Green Smoke

By Nic

We were all there in the Barrow Boy & Banker, the Jets chants rang loud, the beers flowed and Cockney John Crow photobombed Christopher Johnson whilst poking his tongue out. The Jets had just launched a Twitter feed specifically for the UK and, not long after this, were awarded the international marketing rights to the United Kingdom as part of the NFL’s International Home Marketing Area (“IHMA”) initiative. As a Jets fan in London, these were going to be exciting times and I even set up Green Smoke, the social media pages designed to highlight Jets activities in the capital.

If you’re wondering what the NFL’s IHMA is, it’s an initiative that permitted all-32 NFL clubs the opportunity to bid on select international markets, with the objective to grow American Football globally. As part of the program, the New York Jets have a ‘second home’ in which they initiate new fan engagement platforms, such as live events, sponsor activations, content creation and distribution, and partnerships with UK brands, businesses, teams, and athletes. As Woody Johnson said at the time, “I knew this would be a wonderful opportunity for our organization to strengthen our roots in the UK and connect with even more new fans. After all, New York and London are sister cities.”

I love the Jets. Not just the team but also the organisation behind it too. I love the fact that we’ve been lucky enough to have them play in London twice now and that Nick Mangold visited as the team’s ‘fans ambassador’, but I feel it’s not gone the way I expected. So much so that I felt I’d document how full of enthusiasm I was when the IHMA came into effect and when the Jets launched the website and the UK Twitter & Instagram pages, but then the last year has been a bit of a damp squib and I now find myself full of complaints.. to the point that I’m listing them here and if the Jets read this, it could even be my Jerry Maguire moment.

We were told we could expect them to hold UK-based fan events, Watch Parties & partner activations and yet we had one draft party in 2022 and nowt much else. Green Smoke have been a staunch advocate of the weekly/regular watch parties at the Hippodrome in London whilst Gang Green UK, The East of Scotland NY Jets Supporters Club and The UK & Ireland Jets Fan Club have pioneered them across the UK. It’s been fans holding events for fans and I believe the Jets should be doing so much more.

We were told there’d be collabs with UK brands and yet all I’ve seen is marketing about the Jets partnership with London’s Charles Tyrwhitt which could’ve provided valuable benefits for both Jets fans and Charles Tyrwhitt customers alike. Yet nothing has occurred in the UK, along with the added insult that when I visited their stores in Westfield, Cheapside, Victoria, Tooley Street and the flagship store in Jermyn Street itself in late 2022, not a single one of their staff in all of those five branches had even heard of the New York Jets! I once had to rush home after a late shift on a Sunday too but not to worry I thought, the Jets have a media rights agreement with TalkSport and I could listen to the action on there. No chance because as the game went on in the background, the commentators were content to speak in length over it about the Miami Dolphins instead – who weren’t even playing in that game.

How about the international fan membership programme? Nope! Not them goddam Jets but The UK & Ireland Jets Fan Club have picked up the mantle here instead.

We’ve had competitions and they’ve had truly amazing prizes but hang on, did you see the winners? Yes, I am going to sound mighty bitter here but when I saw the winners of a few of them I checked out their social media profiles and found they preferred rugby and lower league football/soccer. To my eye these weren’t even fans – they reminded me of somebody’s aunt and uncle lucky enough to win a jolly to the Big Apple. Now I am in no way saying the competition organisers just picked family members as winners, far from it. But as a staunch fan of Gang Green, and please forgive my use of cockney vernacular, I would’ve given up a Jacob’s cracker to get a free trip to the MetLife and meet Joe Klecko. That said, it was an absolute joy to see David from Belfast win the competition to attend the NFL Draft in Kansas City, in my humble opinion a real Jets fan won and I’m all there for that.

Flag Football is fantastic and here in London it’s taking off in a big way, but I can’t take my daughters to go support any of the teams. What better excuse is there to get my girls dressed up in the colours and following Gang Green than walking down the road to Ealing and watching a few games. Nope, it’s not open to the public.

I’m now scratching my head, what’s the game plan then? Where’s the focus on the UK fans? I’d like the Jets to launch an official UK fan club with competitions open only to members, I want to see more official events from the Jets themselves in the UK. And if a player comes over like CJ Uzomah recently did, at least organise a meet-and-greet with them for some autographs and/or photos, even if it’s in a pub for an hour or so. How often do we get the opportunities on these shores? It feels like a fan base is being built away from the fan base and everything seems behind closed doors.

We’ve been the butt of jokes for years (no Thanksgiving Day game pun intended) and faced derision at every turn and yet here we are… Passionate. Die-hard. Dedicated. Some of us are fortunate to be able to go over to the US, see the team play and even dance in the end zone during a game (Thanks again Gang Green UK) but not every British supporter can do this. The most some can only muster is to visit an official event and it doesn’t have to been in expensive London either.

So come on Jets, make it happen. Let us know what’s on the schedule, let us meet players and sup a pint with ‘em and let us watch the Flag Football live. Let us mingle together at official Watch Parties, enjoy what is sure to be the best season we’ve had in over a decade and see photos of it plastered all over ‘our’ social media feeds.