Please, New York football teams, save this generation of fans
New York Jets quarterback Joe Namath releases a pass as the New York Giants defensive end Jack Gregory pulls him down in overtime period of the Jets-Giants game at Yale Bowl in New Haven, Conn., Nov. 10, 1974. The pass was completed to Jets running back Bob Burns. The Jets won the game in over time, 26-20. Credit: AP/Bob Child
The current bleakness in New York pro football will echo into the 22nd century, when some of this century's young fans being scarred by the awfulness will be old women and men still rooting for teams from distant burgs because of what is going on now.
How do we know this? Because it has happened before. It was the 1970s, and its scars still are evident, bridging two millennia.
There is a generational blip on the metropolitan-area fandom radar for people now approximately in their 50s that includes unnatural numbers of Cowboys, Steelers, Raiders and Dolphins fans, with others mixed in.
For me, it was the Redskins, for others perhaps the Vikings.
Anyone who grew up in the era between Super Bowl III and the Giants and Jets both returning to the playoffs in 1981 and who was not forced by heredity to choose a New York team had to flee elsewhere for winning football.
At the time, we knew the local teams were bad. Looking back, it was even worse.
In the 11 seasons between 1970 and 1980, the Jets won four or fewer games six times. The Giants won five or fewer games seven times. (Some of those seasons covered 14 games, some 16. The locals stunk either way.)
The Giants played home games in four stadiums in two boroughs and three states, went 4-23-1 in 1973 and 1974, and fumbled away a game to the Eagles in 1978 about which you might have read or heard.
Lou Holtz coached the Jets in 1976, at which time he resigned with a 3-10 record and said, “God did not put Lou Holtz on this Earth to coach in the pros.” He was not the only one from that era.
Those of us old enough to remember Super Bowl IV but not Super Bowl III – by which I mean me – more clearly recall Joe Namath throwing a total of 50 interceptions in 1974 and 1975 than winning the big game after the 1968 season.
I asked Namath the other day what he remembers about that famously bleak decade in New York football.
“I do remember that era, and I promise you I don’t think about sports first in that era,” he said. “There are some other things that I prefer to think about.”
Then Namath smiled slyly. OK, so some things never change, win or lose. Namath is still cool.
Anyway, back to the 21st century: This decade has been better than that long-ago debacle, of course.
The Giants won a Super Bowl after the 2011 season and were 11-5 in 2016. The Jets reached the AFC Championship Game after the 2009 and 2010 seasons and were 10-6 in 2015.
Still, all of that seems long ago. The Jets and Giants have combined to win as many playoff games since Super Bowl XLVI as have you or I, with no change of fortunes in immediate sight.
The Jets are on pace for four victories this season after consecutive 5-11 finishes. The Giants are on pace for four victories after going 3-13 last year.
One team has a quarterback who is not quite ready to win and the other a quarterback who might no longer be.
The two most recent Super Bowl champions are the Jets’ nearest rival to the north and the Giants’ nearest rival to the south, adding to the insult.
None of this is life-altering for those of us with a broad perspective. This stuff is cyclical, mostly. But what about those in their formative years?
If this keeps up, they will become people like me and my generational cohort, someday boring their children and grandchildren with tales of Jared Goff and Patrick Mahomes while sporting vintage Rams or Chiefs jerseys.
Please, make it stop before it is too late. Our children deserve better than this. One lost generation is enough.
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.
