Football's Lost Weekend in New York

The New York Jets have killed another QB's career.

Zach Wilson by Atlanta Falcons is licensed under CC BY 3.0.

On Sunday afternoon a few minutes before 2:00 p.m. U.S. EDT, I opted to pack up a bag and head to the gym for an appointment with some plate loaded weight machines. I had already spent the weekend cooped up inside as a tropical storm socked in most of the East Coast, and after I had enjoyed the best Saturday of college football I had seen in some time, I saw no need to sully my Sunday with the New York Jets.

The Jets are the football team of my youth. They are a loyalty that no matter how hard I try, I can’t break. There have been many moments when this team feels like it has broken me. This past Sunday’s 15-10 loss to the New England Patriots, the 15th straight victory for the Patriots over the Jets, feels numbingly familiar.

That is, if I didn’t feel borderline catatonic when I think about the Jets.

The script is familiar. The defense played valiantly, yielding just 13 points (two came on a safety forced by the Patriots defense), yet Zach Wilson, a quarterback who needs help from Oz’s Scarecrow, Cowardly Lion and Tin Man — what other NFL quarterback needs a heart transplant, brain transplant and a dose of courage — cannot make plays that are second nature to a minimally competent NFL quarterback.

In the first half, Wilson, admittedly under pressure from the New England pass rush, simply opted to sit down and sack himself, giving up on the play and his teammates.

But while I have once again been driven beyond past caring about this team, many of my fellow Jets fans have lit their hair on fire and are calling for heads on pikes.

When I was young, there weren’t many in the national media who were Jets fans. For one thing, there was still a veneer of professionalism in broadcasting, and revealing partisan loyalties was considered unseemly. And second, the Jets simply hadn’t been around long enough for folks who had grown up with the team to reach that level.

But things are different now, and I can count on New York natives like Mike Greenberg, Rich Eisen and Boomer Esiason to channel my rage.

That is, if I had any rage left to give.

But the one person I did not expect to lead the charge to burn the Jets training facility in Florham Park, New Jersey to the ground and salt the earth was Joe Namath. This is a man who through thick and thin has been a sunny and optimistic presence around the franchise, despite living through everything we’ve experienced together for the last 47 years since he was released by the Jets and briefly joined the Los Angeles Rams.

But now, even Joe has seen enough, and he is ready to clean house on and off the field.

Next on the schedule for the Jets is a Sunday night visit from Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs. Jets head coach Robert Saleh, despite seeing the evidence that Wilson doesn’t have the chops right now to be a competent NFL quarterback, never mind one that could lead a team to the playoffs or a Super Bowl, seems committed to sticking with him no matter what.

Over the last 72 hours, I’ve thought about the moment the Jets drafted Wilson in 2021. He looked like a good kid who wanted to do the right thing. So did Richard Todd, Ken O’Brien, Browning Nagle, Chad Pennington, Mark Sanchez and Sam Darnold.

And the next thought I had was one of dread: oh no, they’re going to ruin this kid too.

And so, once again, it has come to pass.

And so, once again, I’ll try to find something else to do with my Sunday afternoons.