The Jets and the Rest
Ah, the Jets. Last week, the Jets were going to the playoffs. Then, a loss on Sunday to the Bills. Now the media says we're finished. (Apologies to Mark Cannizzaro for slightly exagerating his opinion). That loss did hurt, but hey, did you think we'd have seven wins in December over the summer? Whatever happens with the Jets in the next three games, I'm happy that they made a great deal of progress. As it stands, the Jets face Minnesota, Miami and Oakland in that order. Even if we crash and burn for the rest of the month, I can't see the Jets not picking up at least two more wins. Be happy. Mangini and Tannenbaum are geniuses. A couple of off-season moves and a good draft puts us in great shape for years to come.

Actually, Cannizzaro is quite right when he says this:

The fact is, the Jets have drawn their fans deeper into this season watching games of significance than virtually anyone dared to predict.

The Jets have done this without a dynamic playmaker on either side of the ball. The Jets, quite simply, do not have anyone close to - to borrow from Herman Edwards - a so-called "da-na-na, da-na-na," ESPN "SportsCenter" highlight player.

Add a dynamic running back to their offense next season, a player who can be counted on to bring some 1,300 yards to 1,500 yards to the mix, and see how much better Chad Pennington and the Jets' offense will be.

Defensively, the Jets have a solid foundation, but a playmaker is missing on that side of the ball, too.

But if you're a masochist, read this for a breakdown of the playoff possibilities.

In other football news, Lamar Hunt, owner of the Chiefs and namer of the "Superbowl" passed away. Hunt was one of the original AFL franchise owner and was also one of the founding investors in the Chicago Bulls. His death had a slight ironic twist:

Hunt remained influential in league affairs, and the trophy given annually to the AFC champion is named for him. A persistent advocate of rethinking the rules, he helped see through the adoption by the NFL of the two-point conversion, used by colleges and the AFL, in 1994.

He also fought to break the grip on Thanksgiving Day home games by Dallas and Detroit; the NFL this year added a third game to the Thanksgiving schedule and put it in Kansas City, where it may stay permanently.

Hunt, however, was too ill to attend. In a sad twist, he was also unable to view the game on television. The newly added game is shown on the NFL Network, available on cable systems and via satellite, and the Dallas hospital to which he had been admitted did not have access to the network. Hunt listened to the broadcast over a phone.

Base10 has something to say about this as well. He got RCN specifically because they carry the NFL Network and he anticipated that the eight-game package that was to be shown of NFLNet would be available. Not so. In an ongoing dispute between the NFL and the major cable carriers, the actual games are not being shown. RCN didn't exactly advertise this fact when I signed up. Now there's no good guy-bad guy thing going on here. Between the NFL and cable networks, it's always more like bad guy-worse guy. The NFL wants too much money and for the network to be included with basic cable when they are only providing a small amount of original content. The cable companies want it to be a premium channel. Meanwhile, who gets screwed? The fans. At least Scarlet Knight fans are catching a break.
- posted by Base10 @ 10:34 AM