On the first day at his new Florham Park, New Jersey, office in April, Aaron Rodgers noted how the New York Jets’ "Super Bowl 3 trophy is looking a little lonely."
That singular Lombardi is going to remain an only child for the foreseeable future.
By now you’ve surely heard – after his breathlessly hyped acquisition, starring role in "Hard Knocks" and man-about-town summer revival – Rodgers’ 2023 season is over after four snaps, his left Achilles snapping during his NYJ debut Monday night.
My USA TODAY Sports colleague Mike Freeman has written, "Jets fans are the meanest in the league." Whether that's true or not, Monday exemplifies why they’re so forlorn and maybe a little hardscrabble and, yes, temperamental and perhaps too often less than sober. A friend of mine – a longtime Jets fan – texted right after Rodgers went down, "This is the most Jets thing ever."
Pretty much.
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The Jets and their fans – most of them born well after Joe Namath and Co. incredibly won that epic Super Bowl, perhaps the biggest upset in league history, to cap the 1968 season – just can’t have nice things. There’s a widely held, uh, "belief" among post-Super Bowl Gang Green supporters that Namath, now 80, struck some sort of Faustian bargain while guaranteeing his legendary upset of the justifiably favored Baltimore Colts in the days before that game was contested on Jan. 12, 1969.
On Feb. 11, 2024, Super Bowl 58 will be played in Las Vegas, but the Jets will have already come up with snake eyes. That game will mark 55 years without another NYJ championship. And while they watch two other teams vie for NFL supremacy, Jets fans will be crying in their poison of choice, armed with at least 55 reasons why their seemingly cursed club – among the 20 which have won a Lombardi Trophy – is furthest removed from Super Sunday glory. (Writer's note: Jets fans are encouraged to read no further as it may be harmful to their feels.)
Onward:
Namath is the most legendary of all Jets. But Rodgers is the best quarterback to ever don a Jets uniform. Period. End of story. The four-time league MVP was finally going to pilot Flight NYJ back to the postseason and maybe even end the decades-long absence from the Super Bowl. But nope. Nope. Not this year. And maybe not ever given the vagaries of decades-old Achilles tendons.
Jets fans have been here before. Rodgers hit the deck almost 24 years to the day after QB Vinny Testaverde’s Achilles ruptured in the 1999 regular-season opener. Those Jets also had serious summertime Super Bowl aspirations on the – yes – heels of a run to the AFC championship game. They finished 8-8, good for fourth place in the AFC East. Your team may have multiple rings, but has it had multiple star QB1s succumb to blown Achilles in Week 1? Didn’t think so.
Namath still casts a wide shadow over this franchise nearly five decades after he took his last snap in green and white – and justifiably so given the title he delivered and the flair with which he did it. Yet it’s remarkable that this many years later, every subsequent quarterback is still measured by his worthiness to succeed Namath – a guy who had 47 more career interceptions (220) than TD passes (173) and a passer rating of 65.5. It’s not necessarily fair to compare numbers from his era to the current one given how much the game has evolved, and his massive persona – off the field and on, where the oft-injured passer could be seen wearing fur and bell bottoms on the sideline when he wasn’t healthy enough to play – was a huge component of his aura. Still, hard to believe if Namath had played anywhere but New York that he’d warrant these amount of callbacks.
Hall of Fame CB Darrelle Revis is arguably the best overall player J-E-T-S fans have ever cheered on. However his first glorious stint with the team ended prematurely with a torn ACL early in the 2012 season. The Jets traded him to Tampa Bay the following year, the Buccaneers granting him the massive contract (6 years, $96 million) he'd sought. But it didn't work out in Tampa, and Revis wound up with the hated (by Jets fans) New England Patriots in 2014 ... where he helped end the Pats', uh, 10-year Super Bowl drought. The Jets subsequently re-signed Revis to another huge deal (5 years, $70 million) in 2015, but by then he was a steadily declining player who was unable to do for NY what he'd done in NE.
Coming off a division crown in 2002 – the Jets’ last as it turns out – New York was riding high going into the 2003 campaign. Then, emergent fourth-year quarterback Chad Pennington broke his non-throwing wrist against the Giants in preseason, grounding the Jets – who wound up 6-10. A first-round pick in 2000, Pennington never had a howitzer arm, accuracy and touch his calling cards. But he was left with a slingshot after enduring two shoulder operations in 2005.
More efficient than Pennington in the adversity department, QB Mark Sanchez, the fifth overall pick of the 2009 draft, managed to get hurt against the Giants in preseason and require surgery on his throwing shoulder in one fell swoop in 2013. Sanchez, who helped guide the Jets to consecutive AFC title games in his first two seasons, would never play for New York again.
Good as Sanchez and the Jets were early in his career, his infamous Thanksgiving night turnover against the archrival Patriots in 2012 – losing the ball after running into the backside of G Brandon Moore – was a lowlight “SportsCenter” would never let him live down and became the epitaph of the "Sanchize."
Like Namath, the quarterback was a first-round pick (1976) out of Alabama. Otherwise, he was unlike Namath, uncomfortable in the media spotlight and often between the lines, Todd’s record with the Jets 42-51-1. In the Jets’ own long-running version of “Succession,” Todd was the first of many who failed to fill Namath’s famous white cleats.
After leading the league with 30 (!!!) interceptions in 1980, Todd played much better in 1981 – largely thanks to the emergence of the “New York Sack Exchange.” But he reverted in the wild-card round – the Jets’ first playoff appearance in 12 years – as the team fell into a 31-13 fourth-quarter hole. But Todd engineered two late touchdown drives and was marching for the game-winning score deep in Bills territory … until he served up his fourth interception on his final throw to Buffalo's Bill Simpson.
He threw five picks in the 1982 AFC championship game – three to Miami LB A.J. Duhe – in a 14-0 defeat to the Dolphins. Todd would never appear in another playoff game.
Todd’s meltdown in the muck wasn’t entirely responsible for derailing a talented ’82 Jets squad. The Dolphins let a deluge swamp the untarped Miami Orange Bowl, the sloppy field conditions negating the Jets’ speed advantage and perhaps costing them a legitimate shot at reaching Super Bowl 17.
Yet maybe those ’82 Jets are hosting the AFC title tilt if future Hall of Fame DE Joe Klecko, runner-up for Defensive Player of the Year in 1981 after recording 20½ sacks (unofficially), didn’t rupture his patella tendon in the game before the players’ strike and miss most of the season.
The Jets have spent most of their 64-season existence as second-class citizens at multipurpose Shea Stadium beneath baseball’s New York Mets – at least it was in Queens – or subletting a “home” in New Jersey dubbed "Giants Stadium." They’re now officially co-tenants with the Giants at suburban MetLife Stadium, though neither club has been especially good – overall – since occupying it in 2010 (though the G-Men did win Super Bowl 46 following the 2011 campaign). The Giants needed 18 years to match the Jets with a Super Bowl victory following the 1986 season. Big Blue is now up 4-1.
The Jets have never even hosted a postseason game at MetLife.
Gawd.
Since the AFC East was formed after the 1970 AFL-NFL merger, the Jets have won it … twice (1998, 2002).
The Jets have played the Philadelphia Eagles 12 times – and never beaten them. They’ll host the reigning NFC champs in Week 6 … obviously minus Rodgers.
Since the merger, the Jets have never had a 4,000-yard passer. Only Ryan Fitzpatrick, in 2015, had as many as 30 TD passes (31) in a season. Rodgers was supposed to eclipse both benchmarks in 2023.
While Fitzpatrick may have had one of Jets’ best fantasy quarterbacking efforts (those 31 TDs accompanied by 3,905 yards in 2015), his three fourth-quarter interceptions in the regular-season finale – a 22-17 loss to a Bills squad that was 7-8 entering the game – cost the Jets an all-too-rare playoff spot. Worse, Buffalo was coached by former Jets HC Rex Ryan.
Fitzpatrick and the Jets had a contractual standoff during the 2016 offseason even though he had no other serious opportunities in free agency and the team had no better option behind center. He eventually re-signed before training camp, but a six-interception performance in Week 3 against Kansas City led to multiple benchings during the season. Unsurprisingly, Fitzpatrick became a Buccaneer in 2017.
Ryan may have been a bit of a caricature given how he played to the New York media and might be best remembered for his “Let's go eat a goddamn snack” rant during the 2010 edition of “Hard Knocks.” Yet he was also generally beloved by his players and a defensive savant, always able to apply copious pressure despite never having an elite pass rusher in New York. Ryan’s first two seasons ended with defeats in the AFC championship game, then his tenure was slowly unraveled by injuries and drama. Still, probably no Jets HC was better, save Super Bowl winner Weeb Ewbank.
Had the Jets kicker made either of his field-goal attempts – both inside 50 yards – in the final two minutes of regulation, the Jets would have upset the 15-1 Steelers at Heinz Field and advanced to the 2004 AFC championship game. Alas, too much to ask as Pittsburgh prevailed in overtime.
Did you remember eventual Hall of Famers Steve Atwater, Alan Faneca, Ty Law, Ronnie Lott, Art Monk, Ed Reed, Jason Taylor and LaDainian Tomlinson played for the Jets? All had brief stints with the team, most completely forgettable.
Eventual Hall of Famer John Riggins was also a Jet, though he started his career in New York. But despite being the team MVP twice in his first five seasons, including a Pro Bowl effort in 1975, he and the club couldn’t get on the same page financially or philosophically. Riggins left for Washington in 1976 and went on to be a league MVP and Super Bowl 17’s MVP.
You probably didn’t forget the three-time MVP joined the team in 2008 after another retirement reversal in Green Bay led to his departure and Rodgers' ascendance. And though Favre sexually harassed a club employee, and the team kicked Pennington to the curb, it almost worked – the Jets starting 8-3 and looking like a legit Super Bowl threat. Then Favre tore his biceps, tried to play through it, the team failed to report it … and finished 9-7.
Ironically, the Jets were desperate to draft Favre in 1991 but didn’t have a first-round pick. They almost got him anyway – except the Atlanta Falcons snatched him with the 33rd overall selection. The Jets picked 34th and wound up with Louisville QB Browning Nagle, who won three of 13 starts in New York.
After being dumped for Favre, Pennington joined the division-rival Dolphins in 2008. He led Miami to a 24-17 victory at the Meadowlands in the regular-season finale, giving the Fins the AFC East crown, eliminating the Jets and cementing Comeback Player of the Year honors for himself.
Perhaps trying to replicate some of Bill Belichick’s success, the Jets raided his New England staff for defensive coordinator Eric Mangini, perceived as a rising star, prior to the 2006 season. It went well at first, Mangini leading the Jets to a wild-card berth – they were smoked by the Patriots 37-16 – and earning a cameo on “The Sopranos.” Then he initiated the Spygate controversy against Belichick and things went … less well. After 2008’s Favre-ian collapse, Mangini was fired having never returned the Jets to postseason.
You can’t miss on the second pick of the draft, and maybe the Jets didn’t when they selected Wilson in 2021. But his ineffectiveness wrought the Rodgers trade in the first place, though Wilson now gets another shot at redemption.
You can’t miss on the third pick of the draft, either, but the Jets pivoted from Darnold to Wilson after just three seasons – though in part to reset the quarterback position financially. And, in Darnold’s defense, the organization came up woefully short in regard to constructing a supporting cast around him.
The NFL isn’t high school, but Darnold was nevertheless knocked out for three games in 2019 with the virus.
Shortly after returning from the mono, Darnold was picked off four times in a Monday night loss to the Patriots, an NFL Films mic catching him saying, “I'm seeing ghosts.” Little more than a year later, the Darnold era had been exorcised.
However before Darnold was traded to the Carolina Panthers to make way for Wilson, he led the previously 0-13 Jets to wins over the Rams and Browns, a pair of teams that reached the playoffs in 2020. The wins proved catastrophic for the Jets, costing them the chance to take Clemson’s Lawrence, widely considered a generational prospect, atop the 2021 draft.
A second-round pick in 2013, QB Geno Smith replaced injured Sanchez. But Smith’s forgettable four-year hitch with the team is best remembered for the broken jaw he suffered after being punched by a teammate in a locker room argument over a debt.
At least Smith, whose career finally took off with the Seattle Seahawks in 2022, got on the field. New York has butchered plenty of drafts through the years, but most quarterback busts at least earn one regular-season snap before being Jet-tisoned. Not so for 2016 second-round Penn State product Christian Hackenberg, whose selection was widely derided in the moment.
Perhaps you’re familiar with the legendary 1983 draft – the one that produced eight Hall of Famers, three of them quarterbacks? The Jets didn’t get any of them. They could have had Dan Marino, who would go on to torment them for years in Miami, with the 24th selection but took UC-Davis’ Ken O’Brien instead. Rock on.
The Jets’ Super Bowl reign lasted one year after the Chiefs dethroned them at Shea Stadium in the divisional round of the 1969 AFL playoffs. Namath’s ability to pass was compromised on a gusty day, and the game turned when the Jets were stonewalled despite a first-and-goal from the Kansas City 1-yard line in the fourth quarter. New York lost 13-6 in what turned out to be Namath’s final postseason appearance.
… fundamentally different than the legendary, World Series-winning 1986 Mets. The Jets actually started the season 10-1, including an unforgettable 51-45 overtime thriller over Miami in Week 3. But the Dolphins doused that hot start with a 45-3 rout on Monday night in Week 12. The Jets never won another regular-season game.
Despite ending the regular-season on a five-game skid, New York recovered enough to beat the Chiefs in the wild-card round. But a week later, they coughed up a 20-10 fourth-quarter lead in Cleveland – assisted by DE Mark Gastineau’s roughing penalty on QB Bernie Kosar on a second-and-24 pass. The Browns prevailed 23-20 in double overtime on Jan. 3, 1987.
Gastineau was a great player in his prime, leading the league in sacks in 1983 and 1984 with a staggering total of 41, 22 in the latter season when he set the (since broken) single-season standard. But his pursuit of stats and maybe actress Brigitte Nielsen didn’t always endear him to teammates. And opponents were none too fond of his (ridiculously bad) celebratory post-sack dances. This was especially true of Hall of Famer Jackie Slater, who shoved Gastineau after he bagged QB Vince Ferragamo in 1983, inciting a bench-clearing melee between the Jets and Rams. The NFL outlawed excessive celebrations like Gastineau’s in 1984, the league acronym alternately interpreted as “No Fun League.”
Both teams went 1-15. Both teams beat the Jets.
The Jets were beating the Oakland Raiders, a bitter AFL rival at the time, 32-29 in the 10th game of the 1968 season. However the game ran long, and NBC cut away from it and instead offered East Coast viewers the film “Heidi” at 7 p.m. Oakland won with a pair of touchdowns in the final minute, winning a 43-32 stunner most of the country was deprived of. Didn’t take long for the league and its broadcast partners to ensure games were aired until conclusion in affected markets … though that didn’t help the Jets.
The Ohio State pass rusher was the sixth overall pick of the 2008 draft. He collected exactly zero sacks in the NFL.
The Penn State tailback was the second overall pick of the 1990 draft … and averaged about 500 rushing yards over his four seasons in Gotham. To think future Hall of Famers Cortez Kennedy and Junior Seau were on the board with Thomas. Or, if New York really had to have a runner, eventual all-time leading rusher Emmitt Smith was around until No. 17.
The Jets’ strength and conditioning coach for four years, he tripped a Dolphins player running down the sideline during a 2010 game (among various other misdeeds during his employment). Alosi was suspended after the incident and never returned to the team.
A play that's become quasi-common was a revelation on November 27, 1994. The Jets, 6-5 at the time under first-year coach Pete Carroll and driving toward the playoffs, led the Dolphins 24-6 in the second half. But Marino brought Miami back and delivered the coup de grâce with 22 seconds remaining, an 8-yard TD pass to Mark Ingram – after faking out the NYJ defense by pretending to spike the ball and stop the clock – and giving the Dolphins a 28-24 victory. The Jets didn’t win again that season, and Carroll was fired.
On the heels of canning then-unproven Carroll, then-Jets owner Leon Hess turned to Rich Kotite, saying: "I'm 80 years old and I want results now.” Kotite lasted two years … and the results were the Jets going 4-28.
Much of Jets’ fans angst might have been alleviated – had Peyton Manning decided to leave the University of Tennessee after his junior season and entered the 1997 draft, when the Jets held the No. 1 pick. However he returned to the Vols, and then things got worse for Gang Green …
Coming off a 1-15 season, and with Manning not in play, newly acquired HC Bill Parcells decided to restock his roster. So he dealt down from No. 1 to No. 6, passing on the opportunity to snatch future Hall of Fame LT Orlando Pace. Then Parcells dropped from No. 6 to No. 8, passing on the opportunity to get future Hall of Fame LT Walter Jones. (Ugh and ugh.) LB James Farrior, who was much better in Pittsburgh later in his career than during his Gotham stint, "headlined" New York's forgettable haul, which could have also included Hall of Fame TE Tony Gonzalez, who went 13th.
What a Bicentennial for Jets fans as the successful college coach took over their team. Holtz made his players learn a fight song, then fled to the University of Arkansas with a game left to play. No other Jets squad was outscored by this many points (214), until the 2020 team matched the differential (though it played two more games). The pre-Holtz 1975 Jets were only slightly more competitive. Collectively, the 1975 and ’76 Jets both went 3-11 while chewing up and spitting out four head coaches. Namath won four of 21 starts and threw 44 INTs (against 19 TDs) during his final two years with the team.
New York hoped his Olympic speed would translate into stardom. Not so much. The No. 2 pick of the 1980 draft never looked natural as a receiver, often leaving his feet while trying to catch easy passes. The next player taken was Hall of Famer Anthony Munoz, arguably the best left tackle of all time. The next receiver selected was Monk.
New York could have had Warren Sapp ... or Law ... or Derrick Brooks. But in typical J-E-T-S fashion, they screwed it up royally and took the plodding Penn State tight end with the ninth pick of the 1995 draft. (And the availability of Law and Brooks didn't deter the Jets from choosing DE Hugh Douglas 16th overall, either.) How cruel have the Nittany Lions been to the Jets?
He never coached a game for the Jets but was twice their interim boss, bookending Parcells’ 1997-99 tenure. The second time, Belichick stepped down after a day, rendering his decision on a napkin that read, “I resign as HC of the NYJ.” He subsequently took over the Patriots for the 2000 season … and proceeded to give the Jets a few problems over the coming decades.
In their first game after the 9/11 attacks in 2001, the Jets gave their fans a minor lift by beating Belichick’s Patriots 10-3 in Foxborough. Footnote: During that game, Jets LB Mo Lewis nearly killed – seriously – New England QB Drew Bledsoe with a hard hit on the sideline. With Bledsoe headed for the hospital, QB2 Tom Brady entered that game … and basically didn’t leave for 19 miserable seasons (for Jets fans anyway).
It’s been some time since the Jets tormented their fans with gut-punching postseason pitfalls – basically because they haven’t qualified since 2010. (No other team has a playoff drought that extends further than 2015.) Rodgers was going to change that in 2023 but, barring an ability to warg Wilson, he won’t.
But there’s always next year – a phrase Jets fans know only promises misery with a new, unimaginable twist.
***Follow USA TODAY Sports' Nate Davis on X, formerly Twitter @ByNateDavis.
