Classic Rant #177 (January 21, 2010): Take a Jet Back to New Jersey

If you are a football fan, you know that the team that no one wants to play during the playoffs is the New York Jets. They are playing over their heads, and beating some of the best teams in football as they push to the Super Bowl.

They play the Colts this weekend, and even though they are the underdogs, wisdom says that they will probably win this game--they beat the Colts during the regular season, a feat that no one else accomplished.

That is all fine and good, but like I have said before, I hate football.

And I hate New York football, because, the only NFL football played in the state of New York is by the Bills of Buffalo.

New York City has not had an NFL team for more than 30 years, and no, the Jets--and for that matter, the Giants--are not New York teams, even though they are called "New York."

They play in New Jersey, and since when is New Jersey New York?

New York could have had the Jets in a return to the city where they played prior to their move to New Jersey. That billionaire nincompoop of a mayor, Michael Bloomberg--a great businessman but not a great politician, even with this three terms--could have had the Jets come back to New York City. The proposed stadium near the Javits Center was where they would have played, but this idiot of a mayor--who, you might remember, tried to horn in on the Yankees World Series coverage but Fox wouldn't bite--tried to tie in the Stadium with an Olympic bid. New Yorkers didn't want the Olympics, but they wanted the Manhattan stadium.

Well, when the Olympic bid fell through, so did the stadium.

Anyway, this dummy is having what amounts to a "pep rally" today for his beloved Jets, who bring nothing to New York City, and during this playoff, certainly bring nothing, since they are playing miles and miles away.

And even if they make the Super Bowl, they will still bring nothing to the city, because the game is being played in Florida.

New Jersey can have their Jets, but why is Bloomberg and his cohorts making this out to be a New York sports moment?

It has as much to do with New York as Hawaii does.

New York City has the Rangers, and Long Island has its Islanders. The Knicks play at the Garden. Pitchers and catchers report in mid-February--and yes, I am talking about the New York Yankees and even the New York Mets, New York City's two baseball teams.

These are the teams that New York should focus on, not teams that left here and don't give anything back to the city that they dumped all those years ago.