Superstitious Sunday

I don't really intend to make this into a sports blog, and considering that one of my most loyal readers is from Australia, and another is from Canada ( Plus another from New Zealand who used to comment a lot, but seemed to stop following this blog after my YouTube presence started to fade away. :( ), if I was going to blog about a sport regularly, it certainly wouldn't American football.

However, I'm going to have to touch on American football a least a little bit here, because otherwise, I wouldn't be able to tell you the odd story of superstitions and my birthday party.

As you probably already know, I turned 40 just a few days ago. On Sunday a few friends and family members gathered for my birthday party ( And I do mean "a few". I really didn't want to make a big deal out of my birthday. However, Ruth insisted on throwing a party, so we invited a few family members a few friends from the "old neighborhood" ). However, the focus ( at least on my part ) wasn't on my birthday, but rather on the football game that would be played at 4:40 that afternoon.

As I mentioned in my last post, a really BIG Jets games was being played that weekend. Well, at least it was big from a JETS fan perspective. The New York Jets won the Super Bowl ( the championship game of American football ) on January 12th 1969. From that point on, it's been almost been nothing but misery and frustration for Jets fans ( I was born January 15, 1970, and I started following the Jets in 1977 ). The Jets have not even advanced to the Super Bowl ( let alone won it ) since that day in 1969. They've made it to the AFC championship game ( the game they would have to win to make it to the Super Bowl ) twice since then, but they suffered crushing defeats each time ( In January of 1983 and 1999 ). On the day of my 40th birthday party, they were playing for the right to go to the AFC championship game. So, from a Jets fan perspective, this was a HUGE game. Nobody really expected the Jets to win this game, but we were all hopeful ( The Jets went 9-7 in the regular season. They advanced to the playoffs by winning their final two games against teams that were not really trying ( In the Jets 15th game Jets they beat a 14-0 Colts team which rested all their starting players in the 2nd half of the game because they had already wrapped up the best record in the conference ( Which means the Colts would automatically advance to the 2nd round of the playoffs, and would get to play all their playoff games at their home stadium ( except for the Super Bowl, which is always played at a neutral site ). In the Jets' 16th game, they beat a 10-5 Bengals team which had already wrapped up a playoff spot, and could not really improve their playoff position by winning. ). So, it the opinion of most people in the sports media, the Jets were gift-wrapped their playoff spot by the Colts and Bengals, and didn't even deserve to be in the playoffs. The Jets surprised those "experts" by beating the Bengals in the first round of the playoffs ( I bet the Bengals now regret helping the Jets get into the playoffs by not really trying to beat the Jets in the last game of the regular season! ), but they now had to travel to San Diego to play a Chargers team which had finished 13-3 by winning their last 11 games in a row. ).

So, we were all hoping that the Jets could get the Promised Land of the AFC Championship Game, but we also all ready to have the Jets rips out our hearts again. We could all see the Jets playing a great game, getting our hopes up, being on the verge of victory, and then crushing our spirit by losing in heartbreaking fashion. This kind of thing had happened far too many times in the past for us not to expect it. It happened the last time the Jets were in this position 5 years ago, and it happened in an extremely excruciating fashion back in January of 1987 ( more on the later ).

So despite being an extremely rational and scientific person, I decided that Sunday would be a great day pull out all the weapons in arsenal of sports superstitions. Perhaps we couldn't really do anything to impact the outcome of the game ( OK, I KNEW we couldn't ), but goddammit, as long as we were all watching the game together, I thought it would be fun to make ourselves feel like we could affect the outcome of the game.

So, the first item to considering in my bag of superstitious tricks was my Mo Lewis # 57 jersey. I has worn it for many big Jets games, but it didn't really have a great track record ( After all, the Jets don't have a great track record ). However, I like that jersey ( this should be obvious to all you MoLewis57 followers out there ), so I was trying to think of a way to mix it up to make the Jersey more effective.

I decided that because Mo Lewis was a defensive player, I would wear my Mo Lewis jersey when the Jets were on defense, and I would take off the jersey when the Jets had the ball. I also decided that when the ball was punted (Possession of the ball changes when one team punts ( kicks ) the ball to the other team ), I would need to put the jersey on or take the jersey off while the ball was in the air. Eventually, my brother Craig showed up to the game wearing a Wayne Chrebet #80 jersey. Chrebet was an offensive player, so I immediately told Craig that he needed to keep the #80 jersey on when the Jets had the ball, and take the #80 jersey off when the Jets were on Defense. Of course, he was also required to put the jersey on or take the jersey off during punts.

So, picture the following:
Two grown men ( 40 years old and 36.5 years old ) with wives, kids, and Engineering degrees, frantically pulling football jerseys on an off ( each time I was putting my jersey on, Craig was taking his off, and vice versa ) each time the ball was punted in the game, in some delusional attempt to help the Jets win. Ruth actually took a video of this, so you might see it on YouTube someday, but for now, just try to picture how ridiculous that must have looked.

While the jersey changing was fun, it didn't turn out to be the focus of our superstitious attempt to change the Jets' luck. The focus turned out to be a little football - or rather, what was left of it. For years I've had this little mini Jets football. It's about the size of a Nerf football ( about 9.5 inches ( 24 cm ) from tip to tip ), but it's actually inflatable ( like a real football ) with a synthetic leather surface and laces. Three quarters of the surface is a fake-leather brown color, while one quarter of the surface is green and white with the Jets logo. I've never really seen the football as superstitious object, but I like to nervously fiddle with the ball ( spinning the ball in my hands; flipping the ball in the air and catching it; lofting passes to myself across the room during commercials ) while I'm watching a football game.

About a week before the Jets/Chargers game, I noticed that the mini football was getting a little bit flat. So a took the football over to a little hand-held air pump I keep in the garage and pumped it full of air until it felt rather firm. Actually, it felt a little bit too firm after I pumped it, but I figured it would lose a little air pressure in the week before the game.

So, I think you know where this is heading. We are about one minute into the Jets/Chargers game on Sunday when the mini football explodes open in my hands. Well, it didn't really explode - it just kinda burst at one of the seems. All inflatable footballs have 4 panels of leather ( or in this case, synthetic leather ) running lengthwise along the axis of the ball. The 4 panels surround a rubber air bladder, and the panels are stitched together at 4 seams that run the length of the ball. Well, the stitches at one of the 4 seams spontaneously gave out, and the air bladder popped out of the opening and became twice as big as it had been when it was being held in place by the 4 panels. You can see what I mean in the photo below.


It wasn't as if I was doing anything unusual with the ball at the time. There had been another game on earlier in the day, and I had been fiddling around with the football for at least 4 hours.

Then, all of a sudden, just a minute into the Jets game, it pops open like that in my hands.

Well, we all figured that this had to be some kind of an omen. We weren't sure if it was a good omen or a bad omen, but it was definitely some kind of a sign. I didn't really didn't ponder the meaning of the exploding ball for more than a about a minute, because I was too busy focusing on the game. All I was feeling then was a little disappointment that my little toy ball was broken. It just wasn't as much fun to fiddle around with the thing now that it was roughly the shape of a basketball. Eventually, I handed the ball off to my brother-in-law Orion ( Debby and Orion had flown in from California to spend the long holiday weekend ( Monday was MLK day ) at our home. Ruth's Dad was staying over too, so we had a little family reunion that weekend. ). Orion told me he wanted to see if he could peel the rest of the synthetic leather shell of the football off the air-bladder. I figured "Why not?", the ball wasn't going to do me much good anyway.

In the meantime, the experiment with taking the jersey's on an off was having mixed results. The Jets were playing great defense ( The Chargers would only wind up scoring 7 points in the first half ), but they were not doing anything on offense ( Which just goes to show the power of Mo Lewis, and why it was wise of me to name all my websites MoLewis57 rather than WayneChrebet80 ). By about the middle of the second quarter, the Jets still hadn't gotten a first down ( Non-football fans: Believe me, zero first downs in a quarter and a half of football is very bad ), and I was trying to think of what superstitious adjustments we could make at halftime to help the Jets out ( OK, I know that sounds insane, but 33 seasons of suffering as a Jets fan will do that to you ). Just about that time, Orion announced that he had finished peeling off the outer shell of the mini football. He handed me the shell, and suggesting that I could try wearing it as a hat.

GENIUS!!!

It's no surprise that the guy is an MIT grad.

Orion's idea was pure genius . Of course, why not wear the shell of the football at a hat? Nothing else had worked yet, so why not try that? You can look at the first photo in this blog post for a close-up look of how the "hat" looked on my head. I decided to wear the Mo Lewis jersey without the football hat when the Jets were on defense, and wear the football hat without the jersey when the Jets were on offense ( It just made a stupid kind of sense to wear the football hat on my head only when the Jets had the football ). After I did that, the Jets started to move the ball a bit ( they actually got a few firsts downs ), but they still were not able to score in the first half. They Jets were losing 7-0 at halftime. When the first half ended, everybody rushed to grab some dinner at halftime ( Ruth got a bunch of hero ( submarine ) rolls and roasted all sorts of meats. She made some pulled pork ( the pork cooked in a crock pot all day ) that was OMFG-level good ).

I actually didn't get to make my sandwich until the first commercial after the second half started. Trying to be a good host, I let everyone else get their food first. I had just cut open my hero roll and was eying the pulled-pork when I noticed that the second half was about to start. The Jets were going to receive the 2nd half kickoff, which meant the Jets were essentially going to be on offense to start the second half. So, I rushed back to my seat, and quickly threw on my football hat AND my Mo Lewis jersey. Of course, the Mo Lewis jersey was for defense, so I should not have put it on, but in my haste to get back to my seat before the 2nd half kickoff I got a little bit confused.

In any case, before I realized what I had done wrong, the Jets received the 2nd half opening kickoff an ran it back about 40 yards. This was the best the Jets had looked moving the ball all day. About a second after that, Craig asked me why I was wearing my Mo Lewis jersey when the Jets had the ball. I told him it was an accident, but considering the results that accident "produced", I decided on new strategy for the 2nd half. I would wear my Mo Lewis jersey for the rest of the game, and wear the football hat when the Jets had the ball. Craig would immediately stop wearing the Wayne Chrebet jersey that had failed to produce results in the first half. Our strategy was set for the rest of the game. The photo below shows roughly what the room looked like for the rest of the game ( Well, kinda. Ruth and my Great Aunt Loretta ( standing in the back ) didn't care about the game, and were just posing for a photo Ruth insisted we all take ( she set up a camera with an automatic timer next to the TV ( from the camera's perspective, the TV is to the right )) during one of the more crucial moments of the game. As you might notice, my eyes are focused on the TV rather than the camera. )


While you may certainly be justified in doubting the power of the football hat, the game certainly turned around in the second half. The air was pierced with the high-pitched sound of my scream when the Jets took the lead 10 - 7 with a touchdown early in the 4th quarter ( Note to non football fans: American football consists of 4 quarters of 15 minutes each. A touchdown plus an extra point is worth 7 points, so the Jets touchdown early in the 4th quarter turned a 7-3 Jets deficit to a 10-7 Jets lead ). The touchdown happened about 10 seconds after the picture above was taken.

With 9:27 left in the game, the air was pierced with my scream again when the Jets scored a touchdown that would give them ( after the extra point ) a 17 - 7 lead.

Now, the Jets were really in the driver's seat. Their defense had dominated the Chargers all day. The Jets defense has been so good that a 10 point lead might as well have been a 20-point lead. Almost nobody watching the game though the Jets had a chance to lose the game.

... but I could stop thinking about January of 1987.

In January of 1987, the Jets were playing for a chance to go to the AFC Championship game. If the Jets mad it to the AFC championship game, they would have played the Denver Broncos, a team that had beat handily earlier in the year. With 4 minutes to go in the game, the Jets were leading the Cleveland Browns 20-10. I thought the game was all but wrapped up. I though we were going to win the next week and go to the Super Bowl.

But hey, I was still 12 days shy of my 17th birthday. Despite the 14-0 disaster of the AFC championship game 4 years earlier, I was still to young to really understand what it meant to be a Jets fan.

4 minutes of game time later, I understood.

Somehow, against all odds, the Jets manages to give up 10 points in those last 4 minutes. The key play in the those last 4 minutes was a stupid roughing-the-passer call against Mark Gastineau ( stupid, not because it was a bad call - stupid because I'll believe to my dying day that Mark Gastineau is an idiot who cost us a chance to go to the Super Bowl ) which extended a drive which led to Cleveland tying the game. The game went to overtime ( Note to non-football fans: Overtime in the NFL is sudden death - the first team that scores wins ). The Browns wound up setting up for an easy field goal to win the game and MISSED. Were things finally going the Jets way? No. It just the the football gods wanted to give us on final glimmer of hope so they could rip out our hearts and show it to us ( like those villians in Indian Jones and the Temple of Doom ). A few minutes later the Brown made a field goal to win the game 23-20, and I finally understood what it meant to be a Jets fan.

So, let's turn the clock forward to January 17, 2010. The Jets have a 10-point lead late in the 4th quarter, but I can't help thinking about what happened 23 years earlier. With 3 minutes and 36 seconds left, the Chargers get the ball trailing 17-7 and start driving the ball the field.

They start driving the ball REALLY quickly and easily down the field.

Oh God! Not again!

Not again!

PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE! NOT AGAIN!

This can't be happening! This can't be happening!

Chargers score a touchdown with 2 minutes and 14 seconds left.

Jets 17, Chargers 14.

The Jets get the ball back.

The Chargers have 1 time out left and the two minute warning will stop the clock.

The Jets need to get one first down to wrap up this game. If they can get one first down, they can run the clock out. If they don't get a first down, the Chargers will get the call back with about 70 seconds left and a legit shot to tie the game.

Heck, if Chargers get that ball back, they WILL tie this game with a field goal. There's no doubt in my mind. Heck they might even score a touchdown to win the game, and if the don't win in in regulation, they'll certainly win the game in overtime. This is gonna be January of 1987 all over again, unless the Jets can get that first down. This is going to be January of 1987 all over again, unless the Jets can gain 10 yards in the next 4 plays. Did I think they could do it? Well, take a look at the picture below ...


The Jets gain 9.5 yards on the next 3 plays.

There are 69 seconds left in the game.

It's 4th down and half a yard to go. The Jets need to get this much ...


... on the next play to win the game.

Did they get it?

Well, take a look at the picture below.

WE DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jets 17, Chargers 14.

GAME OVER!!!!!!!!!!!!

( Apparently, I screamed so loud, that I scared some of the little kids. Ruth had the camera on me while this was going on. I won't make any promises regarding YouTube clips, but don't be surprised if you see something on the YouTube site ).

A few more pictures to wrap this up ...

( Left to Right: Craig, Me, and my buddy Tom enjoying the win. BTW, Tom's superstition is to not wear Jets stuff during Jets game. He'll be wearing that Ranger's shirt next Sunday and I'll have that football on my head again. )


( Posing by my birthday cake after the win ).

Just one final note. I like making lists, and after letting this win sink in, I've decided that Sunday's game was the greatest Jets win I've every experienced, and the 5th greatest win I've every experienced as a sports fan.

The top 5:

1) Mets: Game 6, 1986 World Series
2) Mets: Game 7, 1986 World Series
3) Mets: Game 6, 1986 National Leauge Championship Series.
4) Knicks: Game 7: Eastern Conference Finals
5) Jets: January 17, 2010, Jets 17, Chargers 14.

I know I don't have a lot of sports fans who read this blog, but if you are a sports fans, please leave your top 5 list in the comments. C'mon Neil, considering that Canada immediately makes me think of Hockey, I'd be really curious to see if you'd list 5 Hockey games.

BTW, if the Jets beat the Colts next week, that victory would take the number 3 slot on the list above.

Yes, they are playing the Colts next week.

They are playing the team that pretty much lost on purpose ( and ruined the integrity of the game while up the change to have a perfect undefeated season ) to let the Jets get into the playoffs.

Can anyone say "Frankenstein's Monster"?

Can anyone say "poetic justice"?

J-E-T-S JETS JETS JETS!!!!!

Rich