Such is life for a Jets fan. After the horrific loss to Denver on Thursday, I was basically in the acceptance part of my grief process. I was detailing how I would be able to start my detox earlier this year, not to be interrupted by going to bars or drinking and eating poorly during football playoff games. Till then…I have two games that I am attending live. I’d hate to think there is nothing to play for. Then again, in previous years, many things have fallen into place, with the Jets quote-unquote backing into the playoffs, or perhaps the schedule will bear out. Oh, and there will no margin for error. Something, at which, the Jets have been acutely inept at this season, that whole low-margin-of-error thing.
“My advice to you is to start drinking heavily,” said my friend, whom I refer to as WOOOOOOO, over on Twitter the other day. This was mostly in response to me bitching there about the games I am attending live in the future, money spent, hopes dashed, disappointments met, and about cleansing myself of this sports hex I have put on myself.
In my life, there have been a few constants. One is my sports fandom and its affiliations: Mets. Jets. Rangers. The other are my love for John Landis films. Blues Brothers. Trading Places. Coming to America. Animal House. Besides sports, perhaps music and film draws people together in the same way. Sometimes, they collide and I can quote movies and enjoy sports at the same time.
When I was on the West Coast last week watching the Jets play the Patriots, I had to speak my tweets because my phone was charging. Meanwhile, the other three folks I was watching the game had no vested interest in the game conclusion (though they seemed to want to the Jets to win, since I was rooting for that conclusion). So they started talking about movies, like Kevin Smith films. Clerks. Jay and Silent Bob. Mallrats. Understanding these movies is cult-like. We throw around quotes like it’s Shakespeare.
When the conversation turned to Clerks II, I started going nuts. I HATED that movie, and thought it was better off not made. My husband and our friends disagreed. They loved it, especially the part about “ass-to-mouth.”
I guess you have to watch the movie to understand the context.
Meanwhile, when I say, “Jets 2011: Ass to Mouth,” you can get the drift. It’s roots are in a Kevin Smith movie, but the ramifications are far spread.
Think about it. The context of it in the movie was just for gross-out humor. Not that I’m not up for that. But this is what the Jets have been doing all season. This highly unsanitary and unorthodox of way of conducting themselves, when it should be easy. YOU NEVER GO ASS TO MOUTH. AND YOU DON’T DO STUPID SHIT AGAINST TEAMS LIKE THE BRONCOS.
See, I almost wished they lost that game I went to against the Dolphins. Maybe they would have snapped out of it. Then again, they are doing all the wrong things. They’re entitled to lose games, but they games they lose to are even messed up. Like losing to AFC teams that could potentially be a “tie-breaker” when it comes to playoff time (though, I just have to wonder if this is just not the year). Special teams being atrocious. Brian Schottenheimer convinced that as offensive coordinator his job is to fit the QB to the offense, not the other way around (as @metsjetsnets88 and @robzloto discussed on Twitter, this isn’t anything new…he’s done this was THREE QBs). I don’t think Schotty is the only problem (like, where is the backlash against Westhoff, as an example), but it’s clear that it’s PART of the problem. The problem being consistency.
And yet at the end of the day, the people taking it up the ass with the mouths of the media are Mark Sanchez, the “pretty-boy quarterback,” and Rex Ryan, the only man documented to have a foot fetish, because they are visible. Because they are the quarterback and the head coach. Hey, I’m not saying Sanchez is completely blameless. It seems like he almost has to trust himself to get the job done because of the way things are going. It’s not good.
Like when I watched the Mets faltering in 2007, I said losing games to the likes of the Washington Nationals in August (that they could have easily won) leaves no margin of error. Good teams find a way to beat the teams they are supposed to beat. The Jets of 2011 are making me feel the same way. Ass-to-mouth might have been funny in the context when my friends and I were discussing quotes from Clerks II. When talking about the Jets 2011 play, it’s certainly one that’s as unsanitary and undesirable in the short- and long-term.