Jets fans make Super Bowl compromise

For some Jets fans, the choice on Super Bowl Sunday will be whether to watch the two teams they loathe the most play football or to just curl up in a fetal ball.

The matchup between the hometown rival Giants and the New England Patriots -- the Jets' AFC East archenemy -- is "like putting salt in the wound," said Ken Rehn, 54, of Bay Shore, whose family has had Jets' season tickets since 1967.

"I'm getting tired of it all. Everywhere you go, it's Giants, Giants, Giants," Rehn groused.

"For a Jets fan, a Giants-Patriots Super Bowl is the equivalent of Armageddon," said Monique Febbraio, 23, a media strategist in Manhattan. "Unfortunately, this is not the first time God has frowned upon Jets fans, as we had to endure this only four years ago" when the Giants beat the Patriots in Super Bowl XLII. For most of the season it looked like the Jets (8-5 at one point) were headed for the playoffs and the Giants (7-7) were headed nowhere. Then the Giants surged and the Jets collapsed, leaving their fans on the postseason sidelines.

Some Gang Green fans will try to get past their blues and root for the Giants. Ron Senn, 47, of Eastport, says he and other Jets fans he knows will hang with Giants fans at a local sports bar. He even plans to wear a Giants jersey, "though it's going to kill me."

But, underneath -- literally -- he will wear his Jets jersey.

"I will root for the Giants -- they're the lesser of two evils," he said.

Senn said he has attended more than 100 Jets games over the years. "You wonder sometimes if the Jets are ever going to have it in them," he said. "It's been so long." Forty-three years, to be precise.

Rehn doesn't know what to do. His wife, Kathy, is a big Giants fans and insisted on hosting a Super Bowl party at their house. But their oldest son, Chris, 28, also a Giants fan, wants his dad at his house in East Northport because he was there for the last two playoff games, and the Giants won.

"I'm kind of like a good-luck charm," Ken Rehn said. "I'm trying to be a good sport about everything."

Ian Tait, 52, of Lindenhurst, said he will probably stay home and hope the Giants "beat the Patriots into the ground." He's fuming that Jets coach Rex Ryan boasted about his team's destiny this season, even riling up the Giants for their decisive Christmas Eve match.

"The Jets ran their mouth that they were going to be there" in the Super Bowl, Tait said. "The Giants did it the right way. They kept their mouths shut, they played hard and they won the games they needed to win."