NO LIFE AT METLIFE: Jets fans should stay home Sunday against the Cardinals, the Post’s Brian Costello writes, to send a message to owner Woody Johnson. (N.Y. Post: Charles Wenzelberg)
Woody Johnson owes Jets fans an explanation.
How did this happen? How did a team a game away from going to the Super Bowl two years ago devolve into a punch line? And how is the Jets owner going to fix it?
Johnson rushed out of MetLife Stadium on Thanksgiving night without speaking to reporters after his team’s 49-19 humiliating loss to the Patriots. It is unlikely Johnson will say anything publicly again until the end of the season.
Now, it’s time for the fans to get a message across to Johnson. Skip Sunday’s game with the Cardinals.
I know every Jets season-ticket holder has spent a lot of money to go to these games and there are only eight a year. But it’s time Johnson got a message from you. So leave the grill in the garage this weekend, take the kids to the park, do some Christmas shopping.
Just don’t set foot in MetLife Stadium.
And don’t sell your tickets, either. Make sure there are so many empty gray seats in the stadium that Johnson can’t even choke down a shrimp cocktail in his luxury suite.
Instead of hitting Stubhub to unload your tickets, mail them to Johnson. Let the unused tickets pile up on his desk so he gets a signal from you that dollar store football at department store prices won’t be tolerated.
Make out the envelope to:
Woody Johnson
c/o New York jets
Atlantic Health Training Center
One Jets Drive
Florham Park, NJ 07932
What Johnson has done to the season-ticket holders this year is awful. The Jets have the highest average, non-premium ticket price in the league at $117.94, according to Team Marketing Report’s Fan Cost Index. That is on top of personal seat licenses for all of those except the upper deck.
What have you gotten for that price?
A preseason with no touchdowns. Regular-season losses by 34, 30 and 21 points. Parking aggravation. Cursing in the stands. And the biggest distraction in the league at backup quarterback.
Not to mention Johnson begging the NFL to give the Jets a home game on Thanksgiving, ruining the holiday for his fans.
No wonder the Jets are on every website and radio station trying to hawk tickets that no one will buy.
Jets fans deserve a refund this year after watching their 4-7 season stumble, bumble and butt-fumble their way out of playoff contention. If the Jets were a steak, you would send it back. If they were a purchase at a store, you would be searching for the receipt. Instead of looking like competition for the Patriots on Thursday, the Jets played the Washington Generals to the Pats’ Globetrotters.
My email is filled with stories of longtime Jets fans who have given up their tickets after years of rooting for them at Shea Stadium and across the parking lot at Giants Stadium. Many surrendered because of PSLs. Others because watching at home on a big-screen TV became that much more enjoyable than heading to the East Rutherford Eyesore that Woody and John Mara built.
After this season, I suspect more of you will decide not to renew those season tickets. It’s hard to blame you. A look at Stubhub yesterday showed 8,068 tickets for sale for Sunday’s game and 10,938 for the Dec. 23 game with the Chargers.
Despite his protests, Johnson has shown his priority is selling tickets and grabbing headlines. It’s time to send Johnson a message.
Stay away Sunday and let him know you’re tired of the product he’s peddling.
Kerry-ing a grudge vs. Rex
The Jets will see a familiar face on Sunday when safety Kerry Rhodes returns with the Cardinals. Rhodes spent five years as a Jet before Rex Ryan shipped him out of town after the 2009 season.
Rhodes has done just fine since he left the Jets. He has become a leader of the Arizona defense and is having another strong season.
It will be interesting to see what he and Ryan have to say about each other this week. Ryan already said a lot about Rhodes in his 2011 book, “Play Like You Mean It.”
Ryan compared Rhodes to Ed Reed when he got the Jets job in 2009, then said he “didn’t fit” in the book.
“He was a selfish-ass guy,” Ryan wrote. “He wouldn’t work, and he was a Hollywood type, flashy and needing attention. I don’t mind flashy, but your work ethic had better back it up. He was a talented SOB, that’s for sure, but he wasn’t one of us.”
If you don’t think Rhodes — a very proud man — remembers these words, you’re nuts. Will he come back to haunt his old coach on Sunday?
* Does anyone really care that Fireman Ed is quitting?
Most true Jets fans I talk to can’t stand him for being an attention-loving, self-appointed face of the fans. The Jets easily can pipe in “J-E-T-S” chants into the stadium to get the crowd going and show the letters on the scoreboard.
Also if Ed Anzalone felt he was getting extra harassment because he was wearing a Mark Sanchez jersey this year, why not just ditch No. 6 and go back to the Bruce Harper jersey he wore for years?
His argument that the quarterback situation has divided the fans is a farce, too. I don’t think there are many fans in the stands who actually think Tim Tebow is better than Sanchez. They’re chanting when the team is losing or Sanchez makes a major error.
Now that there’s an opening, and he’s not doing anything anyway, maybe there is a new role for Tebow — “Fireman Tim.”
* The Jets signed WR Mardy Gilyard after trying him out yesterday, according to a source. Gilyard was one of 16 players the team tried out, including QB Matt Simms, who spent training camp with the Jets.