Fan Loyalty: A Concept Based On Hope -- Even For Jets, Mets Fans

By Trevor Gill

Why do we do it to ourselves? Why do we allow sports to ruin our lives?

I have spent the first 16 years of my life watching the Mets blow game after game, and the Jets hang in games just long enough to lose them in the end. Yet like so many sports fans I continue to torture myself.

If you have a bad car that never works, you get a new one. If you have a big nose, you get a nose job. A bad wife? No problem, you get a divorce.

But why are sports different? Why do we feel such deep loyalty to teams that don’t even know we exist? Or to players that for the most part, don’t really care about us, as long as they get paid?

My father has been a Jets fan dating back to the early 1960s. What does he have to show for it? One game. One championship. That’s it. Why do we sit in frigid temperatures at games that are pretty much re-runs.

Going into the fourth quarter of the Jets game on Sunday, everyone knew what was going to happen. How could we not? It had all the makings of a classic Jets debacle. Have we not learned from the long history of this team (including this year's many crushing defeats)? We know it’s coming, but its like we have to feel the pain for it to become a reality. What do we ever get back from this team? We see that they don’t care about the fans one bit. A new stadium with no roof, expensive seat licenses, and higher priced tickets. What a reward to fans who have been loyal for years.

"The 50 percent deposit for the 2010 tickets is another joke. Supposedly the Jets want to see a sign of “good faith from their fans.” The guy who sits next to us put it perfectly. 'If sitting in the bitter cold watching the Jets during the Kotite era wasn’t a sign of good faith, then I don’t know what is.'” -- Trevor Gill

The sad thing is how excited my dad and I were about our seats for next year: Eleven rows higher up, 50 percent deposit (only for non-PSL seats) for next season, and $25 more per ticket (per game). My mom looked at my dad and said, “And this is good news?” The 50 percent deposit for the 2010 tickets is another joke. Supposedly the Jets want to see a sign of “good faith from their fans.” The guy who sits next to us put it perfectly. “If sitting in the bitter cold watching the Jets during the Kotite era wasn’t a sign of good faith, then I don’t know what is.”

There can be much said about this last Jets loss, or any of them for that matter. There can be plenty of blame to go around for everyone. But why don’t we ever look at ourselves and wonder why? No one is forcing me to sit in the snow watching James Dearth snap a football higher than the Empire State Building.

There is no contract telling me that I cannot abandon the Jets. It is some sort of force that tells us if we root long enough and hard enough, eventually it could be our year. It is that hope that keeps my feet from getting frostbite at the crappy Meadowlands, the hope that always keeps my eyes on the MLB hot stove (even though I know I will be disappointed the next season) and the hope that makes us always feel that “this is our year.”

No matter what happened the year before, we, as sports fans, always try to look at the positive. Hey, if you're 0-16, you will have the No. 1 pick in the draft. If you get eliminated in the playoffs it means that you have a chance to get back there next season. There is always a need to keep rooting and it is because of hope.

Granted, I am young and there is time for me to lose hope, but I can’t. The reason I cheer for those stupid Mets and Jets is because at the end of the day I love them. And no matter what is going on in my life, good, bad, whatever, I can always count on a great Jets fourth-quarter meltdown. I always think back at that great sign that was put up after the Rangers won the cup in 1994 that read “Now I Can Die In Peace.” It says it all for pathetic sports fans everywhere.

When, my team ever wins a championship, only then, will it all be worth it. Until then, I’ll keep waiting. Because remember, there is always next year.

Please follow Trevor Gill on Twitter at @chatterblog and his sports radio show on his blog at http://chatterblogradio.blogspot.com/