Now I want it all

Here we are, one victory from a return to the AFC Championship game.  We were last there during the 1998 season, under the guidance of Bill Parcells and the emergence of Vinny Testaverde who stepped in for Glenn Foley and never looked back.  He went on to have one of the best years of any QB who put a Jet uniform on.  He threw 29 Touchdowns and only 7 picks, it was amazing.   The Jets had a 10-0 lead in Denver in the 3rd quarter after a blocked punt by Blake Spence was followed by a 1 yard touchdown run by Curtis Martin.  After that, Denver took over.  Elway marched Denver down the field for a touchdown and the normally sure handed Keith Byars and Curtis Martin lost fumbles, which were just 2 of the 6 turnovers the Jets had that day.  They lost the game 23-10, and dreams of a return trip to the Super Bowl ended. 

Here we are, 11 years later, hard for me to believe it's been that long since that AFC Championship game in Denver.  Some may say the Jets are playing with house money.  Some may say that anything the Jets do from here is gravy.  They have a rookie quarterback.  The Jets have a rookie head coach.  They have a rookie running back by the name of Shonn Greene who stepped up after the Leon Washington injury and had a huge game against the Bengals this past Saturday.  It's all nonsense.  You never know when you might get back here.  Yeah, despite what Rex Ryan  says, the Jets are an underdog.  I say so what.  Now is the time, this is not playing with "house money", you have to cease the opportunity.  The Jets have arguably the best defense in football this year, statistics say it's number one.  They have the best cover cornerback on the planet.  Darrelle Revis; who has shut down the likes of Andre Johnson, Randy Moss, Steve Smith, T.O., Ochocinco and anyone else who has come his way.  He will have another big test this week in Vincent Jackson, but I think he's up for yet another challenge and another receiver will find himself lost on Revis Island.

Am I setting myself up for more heartbreak?  Jet fans will remember 2004 quite well.  We were an underdog team, backed ourselves in to the playoffs big time that year.  We had a chance to clinch a spot on the final Sunday of the season.  We lose an overtime game to the Rams and finished the season at 10-6 after a 5-0 start that year.  Luckily, shortly before our game ended, the Steelers who had nothing to play for that day beat the Bills and we squeaked in to the playoffs despite the loss.  We went into San Diego and beat the Chargers.  We went into Pittsburgh and had them beat as well.  Unfortunately our kicker missed two kicks that would have won the game for us and our coach didn't help matters out by getting ultra conservative making the kicks longer than they should have been. 

The opportunity is right in front of this football team.  If the Jets can do what they do best, run the football and play defense.  If our rookie QB can make good throws when called upon and protect the football; there is no reason the Jets can't go into San Diego and win.  Now is the time. 

Here we go again

Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in again.  The season looked over several times this year, but this past Sunday the Jets caught break after break after break, now the question is when does it turn around and bite all Jet fans in the rear end.  Miami needed to lose, we got that as the Texans beat them 27-20.  The Jaguars needed to lose, our nemesis, the Patriots, took care of that.  The Steelers beat the Ravens, thus meaning that at kickoff  at 4:15 against the 14-0 Colts in Indianapolis, we controlled our own destiny. 

On to the game against the Colts.  The Colts were leading 15-10 and right around the 6 minute mark in the 3rd quarter after the Jets punted, Manning did not put on his helmet, instead rookie quarterback Curtis Painter, from Purdue, trotted on the field along with many other Colt backups who came in the game.  Colt fans are outraged, Jet fans felt elated.  I don't care how the Jets won it, the bottom line is they outscored the Colts 19-0 after Manning left the game and went on to a 29-15 victory over the previously unbeaten Colts. 

So what happens now?  We have a date on Sunday night in prime-time on NBC against the Bengals.  A team that probably won't have anything to gain, other then maybe a chance to move from the 4 seed to the 3 seed.  However, if the Patriots beat the Texans on Sunday afternoon the Bengals will be locked in to the 4 seed.  It is likely that the Bengals will not play their starters, if they do I expect a quarter or two at most.  Another reason the Bengals might not go all out is due to the fact that if the Jets do win, we will have a rematch between the Jets and Bengals on Wild Card weekend in Cincinnati.  This is a similar scenario for the Jets.  Back in the 2001 season they needed a victory in Oakland to clinch a wild card spot, they beat the Raiders in Oakland on a game winning field goal by John Hall which setup a re-match the following week in the first round of the playoffs against the same Raiders.  The outcome the following weekend wasn't as pretty as the Raiders beat the Jets 38-24.

As a Jet fan, I'm waiting for the heartbreak, the heartbreak wouldn't be a playoff loss.  The heartbreak would be losing to a Bengals team and all of their backups, and trust me, I can see it happening.  So how will this play out?  I do know this, this franchise once again has me all pumped up for a big game, and I wouldn't be shocked if that hope came crumbling down next Sunday night. 

Trials and Tribulations of being a Sports Fan

My fiance thinks I'm ridiculous, and probably rightfully so. When it comes to sports I wear my emotions on my sleeves and take things way too seriously, I'll be the first to admit that. When you are a sports fan, be prepared for one thing, much more failure than success. I guess you can equate it to being a Major League hitter, even a great one. You will fail much more than you succeed.

I was at a bar once maybe about 2 or 3 years back and was having a discussion about how many championships I've seen my teams win. It didn't take long to come up with the answer, at the time the number was at four, and it was all because of the Yankees. My other two teams the Magic and Jets have just one championship combined and that was the Jets in Super Bowl III in 1969 and I did not get to witness that. The Magic have been close twice, with two Finals appearances, one back in 1995 when they were swept by the Rockets which included the Nick Anderson game, in Game 1 where he missed 4 consecutive free throws to ice the game thus blowing that game and maybe the series with 4 failed strokes from the free throw line. That was easily one of the toughest defeats I've witnessed in my history of sports watching. The second was last year when they lost to the Lakers in 5 games. The closest the Jets came was a 10-0 lead early in the 3rd quarter in Denver against the Broncos back in January of 1999 in the AFC Championship game. They started turning the ball over like crazy, Elway and Terrell Davis did their thing and the Jets lost that game 23-10, thus ripping my heart out and leaving me wondering when I would see them reach the pinnacle. Well, I'm still waiting ten years later and obviously I'll still be waiting after this year.

So all this was leading me to think while sitting in front of a bucket of Budweisers at the bar that day and watching the Giants and Bills play, a game the Giants won to start their run as they were getting ready to go on their eventual Super Bowl drive. What is the percentage of times my teams have actually won it all? How far back should I go to calculate this? I won't start in 1980, that's the year I was born. I go back to my first real memories of sports. I remember being a kid watching the Bears and Pats in the Super Bowl back in the 1985 season. I remember the Mets/Red Sox World Series back in 1986. I remember trying to watch as many Yankee games as I could back around that time and I remember sitting in front of the TV in my Jets uniform and helmet every Sunday.

So it's 1986, that's the year I will start. Now that is only for the Yankees and Jets as the Magic franchise was just in the early founding days, thanks to Pat Williams down in Central Florida, getting the ball rolling on that. So that's 24 seasons I've watched each the Jets and the Yankees, giving me a grand total of 48, and I'll count this season for the Jets already being a failure, they obviously aren't going anywhere. The Magic started play in 1989 but I didn't become a fan till they drafted Shaq in 1992, prior to that I had no team that I followed in the NBA. So that's 17 seasons of Magic basketball that I've been watching, zero championships. Oh boy.

So let's do the math. 48 seasons of Jets and Yankees and 17 seasons of the Magic, that's a grand total of 65 sports seasons that I've invested a lot of time, energy, emotion and passion into. I'm going to break down the percentages in three ways; playoff berths, conference/league championships and World Championships. The New York Yankees obviously lead the way with 14 playoff births, 7 League Championships and 5 World Championships. The Orlando Magic have had 11 Playoff births, 2 Conference Championships and 0 World Championships. Then there are the Jets, oh man, don't get me started on the Jets. They always will find a way to break my heart. 7 Playoff births, 0 Conference Championships and 0 World Championships.

So going back now, combined, that is 65 seasons, 32 playoff births. So 49.2 percent of the time I do at least witness my teams making the playoffs, the Yanks boost that but let's not forget from 1986-1994 I didn't witness the Yankees make the playoffs at all, so it wasn't always like it is now. There have been 9 Pennants/Conference Championships in 65 seasons, that would put it at 13.8 percent of the time I've witnessed that. Now comes the bottom line, what it's all about. Being able to see your team celebrate to Queen "We are the Champions". It's been a grand total of 5 times in 65 seasons, that's 7.6 percent of the time.

It's really interesting to go back and think about things like this, do it with your teams and see where you stand. I have one thing to say in closing, thank god for the New York Yankees.

By Vinnie Ferrarini