New York Jets

Aint No Shit Talker Like a Football Shit Talker

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I’m certainly not reinventing the wheel by writing about football players who talk smack.  I happen to love it though, and I don’t really care about what people think about people backing their shit up or whatever.  I think it’s one of the great things that makes football football.  The anticipation of week to week, between games, there’s not much to do but practice and talk to the media.

Of course, when talking to the media, words can get twisted…or strategically placed to cause some friction.

One has to be living under a rock if one is not aware that there are high expectations placed on the Jets this year.  It’s easy to pick on them because they haven’t exactly won anything or made it far but not quite enough.  Trust me, as a Jets fan, I am well aware of this concept.  Even last week, the Twitterverse was blowing up at their play, only to come from behind and beat the Cowboys.  For their opponent this week, the Jacksonville Jaguars, it would be a feather in their cap for beating the big green machine.

Then Jaguars WR Jason Hill had to say that Darrelle Revis is a product of the New York hype.

Oh, brother.

I suppose that Hill is one of those aforementioned rock-dwellers who is unaware that Revis is pretty a much of a product of his OWN hype and styling, and is one of the most popular members on the team (and on Twitter).   How does Revis respond?  Oh, that he basically doesn’t know “Who that dude is.”

Do I think it will spill over into the field?  No.  Because at the end of the day, these guys get paid millions of dollars to take their lumps in the media and on the field.  But the funny thing to me, being with the spacing of games, is that a shit talker in the NFL is much different than the MLB, even NHL.  I know that if someone were to say something about, I don’t know, Jose Reyes (like the Phillies did monumentally in 2008), the media would be all over it, dragging it all over.  With the games being once a week, it’s just a build up, it’s done with as soon as the final gun goes off.

But it’s entertaining to sit and watch, both the game, and the pregame shit talk that occurs.

New York Manscapers

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Henrik Lundqvist didn’t just have me at “I am from Sveeden, ya?” but when he mentioned in Time Out New York this week that he wore suits four-five days a week.

*SWOON*

Much of it is an occupational thing — after all, he plays hockey that much per week, and wears suits as he travels with the team. Plus, I had the opportunity to get some photos of him at the Manhattan Center for a Rangers subscriber event and I think it was either Brandon Prust or Brian Boyle who said, “The invite said ‘business casual’ and Henrik looks like he’s going to the Prom!”

Sean Avery is clearly a goon on the ice, but he’s well-known in fashion circles, and even interned at Vogue for a time.  I’m one of the few Rangers fans who actually loves Avery.  I also like that he’s been outspoken against bullying and for marriage equality.  Sports guys are supposed to be seen as “tough guys,” and though there’s no question about Avery being one, I admire that he’s so passionate about these things, stuff no sports guys ever were to talk about.

Oh and Brad Richards, our new guy?  Made an appearance at Fashion Week…

More eye candy for the ladies came in the form of Mark Sanchez’s spread in GQ.  Damn, he looks good in green, doesn’t he???  The cover story said “Thank God It’s Football Season.”  All I could think is…let’s thank her for Mark Sanchez!!

Make no mistake: I am a sports chick, and I love attending games and watching them on TV…Hell, my husband and I might get divorced this weekend because I am pulling rank to watch the Jets game over the Mets game (on at the same time, thanks for the TV geniuses who didn’t consult with MY schedule).

That doesn’t mean, I can’t appreciate a good looking man, especially one in uniform.

On Your Toes

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I’m not a breaking news kind of gal.  Only if it’s something important, like someone gets traded or there’s an important free agent signing or there’s a response to some idiotic thing your team’s owner is saying (as a Mets fan, you can imagine…I have lots to write about).

But football is something I have an increasingly difficult time trying to find fresh content about which to write.  See, games are only once a week.  I don’t know about you guys, but I have a very immediate, knee-jerk reaction during the games especially.  It’s also easier for me to find things to say and write during a game, that when I have baseball and/or hockey overlapping (that have considerably more games to bitch and moan about…ESPECIALLY if you are a Mets and Rangers fan), I find my football fandom and my feelings get pushed aside for more immediate gratification.

Being me, though, I want to keep my thoughts and posts very personal, funny and engaging.  Like I said, it’s easier to do when you have new stuff to address each day, but also have some out-of-the-box thinking.  Like my post on comparing Rob Ryan to El Duderino…I have to say, I was proud of that post!  Especially for my foray into football writing, something which I would say is my definitive weakness.

Anyway, in my searches, I was able to link up with the Rant Sports’ Jets blogger, Jon Presser, who is a very creative out-of-the-box writer and thinker.  He agrees that the most difficult thing is to keep your readers on  your toes about football, and try to be engaging about new content in between the games.  However, Presser had a great piece today on his page, namely how right tackle Wayne Harris needs to step up his game, and is essentially an X-factor that no one really thinks about.  Now, this is the type of stuff I want to write about!  But since my reactions tend to be more in-the-moment and instinctive in any sport I follow, this is the type of stuff that grounds me as a fan, that I want to not only read, but I want to write as well.  So kudos to Presser (and be sure to click on the link as it is a good read).

Presser also brings up something else that the so-called smartest guys in the room weren’t talking about, but rather talking about the crown jewel that everyone pays attention to, and that’s the quarterback Mark Sanchez.  Hey, I have to admit, I like him too, but it’s more of a hero worship thing for me, since I truly believe he has a certain quality to him that is going to make him legendary in this town.  But ESPN brought up the effect of the cause Presser addresses, and that was how Sanchez was getting beat up during the game.  And how!  I kept cringing, and of course I was screaming about in on Twitter during the game.

My friend Blondie’s “That Ignorant Slut” Jake (just jokes – we go waaaay back) has his “There It Is Jake!” site, that he also writes about recaps and does his own version of Monday morning quarterbacking.  You know what I find?  That if my team does well on Sunday, I find I have nothing to bitch about on Mondays!  Perhaps like people like Jake, I need to do some Fantasy Football, so I have more of a reason to care about other games.  After all, the Jets provide me with a three-hour window to whine on Twitter about idiotic stuff they do.

So I guess my point is, I need to be able to channel that visceral response I have during games in order to give you some great Coop content.  So it’s gonna be a bumpy ride…in the meantime, though, I suggest you follow me on Jets game days @Coopz22 on Twitter.  I’m Randy Quaid-like, I get yelled at for being crazy, it’s fun.

El Duderino

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Uma? Oprah?  Dude?  Lebowski?

Okay, now that I got my obligatory “Isn’t Rob Ryan a doppelganger for El Duderino???” photos out of the way, I can get to the good part.  And that’s of the game between the New York Jets and Dallas Cowboys on Sunday, September 11.

The TV guys were calling it the “Ryan Bowl,” which essentially means the identical twins (though Rob looks more like one of those Evil Parallel Universe from South Park version of Rex Ryan) are going to have a great defensive game and not much else.

It was surprising to me though, because the Jets once again start their season with not only a lot of hype, but a lot of yips as well.  It’s no secret that the young “Sanchize” has a ton of expectations thrust on him for this season.  And rightfully so.  If the Jets are this so-called force with which to be reckoned, he’s gotta step his shit up.  With all the running of their mouths they do (and trust me, I’m a fan, and it drives me nuts), the games get played on the field, and this is where they need to prove it.  Not by saying, “We’re awesome,” and then flounder in the AFC title game (yes, I’m still upset about that).

Anyway, both teams simply were not the juggernauts of defense, as the Cowboys kept on scoring, Sanchez had the yips, and Gang Green ALMOST looked afraid to score. To which I say, what’s the point of hammering the virtues of defense when a) the other team is just going to make you look foolish and b) you’re afraid to do anything about it.  As our friends in American Pie once told us, you don’t score till you score.

Till, you know, they started doing something about it.  Sanchez was getting sacked left and right, and looked foolish at times.  Tony Romo actually looked like he was rising to the occasion (talk about the hype machine).

But then it happened.  The Jets came back from a deficit, Nick Folk made us believers for at least one game, and Darrelle Revis is still the motherfuckin’ man.  Oh wait, I take that back.  At least behind Al Michaels (whom I adore), he is. Yet, this team has far to go before I can safely say that they are not only AFC Championship material, but Super Bowl quality that they have been touting since Ryan came aboard.  I’m a show-me person.  So show me.

I will say though, I was at the game last year where they came from behind against the Houston Texans last November, and I vowed at that moment I would not stop believing till the clock hit zero.

And The Coop abides.

Soaring

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My dad would probably tell you that I’ve been a Jets fan “all my life,” but technically since I was 10, as that was the year I really started to pay attention to the sport.  I, however, will tell you that I didn’t come around on the Jets till much later in life, till I was in my 20s, specifically in 2002.

And that was because that was the first year I not only really started paying attention to games, but that I really understood the passion that is there for Jets fans.  It was also the first year I started attending games.

As I’ve said before, I “speak” baseball, so I have a hard time finding parallels in life to football.  This could simply be because I came around so late to it.  But I do see it now.  I see the passion, the living-breathing-eating the sport, especially when it comes to Jets fans.

I’ve often called my contentious relationship with the Jets “an exercise in futility.”  This is because I’ve seen the Giants, a team I probably SHOULD have rooted for because everyone I knew was a Giants fan, win three goddamn Super Bowls in my lifetime.  I had a period of being irrationally angry with my father after the Giants beat the New England Patriots (though in reality, I was happy the Pats lost) in early 2008.  I said, and I quote, “It’s bad enough you made a Mets and a Rangers fan…but making me a Jets fan is the cruelest thing you could have EVER done to me!!”

Eh, it’s a character build.  Certainly the tide has shifted, as my friend Dee who also goes by “Mets Writers” in the sports communities sent me the pic I have posted above.

Four years ago, you couldn’t find this much Jets stuff in this town and surrounding areas.  Now she says, the true tragedy is that she couldn’t find a Jets pillow pet.  I think you could find a Jets bath mat though.

I made it a point to go to a game last year in the new stadium, what Jets fans christen “JetLife Stadium.”

Go Gang Green, Troop 16H lives…and

J! E! T! S!  Jets! Jets! JETS!!!!!

My Second Language

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I am a born storyteller.  I don’t just like talking about stuff that’s happened to me, but I have a photographic memory (sometimes anyway) and if you tell me something that is not prefaced by “You cannot tell a single SOUL about what I am going to tell you,” then consider me a proxy for repeating your information.

Baseball is a language that has shaped my narrative of a lot of these stories.  In fact, that’s me to the left, speaking at an event hosted by Greg Prince of Faith and Fear in Flushing and Jon Springer of Mets by the Numbers called “Amazin’ Tuesdays,” where the baseball literati congregated once a month and we did some readings from our respective blogs or books (sometimes both…in my case, just my blog, My Summer Family).  I have been a lifelong Mets fan, but my stories are baseball-wide.  I’m a little pitcher with large ears (no pun intended, with that “pitcher” thing), and I’ve borne witness to many funny stories over the years just by observing not only what’s going on with the field, but in the stands as well.

That very night at the gathering, I spoke of how I would yell, “Just Forfeit!” when an undesirable pitcher would come in for middle relief with a six run lead (shows you how much faith I’d have in whoever that was).  This was borrowed from a gentleman I sat next to in Baltimore in 1998.  The Orioles were playing the Seattle Mariners, and the game went into extra innings.  Former Met Jesse Orosco came into a tied game, and I believe there were men on base.  But when the dude in back of me started yelling, “Just forfeit! Just forfeit!” while throwing his hands in the air in futility, I knew I had to take that line as my own.  (PS The Orioles actually won that game)

I also told the story of how my friends whom I called the “Woodside Crew” (Frank, Tommy and Kim) would be done with the Mets in 2002, in their own exercise in futility, and in the 6th inning, Frank would stand up, and say, “Fuck these guys, I’m goin’ to Donovan’s.  Who’s comin’?”  Donovan’s is a famous pub in Woodside, right off the 7 line and the LIRR of the same stop, with a great burger.  My team can drive me to drink sometimes.  Donovan’s was a great watering hole.

The guy behind me in Mezzanine 22, Richie, would say things like “Hey, it’s the bottom of the 5th, we’re down 6-0.  WE GOT ‘EM RIGHT WHERE WE WANT ‘EM.”  Not even a hint of irony in his voice.  Meanwhile, my dad and I will STILL call or text each other at times during games where similar situations have occurred.  Ten years or so later, it’s still as funny as it once was.

This site is new.  I had my own blog for four years, and I write for several other Mets blogs still, trying to craft my voice and how I wanted to tell my stories.  However, it’s tough to share my experiences with different focal points who want to flog a certain player or just want to disagree with how the team is being operated.  I started doing podcasts because I wanted to get my sense of humor back.  I had lost the reason WHY I followed these teams, why I root for them and why I am a fan.  Sometimes, you need to laugh, and get back to our roots as to why we enjoy it.  It hasn’t been easy for us in the last few years.

Then I thought, wait a minute.  I also like to talk about hockey and football.  Baseball is my first language, so I may have a few broken sayings here and there as I write about hockey and football.  Especially football.  I have a feeling though, there’s going to be a lot of passion driving that narrative this year.

This is why I have started a new site, after staunch refusals and saying “NEVER. AGAIN.”  I have many stories to share, and I hope you enjoy reading/listening to them as much as I like telling them.

Introduction

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I’ve spent the better part of a year figuring out what next steps to take since I shut down my signature site, My Summer Family, my passionate narrative from a Mets season ticket holder point of view.

Things got to be too much…plus I wanted to do some side projects such as writing for Metsmerized Online, Daily Stache and Kiners Korner (and the podcast Kult of Mets Personalities)…but I never gave up the idea of having my own site again.  This time, more content, more fun stuff, and stopping taking myself so seriously.

Those of you know who know me as a Mets fan…welcome back!  But just to be clear, this offshoot of My Summer Family is now going to include my fan viewpoint of the New York Jets and the New York Rangers. I have a feeling I won’t be at a loss for content this year, for sure.

I attend several games per year for those sports…why not write about them?

I’m getting back to my roots here.  So please be patient as I figure things out on WordPress, and as I take my next direction in the creative side of being a fan.