We're just finding different ways to not be successful

We all have our crosses to bear in this life. For me, it's rooting for the Mets and Jets. Each season, each team finds new and different ways to disappoint.

The Mets staged the single greatest collapse in Major League Baseball history three years ago. They followed that up with another, less dramatic, but equally devastating collapse two seasons ago and never bothered showing up to play in 2009.

The Jets haven't won anything since 1969 and, in their own unique way, are even more challenging to follow than the Mets.

This year's squad not only started off with three straight wins, but brought an attitude of brashness and trash talking worthy of a certain best-selling, erstwhile governor of Alaska. Sure enough, though, the team has imploded midway through the season.

The ways in which the Jets lose can be as riveting as the best plot twists in a Colin Dexter 'Inspector Morse' murder mystery. One never knows how they will hand away a game to a lesser opponent. One week, they dominate both sides of the scrimmage line, only to be betrayed by their special teams. This past Sunday, the usually reliable, in-your-face defense completely collapsed in the last seconds of a loss to the Jaguars.

You know things are bad when the head coach, Rex Ryan, admits he '....would make a lot of calls' to friends and mentors in the game asking for advice because he did not have answers. That's comforting. The new head coach has no idea why his team is imploding. He says the situation is 'a comedy of errors, but it's not funny.' Amen to that. Jets fans haven't been laughing about anything since a certain Joe Willie Namath pulled off the impossible dream on January 12, 1969.

So, what's worse? A Mets manager (Willie Randolph) who shrugs his shoulders and says, 'Hey, if it's not your life and it's not your wife, how important can it be?' Or a Jets coach (Ryan) who shakes his head and laments, 'We're just finding different ways to not be successful.'

Comments

[Trish]

At least you're not a Cubs fan :(

[RepMan]

Point made, Trish. Or a Pirates fan for that matter. That sorry franchise just set an all-time record for the most consecutive losing seasons. Not pretty.

[Syd Steinhardt]

Oh, puh-leeze. You want suffering? I'll give you suffering: I am a Maple Leafs fan married to a Cubs fan. Between the two of us, there are 143 years of no championships...and no end in sight for either one of us.

[Syd Steinhardt]

Oh, puh-leeze. You want suffering? I'll give you suffering: I am a Maple Leafs fan married to a Cubs fan. Between the two of us, we have experienced 143 years of no championships...with no end in sight.

[RepMan]

I feel your pain, Syd. But, truth be told, Toronto is a second-tier market, so I'd expect the team's management to be somewhat limited in terms of their financial ability to 'buy' pennants a la the Yankees. There is clearly no such excuse for the Cubbies. The Mets typically enjoy the second or third largest payroll in baseball, yet they never convert either.

[Lunch Boy]

What about a team that does have a track record of good success, but no championships? The Philadelphia Eagles’ Andy Reid and Donovan McNabb have the best regular season and playoff records of any team coach and QB tandem in club history, but have failed to win the Super Bowl in five tries. Of course there is a fault in execution of their “business” plan, but management continues to reward the duo (and other top folks in the organization) for “almost getting it done.”

What message does ownership offer to its fans (shareholders) by extending both of their contracts?

[Lunch Boy]

Sorry - the lost in the Super Bowl only once, but 4 other losses in the NFC Championship game...you get the point though.

[RepMan]

Amen, Lunch. Mediocrity is rewarded in sports. Btw, the Bills and Vikings share your winless Super Bowl angst. If memory serves, they've made four and three winless trips, respectively.

[Lunch Boy]

Joe Banner, the teams GM said at the end of training camp and before the start of the regular season that the Eagles "have the best roster in the NFL." Jeffrey Lurie, the team's owner calls his franchise "the gold standard." Believe me, I would not want to go back to the days of 3-13 seasons, but right now, standing at 5-4 certainly doesn't jive with the BS we're fed.

[RepMan]

Again, I can feel your pain, Lunch. Various players proclaimed the Mets THE team to beat before the 2007, ’08 and ’09 seasons. Trash talking works only when the athletes deliver on the trash. Love them or hate them, Ali, Namath and Roger Mayweather delivered on their trash talk.”

[D]

They WERE the team to beat. And everyone did.

[RepMan]

Insightful, D. Very insightful.