 2021 and the Red Bulls, while still searching for their first MLS Cup, have been in the playoffs for 15 consecutive years.
Even the Devils, Islanders and Nets have had their moments during the decade-plus of unspeakable failure from the Jets and Giants.
If you’re a fan of the perennially dysfunctional Jets and you aren’t rooting for the entire operation to be blown to bits for yet another start over, you’re the most optimistic human being on the planet.
If you’re a fan of the Giants, who limped home Monday night after a 26-18 loss in Pittsburgh, you cling to the hope that ownership commits to some continuity and gets head coach Brian Daboll a young dynamic quarterback to develop.
What gives around here with these football teams?
The Jets, no playoff appearances since 2010, appear to be doomed as long as owner Woody Johnson continues to live without any mirrors in his homes and plays fantasy football owner without copping to his own accountability for the messes he’s created.
Johnson, as evidenced by his knee-jerk firing of head coach Robert Saleh (the team is 0-3 since and has gotten progressively worse in the process), continues to make rash decisions without proper advice from his “football people.’’
Whether Woody even has any “football people” he listens to is very much up for debate … unless you count Aaron Rodgers as his “football people.’’
Both the Jets and Giants are 2-6 entering this week’s games — the Jets hosting 6-2 Houston on Thursday night and the Giants hosting the 6-2 Commanders on Sunday.
Since their last playoff season, the Jets are 79-140.
Since going 11-5 in 2016 and losing the wild-card playoff game in Green Bay after the infamous Odell Beckham Jr. South Florida boat trip during playoff week, the Giants are 40-84-1, including their two playoff games in Daboll’s first season.
How, in this era of free agency, quick fixes and a weighted collegiate draft system, does this kind of bottom-barrel consistency exist with these two teams?
Why don’t we have promising young franchise quarterbacks set to lead our teams into the future?
Who knows what Rodgers’ future is after this season? Is he really planning on one more go at it in 2025, and will he even be welcomed back?
Daniel Jones’ future is more certain. The Giants know they have to move on from him after this season, when it’s financially feasible for them to extricate themselves from his contract and begin anew. Jones rarely embarrasses himself, but also rarely is good enough.
Why don’t we have up-and-coming, head-coach-in-waiting assistant coaches who are coveted by other franchises like Detroit coordinators Ben Johnson on offense and Aaron Glenn (a former Jet, of course) on defense?
What do we have to look forward to with our football teams around here?
More embarrassing calamity from the Jets?
More of the same almost-but-not-good-enough from the Giants?
I know Giants president, CEO and co-owner John Mara burns to win and is trying desperately to do it the right way, resisting the burn-it-all-down urges of many Giants fans.
I also know Woody Johnson wants to win, based on the countless millions he’s spent (albeit not always wisely). What I don’t know is whether he knows how to do it the right way, because he’s never given us much evidence that he does.
Jets and Giants fans should be enraged, because they all deserve better.
In the spirit of the NFL’s trade deadline looming next week, on Election Day of all days, my phone conversation today with Post Deputy Sports Editor Mark Hale began with Hale proposing two tongue-in-cheek trades.
The Jets trade their entire team to Baltimore for the Ravens roster and the Giants trade theirs to Detroit for the Lions roster so we can have some compelling, winning football to watch around here.
If only.