The New York Jets Have Me Nervously Optimistic For The Season

Erick W. Rasco. Getty Images.

Last year heading into the Monday Night Football season opener for the Jets, I was overjoyed. I didn't just see the playoffs (for the first time in a DOZEN years) in my sights. I was thinking AFC Championship or maybe the first Super Bowl of my life. I hadn't been that excited for a Jets season opener since 1998. They had just made the AFC Championship the season before (even had a lead at halftime!). Everything looked primed for the Jets to have a huge season.

Of course, it's the Jets so that year was a mess.

I swear I didn't mean that as a jinx or some sort of negative thought to fill the air. I was just filled with excitement and any comparable Jets memory is going to eventually lead to a dark cloud. 

Anyway, this happened.

You can see the light leave my soul in that video. All the hope and excitement I had all off-season was gone in an instant. It was a crushing feeling and honestly worse than 1998. At least then, we had just had some playoff success. It didn't feel as hopeless. The Rodgers injury felt like getting kicked in the face.

Which leads us to today. I felt very different waking up this morning than I did last year. So many things are the same: Monday Night, tough opponent, still have to deal with Leonard Floyd. But that feeling where I could barely even sit still is gone. It's been replaced by a tentative and apprehensive excitement. I can't wait for 8 PM but that blinding optimism is gone. I feel like Aaron Rodgers and us Jets fans have been through some shit. 

The Jets have played the last 13 seasons without making the playoffs. There are Jets fans who have graduated high school and can vote that have no memory of the Jets IN THE PLAYOFFS. That's as foreign to them as the Jets making a Super Bowl is to me. The number one song the last time the Jets made the playoffs was Grenade by Bruno Mars. Auburn had just won the national title. Vladimir Guerrero was still an active baseball player. This was a long fucking time ago.

Justin Edmonds. Getty Images.

So here we are on the doorstep of what should be a successful season. The AFC is beyond stacked this year but the Jets have a very easy schedule. Check out these next four games after the 49ers one tonight:

Game 2: @Titans

Game 3: Patriots

Game 4: Broncos

Game 5: @Vikings

Can Rodgers still be mobile at all? Will Haason Reddick and the Jets work out this idiotic stalemate? Can Breece Hall stay healthy all year? These are all fair questions but even being in a situation where we are wondering if this could be a legit contender in the AFC is huge for the Jets.

Jets fans deserve a good season. No fan base should have to go 13 years without making the playoffs. I know another team that got a final brutal punch in the face before things change.

Maybe Aaron Rodgers getting hurt last year was our Aaron Boone home run moment? Maybe this is the year everything changes because the awful cup runneth over.

Let's go Jets. Things can't stay awful forever. Ask the Red Sox. Ask the Cubs. Let's go have another truly great season. It's been far too long.

New York Daily News Archive. Getty Images.