NFL

10 bad-blood moments between Jets and Patriots

Jets-Patriots has turned into arguably the NFL’s most delicious rivalry of recent vintage — full of star quarterbacks, alpha coaches, playoff clashes, controversy and subterfuge. The AFC East foes renew hostilities Sunday at MetLife Stadium: Geno Smith’s first home date with Tom Brady and the Hoodie-masterminded Patriots D.

We take the chance to look back at some of the most memorable moments — there are many — from this generation of Jets-Patriots bad blood.

  1. 1. Tuna's splashy move to Swamp

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    In leading the Jets to a 12-4 record in 1998, Bill Parcells was in contention for coach of the year honors but lost out to Dan Reeves, who had taken the Falcons to the same record. AP AP

    Only a few weeks after leading the Patriots to the Super Bowl in 1997, Bill Parcells left New England to become the new head coach and general manager of the Jets. Just over one year later, Parcells pried his former running back — Curtis Martin — away from the Patriots as a free agent. Martin would become the fourth all-time leading rusher in NFL history while  in Jets green.

  2. 2. Belichick bolts for Boston

    resigns
    AP

    The 10 letters than launched a rivalry: Bill Belichick resigns as “HC of the NYJ” one day after he is promoted following years as Parcells’ defensive coordinator. Belichick earns the forever loathing of NYers when he decamps for New England, bringing along Charlie Weis, Romeo Crennel and personnel man Scott Pioli to launch a dynasty. 

  3. 3. First story of a man named Brady

    Oh, Mo. Drew Bledsoe is entrenched as the Patriots quarterback until Week 2 of the 2001 season, when he is knocked out by a vicious fourth-quarter sideline hit from Jets linebacker Mo Lewis. You know the rest: Tom Brady, a second-year clipboard-holder out of Michigan, takes over, the Patriots fall to 0-2, then proceed to win 14 of 17 en route to a Super Bowl crown that converts Brady to an instant NFL legend.

     

  4. 4. Storybook season ends with a thud

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    In 2006, his first season after an acrimonious departure from the Patriots, head coach Eric Mangini led the Jets to a 10-6 record and a playoff appearance … in New England. It wasn’t pretty. The Patriots destroyed the Jets, 37-16, in the wild-card round.

  5. 5. Roll the tape: Jets snare Patriots* in Spygate

    Bill Belichick, Eric Mangini
    Mangini and Belichick in 2007. AP

    The Patriots began their near-perfect season with a 38-14 win over the Jets in the Meadowlands, but a New England cameraman is caught illegally taping the Jets sideline, igniting the Spygate controversy. Mangini is believed to have tipped off the officials, who confiscated the equipment, resulting in Bill Belichick being fined a record $500,000 and the Patriots being fined $250,000 and stripped of a first-round draft pick. Oh, and New England was asterisked with “caught cheating” in The Post’s NFL standings.

  6. 6. No ring-kissing on Rex's watch

    rexintroduced
    AP

    Jets head coach Rex Ryan was new to town in 2009, but he immediately added more fire to the heated rivalry. “I never came here to kiss Bill Belichick’s, you know, rings,” Ryan said on an interview on WFAN. “I came to win. Let’s just put it that way. So we’ll see what happens. I’m certainly not intimidated by New England or anybody else.”

  7. 7. Belichick drops four-letter word (it's not Jets)

    Jets
    Charles Wenzelberg

    Father-son bonding took an odd twist after a 37-16 Patriots win over the Jets in Week 10 of the 2011 season. Walking off the field at MetLife Stadium, Belichick threw his arm around his son, Stephen, and exclaimed: “Thirty-seven points on the best defense in the league? S— my d—.”

  8. 8. Playoff shocker in Foxborough: "Can't wait!"

    Five weeks after suffering a humiliating 45-3 loss in New England on Monday Night Football, the Jets returned to Gillette Stadium and shocked the top-seeded Patriots with a 28-21 win in the divisional playoff. While leaving the field, Jets linebacker Bart Scott let loose in an interview with ESPN: “Anybody can be beat. For all you nonbelievers … Disrespect us. Talk crap about the defense like we ain’t the third-best defense in the league. All we hear is about [the Patriots’] defense. They can’t stop a nose bleed.” Upon being reminded of the AFC Championship Game waiting in Pittsburgh, Scott unleashed his most famous moment as a Jet: “Can’t wait.”

     

  9. 9. Buttfumble, of course

    The Buttfumble, the blooper to end all bloopers, was produced in a Jets-Patriots regular-season game on Thanksgiving Night 2012. Mark Sanchez’s stumbling, fumbling foray into lineman Brandon Moore’s backside on a busted play led to a Patriots TD that made it 21-0 on the way to 35-0 on the way to a 49-19 final, the most humiliating loss – factoring in Sanchez’s endlessly looped lowlight – in the recent history of the rivalry.

  10. 10. Rex tells Jets to rest legs (no, not that way)

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    This is what it’s come to for the Jets in their uphill battle to unseat the bully Patriots: Ryan told his players, including newly-signed Josh Cribbs (pictured with wife), to tell their wives they had to skip domestic chores in the week leading up to Sunday’s game at the Meadowlands. He wasn’t being naughty, just desperate – as if the difference between the 3-3 Jets bagging their most important win of the year and dropping a seventh straight regular-season contest to the Pats might be skipping some lawn-mowing.