Scrappy, Underdog Jets Most Hated Team In America

Scrappy, Underdog Jets Most Hated Team In America
January 18, 2010
The Brushback

NEW YORK--The scrappy, never-say-die New York Jets have defied the doubters this season, winning their first two postseason games and positioning themselves for a much-anticipated rematch against the Indianapolis Colts. Despite the fact that the Colts are a powerhouse and the Jets an underdog, pretty much everyone outside of New York wants the Colts to win, giving the Jets the distinction of being the first-ever Cinderella team that everybody hates.

A recent poll had a staggering 98 percent of respondents pulling for the glamorous, heavily-favored Colts over the gritty, underdog Jets.

“This is unusual because in most cases a surprise, out-of-nowhere team like the New York Jets would capture the hearts of the nation,” said Sports Illustrated’s Peter King. “But in this case, everyone outside of New York seems to be pulling for the Colts - the Colts, a perennial contender and media darling - to humiliate this scrappy band of never-say-die roughnecks. I can’t remember an underdog being this reviled since the Iraq insurgency.”

King and other pundits have cited the Jets’ brashness, arrogance, and the fact that they’re the Jets as reasons why America hates them.

“The very fact that they are the New York Jets is reason enough for almost anyone to hate them,” said King. “But they’re also cocky as hell and I think fans are cringing at the thought of these jerks stumbling ass-backwards into a Super Bowl on the strength of some missed field goals and then acting like they’re the second coming of the ’86 Bears. I’ve always said that if you’re going to be a Jet, you should at least be humble and gracious so you don’t give people even more of a reason to hate you.”

The Jets’ 2009 season seemed all but over after a loss to the Atlanta Falcons on December 20, but then a string of unlikely events occurred, beginning with the controversial win over the Colts and culminating with Sunday's win at San Diego, that suggested the stars may be aligned for the men in green this year. The Jets have helped their cause by playing old-school, smash-mouth football well enough to satisfy any football purist.

But everybody still hates them.

“The Indianapolis Colts are my favorite team,” said one poster on a popular Houston Texans message board. “Even though they are our rivals and I think Peyton Manning is a pansy and the whole team is just really deplorable, I cannot bear to see the Jets win. So I say, for the first time in my life, and hopefully the last: Go Colts. I’m even getting a Peyton Manning jersey. I feel like shit for doing this, but Jets-hating makes strange bedfellows.”

Jets linebacker Bart Scott has seen the level of antipathy directed against his team, but thinks the haters are out of bounds.

“I don't think all the hatred is justified,” said Scott. “Sure we’re brash, we’re bold, we talk a lot of trash, and yes, we’re going to win the whole thing and then and our coach is going to stand up there with a shit-eating grin acting like he knew what he was doing all along, and our fans are louts who like to get drunk and scream at girls to show their tits, but I don’t know why people hate us. I find all that incredibly lovable.”

On the other side of the coin, the Colts are enjoying an unprecedented surge in national popularity as fans in Houston, Jacksonville, San Diego, Boston, Miami, Baltimore, and Cleveland all staged massive pro-Colts rallies on Monday morning.

Said Colts quarterback Peyton Manning: “I never thought I’d see the day when people in San Diego, Boston, and Houston were cheering us on, but I guess there’s nothing that captures the hearts and minds of the nation like a coldly, efficient, heavily-favored, well-oiled machine of a football team that goes deep into the playoffs pretty much every year. It’s heartwarming, really.”