Each season, the NFL sends out a questionairre to each of the 32 teams. In this year's questionairre, the teams were asked: "Was there any one team that you had no respect for that came in and beat you and left you feeling schooled?" 9 teams answered "The Jets". NE refused to answer. Smile damin!!! This may be my last dumass post before the draft!!!
In football and other professional sports respect and a buck fifty will get you a tall coffee at Starbucks. What I want is for teams to really not want to play the Jets, not want to see them on the schedule, not want to have to face them in the playoffs, just generally not want to be around them. Respect I could care less about. Let me see some old-fashioned fear and loathing, that's what I want.
I read an article about the horrible effects of heavy drinking and it SCARED the shit out of me. So that's it. Starting today, no more FN reading! That made ya smile!
This team has no identity at all, it will never be feared. The last time it did were the years of the "sack exchange". Since then it's been mediocrity on both sides of the ball.
We have no identity yet. We're working on it, but I agree...I doubt anyones losing sleep thinking about facing the Jets D or O.
its the future now, you might not think so but teams are feeling hesitant on positivity when it comes to playing the jets this year, the fact that we have no identity poses a threat on what other teams cannot focus on. therefore, IT will translate into some great plays. like what LC did on the patsies.
yea we dont really wow anyone so much that they lose sleep, were killin em softly, thats how the Jets do it.....
This comment is ridiculous. You don't need an "identity." You need to win. In the age of free agency teams change quite a bit from year to year. What is the Colt's identity outside of Peyton Manning? What is Seattle's identity? Philadelphia's? Denver's? What is Pittsburgh's identity? As for the nobody fearing the Jets since the days of the Sack Exchange, I disagree. First of all, in 1981, the only true year of the Sack Exchange, the Jets were coming off a 4-12 season and started the season 0-3. Nobody feared them at all. 1981 was a lot like 2006 - the Jets came out of nowhere and made the playoffs as a wild card with 10 wins and lost in the first round. In 1982, the Jets were 6-3 in a strike year and would not have made the playoffs if the playoffs were not expanded because of the strike. 8 teams made the playoffs in each conference other than the normal 5. The Jets were the 6 seed. They were not a 'scary' team that year and the deep playoff run was somewhat unexpected. The Jets were incredibly respected and feared in 1998. Nobody wanted to play the 2002 Jets in the playoffs. The 2004 Jets came within a field goal of the AFC title. All three of those teams were arguably as good or better than the 81-82 Jets. Lastly, I don't even know what it really means to be "respected" or "feared" in the NFL. You can be respected, like the Steelers were after winning the SB and then lose 7-8 games and lose "respect" and "fear." These are just names. You measure a team in the NFL by wins and losses and playoff advancement. A Jet team that went 10-6 and made the playoffs after the debacle in 2005 was a very successful team that looks on its way to being a perennial contender.
I agree with White Shoes. "Identity" isn't the word, really. Who cares about "identity?" Now fear of playing us is something else. No, we're not the Miami Dolphins at the height of their undefeated streak. We're not a "dynasty" team either... Dallas in it's heyday and the Steelers' Iron Curtain years come to mind... teams like that, which make you look at the schedule and cringe. But any team that doesn't think this team can whip them this year and doesn't prepare well is gonna get whipped, plain and simple. This is a young team who's been assembling talent and it's going to be a hard team to evaluate. The reason this team should be feared is the unknown. With some of the offensive weapons we've picked up and some of the defensive moves we've made and will probably make in the draft (including finishing both lines for now), if this team ever gels in these positions and its talent blossoms, we'll be a team to be feared this year. And the thing about that is, teams that don't prepare well against us because they think it's gonna be the Same Old Jets won't realize it until after we give them a good ass-whooping 31-10.
I get it for free :grin: These words being banded about , 'fear and respect' , just reminds me of the great teams that played in the 60s and 70s , not now. In this last decade , undoubtedly the team that was/is head and shoulders above everybody else is the Pats , but do other teams fear them? I think not , respect yes.
Very good post. Of your specific examples the only teams that absolutely have identities are Pittsburgh: smashmouth football and a likely loss, quite possibly by a humiliating margin, and Indianapolis: welcome to the offensive show that never ends and a likely loss. Nobody who has the Steelers or the Colts on their schedule for 2007 is particularly happy about the matchup, despite the fact that the Steelers lost 8 games last year. Other teams with definable identities at the moment include the Ravens (stifling defense and a likely loss) and the Patriots (machine-like precision on offense and a bend but don't break defense and a likely loss.) The common factor in all of these is the likely loss that your team is going to take when they match up against the other team's identified strengths. This is true even when that team, like the Steelers, is coming off an off year. What I want for the Jets is a definable identity that leads to a likely loss for the other team. That's what people would grow to fear. Note that of all the teams we've discussed the only one that has been able to do this generationally is the Steelers. All the other teams have come and gone over the last 30 years, but the Steelers have been a likely loss for most teams during the vast majority of that span. And they've done it with smashmouth football which is their signature trait and the things that teams fear. Bengals fans learned yet again in the 2005 playoffs that smashmouth football is something to be feared. They lost their starting QB to a legal (no fine or penalty was levied) hit from yet another smashmouth Steelers player.
