Jets And Giants Fans And The Eternal Fight
Since I grew up outside of actual New York and simply inherited my fandom, I’ve been blessed in some ways to never really be involved in the fabled forever battle between Jets and Giants fans. The elitist condescension of Giants fans, “NFL royalty”, thinking the Jets are some pitiful garbage unworthy of any discussion. The frenzied animation of Jets fans, perpetually impotent and furious while screaming into the void that they are worth taking seriously when the team doesn’t back that up. The battle rages. The shitty mean older sibling vs the angry stupid younger sibling. On and on, forever the fight continues. I missed all that. I got to direct my hatred elseware and never really think much about the Jets.
But sometimes, on twitter, or in certain fan forums, or on reddit, I occasionally, by accident, stumble into the front lines of this stupid war. It is honestly embarrassing for all involved. There are a few different “areas” of fandom. There are the “sport” fans. Fans like myself, who generally just love the entire sport and will watch every game and find something to like. Fans like us, we love our teams but tend to realize the actual scope of the sport. These folks tend to be more statistically oriented, or pessimistic, or level-headed. They still get mad, irrational, and stupid, but they see football in the bigger picture. A loss will not ruin this fan, and usually, conversations will take a reasonable tone, even with the biases involved.
Then there are the Stans. The stans are the other side of fandom. The stans are the ones that give sports fans a bad name. The Stans are the ones who throw all their love and emotion into supporting the team and damn the torpedoes. Stans are delightful, but from a distance. They are an essential part of every fanbase, the eternal optimists and loyal defenders to the death. The stans are the vanguard of any fanbase. The stans are the ones jumping through tables, getting into fistfights, and dumping beers on opposing fans. They yell obscenities at families wearing the other team’s gear. They start the chants. They think every pick is a future all-pro. The stans are dangerous, violent creatures. To wander into a stan argument is to risk death…or worse…going stan yourself. It has consumed us all at one time or another. Most of us learn from it. But sometimes, we read the comments…and we see the worst of us all, toiling away, yelling at each other over nothing.
I want to be clear, this is mostly online interaction. Most fans are the former, especially in person. Online it is worse. In person I’ve never had a bad interaction with a Jets fan. Online, especially in the buttfumble year when I was making a lot of comics about the Jets, I got a lot of Jets hate and there are some Jets fans who still despise me for it, using my “giants fandom bias” as the reason. This is why on multiple accounts I’ve tried to make it clear I do not have any ill will towards the Jets.
Seeing Jets and Giants stans get into it on twitter, especially these days, is depressing and hilarious at the same time. Watching Giants and Jets fans arguing Jones vs Darnold as if it is Manning vs Brady is truly a sight to behold. It’s never a discussion, it’s angry frothing madness hurled at each other for no reason other than it is the way things have always been done. Right now, both teams are trash fires years away from potentially contending and that is only if either team manages to get their head on straight and figure shit out. Both the Jets and the Giants are bad. Bad for slightly different reasons, but also many similar ones. These New York gangs of Blues vs Greens are arguing about who gets to be king of the sewers.
The Jets trade of Jamal Adams sent off the most recent fight, and I wandered in with some popcorn yesterday and just watched the show. Did you know that Jamal Adams was actually never any good and the Jets are going to draft two all-pros with the two first rounders? Did you know Jamal Adams was trash until the second he left the Jets, at which point the Jets got completely fleeced and will waste their 1st rounders on more trash? Did you know that Adam Gase is actually smart and getting rid of headcases? Did you know that Adam Gase is the dumbest man alive and a total bitch who drives away every good player with his ego? Did you know the Giants would be better off if David Gettleman died of his cancer? Yeah, I actually saw that one. I wasn’t even surprised. If you’ve ever wandered into the weeds yourself, you probably aren’t either.
As for the trade itself, I actually think it was pretty decent for both teams. The Seahawks are perpetual contenders and tend to spend their first round picks on bizarre reaches. I personally hate the Seahawks during draft night, because more than any other team they’ve screwed me over multiple times drafting some guy I don’t have prepped for my draft cards. However, the Hawks are still great because Russ rules, and now they will have one of the better secondaries in the league, something they already exploited for a championship. Jamal gives the Hawks a much needed piece in a tight and tough division. The Jets? The Jets are a ways off of being contenders, but extra first rounders is a great way to suddenly make it happen, if they hit. Adams was annoyed in NY (Gase seems to have that effect) and getting such a haul for a safety is good business. Safeties, even great ones, are hard to build teams around. The Giants had no issue letting Landon Collins walk last year. Earl Thomas left Seattle because a great safety just isn’t as inherently game-breakingly valuable as other positions. You gotta be truly cream of the crop to earn that kind of respect. Ed Reed levels. Adams isn’t Ed Reed or even peak Earl Thomas, at least not yet.
Okay, first… the Giants stans are absolutely correct about Gase. I have no idea how that guy’s still riding the coattails of Manning for this long.
Secondly, how the hell are the Giants “NFL Royalty”? They didn’t get their first win until the 80’s, and their most recent wins were scrappy underdog victories against the insufferable juggernaut. If any team is NFL royalty it’d be something like the Steelers or Packers.
*takes pipe out of mouth, smooths vest, and momentarily pauses to remove, breathe on, and shine monocle before tilting head back and replacing it*
(in an upper crust British accent): My good sir, you need to look at what they did prior to the merger, before there were these… “super bowls”. They are 2nd (or 3rd, depending where you look) all time in Championships (https://i.insider.com/5e30708924306a631c7b1619). They played in 6 of the very first 9 NFL championships. They were on the losing side of “The Greatest Game Ever Played” and the winning side of the more modern version. Aha. Ha. Ha, Mr. Brady.
Their former owner, Wellington Mara – rest his soul – was instrumental in the merger and if you’ve ever seen “The Duke” on the side of official game balls (https://i.pinimg.com/originals/7c/c1/89/7cc18987d71257e33ecf92165f9fc146.jpg), it’s referencing him.
*suddenly jumps angrily out of the red leather chair, arms waving, throws off monocle, tears off bathrobe and tips the chair violently into the fireplace.*
(British accent is replaced by heavy NJ accent) AND IF LOMBARDI HADN’T DUMPED US FOR THE PACKERS, WE WOULD BE #1 ALL TIME!!! GRAAAAAAAAAARRGGGGHGHHHHH!!!!!!!
*collapses into seething, heavily breathing mess, before passing out*
TBH 99% of Jets fans are going to agree on that point, we all hate him and basically just counting down the days until he’s gone. Like Dave said, it’s the rapid 1% who can’t admit to other people how shitty the Jets. As a Jets fan the second I found out they hired Gase I thought “well shit they just blew any chance of Sam Darnold being good”
The NFL began in the 1920s and the Giants were among the founding teams and had four pre-SB titles. While not as prominent as the Packers but all the way to the 1960s they can be counted on to be in contention for each decade until the infamous “Wilderness Era”.
1- NFL royalty in the sense that they’ve been around for a very long time and have a very long history, were owned by Wellington Mara (a huge historical figure for football) until he recently passed, and are still held by his son. They’ve existed since 1925.
2 – they won 4 NFL championships before the Super Bowl era
3 – 4 super bowl wins is still in the top percentiles of Super Bowl wins by team, so even a modern perspective works
4 – they are one of the biggest market teams in the league and have been for a very long time
5 – u fuckin rube
From a Pats fan’s (limited, because you guys aren’t in our conference) perspective you can add that you guys are always a piece or two away (or just keeping what you’ve got healthy) from being a title contenter outside of the failed McAdoo/Spags/Shurmur experiment.
The Jets aren’t that bad either, but if anything, they feel like a more cursed franchise even than the Browns, with a prevalent hypothesis in the office that someone sold a soul or twenty for the win way back in SB III and that they’ve been paying for that since 😀
Namath’s going there anyway.
This is one of the longest standing and most hilarious rivalries in Football. Its the football equivalent of a pair of one legged men trying to kick each other in the ass.
I will happily give you my hella long, heavily biased, and highly anecdotal experience. Grew up in NJ, went to school in Bahhhston, and live as an adult in CT. If all you know about the Giants/Jets community is what you’ve seen in online forums, Dave… Jesus Mary and Joseph, you really did miss out.
First, I’m highly aggrieved that you’re using maniacs on the internet as ANY kind of representation. I researched a NAS server last year. There were dozens of Stans on the forums screaming at each other about which was best. Stans are everywhere for everything – this is not unique to sports, sadly.
Second, I want to really highlight my post is NOT intended as objective truth, it is merely *MY* truth.
JETS FANS: Seriously, these guys are unicorns. The ones I knew growing up and as an adult – you gotta look really hard to find them – have trended towards “blue collar”. They think of themselves as simple people, drink shitty cheap beer, and almost exclusively, the older they are the more they hate themselves. They’re aware their team is hot garbage. They take a sick pleasure in cheering for them despite this, maybe because of this. I suspect NYJ teasing success and then ripping it all away over and over is what causes this self-loathing.
GIANTS FANS: Again, only talking about *MY* experience, not objective truth. There are lots of blue collar types supporting NYG (especially in Jersey, where they are commonly called “Jersey Giants” – not the chicken, google it) but I didn’t know any. The fans I know, myself included? 100% down-the-nose-lookers. We view the Giants as a proud flagship of the NFL, and its moral compass. We throw around the word “storied” in almost. Every. Single. Football conversation. It’s not about success on the field, although we will proudly list all of the championships we lost, because our team is *so awesome* we even lose championships with pride. It’s how we expect the team to carry itself. We don’t touch alcohol in cans, and tailgating is a highly evolved and decadent affair. There is no table smashing like those step-sibling hooligans in the far north. Every year we expect to be in the mix, which makes the current drought something of an embarrassment we hide from.
INTERACTIONS: This screaming back and forth thing? I’ve never seen it IRL. It’s a sibling rivalry. I’ve gotten into more screaming matches with my friend who is a 9ers fan than I ever have with a Jets fan. Because at the end of the day, we Giants fans are “so evolved” that the Jets are no threat, and thus, nothing to concern ourselves with. 😉 Whenever I meet a Jets fan, I usually make a joke about them being a glutton for punishment, they’ll often make a joke about me being a pompous jackass, and then we usually just laugh at Tom Brady or our half-siblings in Buffalo. For normal, well-adjusted people, it’s a friendly rivalry. The Jets are li’l bro, the Giants are big bro. 3 of our 4 Super Bowl wins involved stomping out Li’l Bro’s rivals.
Speaking of, the Patriots are the only fanbase I’ve seen – yet again, anecdotally – that is full of Stans being Stans IN THE REAL ACTUAL WORLD. They shamelessly show themselves in numbers. My next door neighbor had photos loaded on his phone of one of their recent on-field controversial calls, and anytime it’s brought up, out comes the photo gallery and a detailed speech on how the call was perfectly accurate and “screw the jealous losers” who couldn’t see that. A coworker who spent the weeks before their first Super Bowl bragging to me constantly that the Giants would be cremated, continued to taunt me AFTER THE PATS LOST. “99 times out of 100, the Patriots win that game.” Like, seriously, how is that an argument? That makes the loss EVEN WORSE.
*ahem* But I digress. I love Jets fans. Even in the worst of times, they’re always there to help Big Bro out. When we’re a dumpster fire, they do us a solid and – proudly – become an even bigger one. *sniff* They really are the best li’l bros.
I am a Browns Fan living in a house with a Steelers Fan, a Ravens Fan, and a Bengals Fan. I live IN Cincinnati. If I show any of my pride or -more often- sorrow at what my team has done. I get laughed at non-stop at every corner. It sucks. Constantly being beat up by my father’s Steelers and my sister’s Ravens. Let alone when the Bengals were good… Everything is bad…
you’re living in the nightmare version of that bengals/steelers/ravens/devil rays baby ad.
The one thing that I’m still having trouble with in that trade is Bradley McDougald and the Jets’ 4. It’s almost like they had the entire deal agreed upon and ready to go, but then the Jets decided they wanted to get a player back in return so they tacked on a 4th in return for a maybe starting safety. Adams straight up for two 1s and a 3 would have been about as close to even as the Jets were going to get in that, so why add on a marginal starter coming back and overpay for him?
Because they don’t have a starting-caliber safety on the roster right now. Marcus Maye is a FS, so it was basically keep a 4th rounder and have an inexperienced player at the positon this year or give up the 4th and get a starter. We’re not going anywhere this year anyway, but not really the most illogical move.
I don’t see it as an overpay tbh, I’ll admit to being a biased Seahawk fan but McDoug is a solid safety who can directly replace Adams until next year or the one after, at which point you’ll have Maye/ Ashtyn Davis on the backend.
You essentially traded up from early 4th to late 3rd, in addition to sending Adams for two firsts and Brad. That’s how it makes sense to me.
I suppose that does sound a lot better than my description, but I still don’t think McDougald is worth that much. It’s rare even for a starting safety to be worth more than a late pick and McDougald is only a marginal starter.
Jets and Giants fans arguing Jones vs Darnold when Josh Allen is fat and away the best QB in New York is HILARIOUS
Josh Allen played his second year though.
Someone has to say it… Josh Allen is the only QB in New York
Looks like MLB’s return plan already crapped the bed. In other words, no bubble, no NFL
Speaking of, is there a chance your future historical comic will cover the “Wilderness Era”? The one what takes what was basically a proto-butt fumble in 1979, Rozelle’s intervention, George Young and LT to end. Also a trivia where Harry Carson once threatened to quit and join the air force if the Giants doesn’t stop sucking.
Man, I thought the next time you would make a comic about the Jets, you would have mentioned the awfully unethical and illegal things Woody Johnson tried to do for Trump in England
i’m listening…
I was hoping for this comment and was not disappointed.
I was kinda wanting the Browns to snag Adams. But 2 firsts, a safety and a third is too much for him. Sure he’s a dynamic player but… Damn… I thought they gave up too much for Vernon. Zeitler was a pro bowler that helped anchor a solid interior to an O-Line. I miss Zeitler and Peppers…
Don’t get me wrong. I love having OBJ. But that caused this surge in bandwagon fans and I just cannot handle people accusing me of being unloyal even though I’ve been a Browns fan for over half my life.
As a fins fan, I can happily say J-E-T-S SUCK SUCK
#FakeSpike
Is there a slobs vs. snobs split for every sport in the New York area? It also seems like the “slobs” always is or was based on Long Island, too. Jets played in Shea (the Giants did too, but only for one year), Islanders have split their time between Nassau County and Brooklyn, Mets are in Queens, and Nets were in Suffolk County before moving to Jersey and are now in Brooklyn.
There’s definitely a geographic component to it, as the “snob” teams tend to at least have Manhattan (or juussst barely outside of Manhattan in the case of the Yankees) roots*.
* Technically both Mets and Jets (when they were the Titans) could also be said to be Manhattan based since their initial seasons were in the Polo Grounds, and the Mets were intended to be equally a home for abandoned Giants fans as well as abandoned Dodgers fans (although except for contrarian weirdos like my Dad, most former Baseball Giants fans were middle aged and older, so it leaned more to the Dodgers).
I know a lot of Jets and Yankees fans too
As a Mets and Giants fan, I don’t begrudge them their balancing out of fandoms.
Though what usually happens is they only manage to be fatalistic and miserable in different ways, only one of which should be justifiable.
For a lot of the Jets/Yankee fans I’m also guessing they’re in their 30’s and got into their fandoms in the mid-90s.
That was a dire period for the Mets, and those early Jeter-era Yankees were a young fun team of home grown talent. The Steinbrenners old spending habits were somewhat in check for a bit and after the 80’s the sense of entitlement hadn’t returned yet.
As for the Giants of that time, while I wouldn’t call it a wilderness period, those were some excitement challenged teams. The Jets are generally interesting whether they’re good or bad.
I’ve never been to New York. I live 12 hours away.
I hate the Jets.
Every damn year the Jets are either a ‘dark horse’, underrated, or rebuilding. REALITY: They suck hard 8-9 years out of 10.
But they’re in New York so they get way more coverage than they earned.
They’re 3 years shy of being the Browns only because Johnny Unitas was hurt 50 damn years ago.
But at least the Browns have pre-Superbowl greatness.
The Jets most notable player is by any measure the worst player in the Hall of Fame.
And when he was a commentator he said “pley” instead of “play”.