By Jon Love
This is my journey of being a UK NY Jets fan originating in 1986 at school following Ken O’Brien, Al Toon, Wesley Walker and the Sack Exchange and deciding to follow my dream of watching them in the US until they won the Super Bowl (one day it will come!) and then coming back and meeting a great bunch of UK Jets fan in the centre of London.
It all started when one of my mates bought in ‘ First Down’ NFL newspaper at school and we were all mesmerised with all the different helmet logos and colours.. we then watchedthe highlights of the previous week’s games on Channel 4 on a Sunday and on that first show I watched Ken O’Brien throw 4 TD passes to beat Dan Marino in OT 51-45… there were a lot of fans of Miami at school so I thought boom the JETS for me! The start of a lifetime of love started when I was 12 and then even better we couldn’t stop winning, going 10-1 until the wheels fell off with all the injuries.
Back then there was no live cable so I used to listen to the Armed Forces Radio Network to get the game of the week. Reception was so bad it used to fade in and out all the time especially at the worst moments … Ken O’Brien drops back, looks for number 85 Wesley Walker , releases and then crackle, crackle, crackle , fizz, fizz, dropping out … annoying to say the least!
I used to sit in woodwork class and dream of becoming the Jets owner (watch out Woody!)
To get the scores on a Monday morning before school involved calling an 0898 hotline number and ….listening to a woman with heavy breathing .. sorry that was the wrong type of hotline number !
In my first season of following the Jets and before the phone hotline I used to wait until my Monday evening paper round to read the scores and then be buzzing or devastated. I used to reserve my copy of First Down from WHSmith and run down there when it came out on a Thursday, becoming the highlight of my week. I would then upload the stats onto my PC, my PC consisted of ‘ pencil, rubber, large DIY wallchart and plenty of time sacrificed on a Saturday morning! – loved it ! Think that was the catalyst for deciding my degree should be Statistics …
Then Sky Sports took the rights over in the UK in the early 90s. I couldn’t afford Sky Sports on my pittance of my salary so checking the scores out now involved TeleText, I remember in 1998 the ‘phantom 5 yd TD sneak’ by Vinny Testaverde vs Seattle that should never have been given and the Monday night miracle .. having to watch these highlights in a pub the next day whilst at a ‘’client meeting‘’ … I eventually bought Sky Sports subscription which was a game changer.
The years went by and I found myself on Sunday nights supporting the Jets till 5am in the morning on my own. I have blanked anything out regarding any playoff game associated with Doug Brien … I remember jumping up and down on my sofa when we dominated the Pats in the playoffs in the 2010 season and Bart Scott screaming “CAN’T WAIT!” . Best night of my life!
After two AFC Championship losses (boy those were the days!) I was adamant we were going to the SuperBowl so I quit my job and decided I was going to watch as many Jets games surrounded by fellow Die Hards until we lifted the Lombardi!
After arriving in Manhattan I expected every bar to be engulfed in Jets flags and banners …but this was challenging to say the least as most were Giants .. I finally found a bunch of JETS fans from a Meet Up group and Howard, Pete and Curtis welcomed me in as the ‘Crazy British Jets fan’. Every away game and some home games we would hang out in a dedicated bar to the Jets on 23rd St and 3rd Ave. It was a proper spit and sawdust rocker pub but on gamedays it morphed into the place to be, we bought our own tailgate and placed it all on the pool tables, all I remember is loads of orios and doritoswith spicy dips The barman would give us free shots for TDs and we had around 20-30 fans every week .. no way was I going home after the game so I carried on watching the 4pm and Sunday night games with the hangover kicking in before I went to bed, ouch!
After seeing the Jets slip from 8-5 to 8-8, the following season I managed to get a season ticket from connections in this group at the D4 parking lot. I would catch the bus from Port Authority to arrive 9am every gameday and the place wasalready packed even in the winter! Big shout out to Billy and Scotty Werner who made me feel really welcome at their tailgate. The best bit was the buzz I got when arriving on opening day, the sun shining, in my shorts completely surrounded by Jets fans shouting J! E! T! S! as the train/ bus pulled up to MetLife.. shouting J! E! T! S! up the stadium elevators and shouting again with 80,000 other fans when inside …awesome! As Scotty W says.. ‘ it doesn’t matter what the result is, it’s all about the tailgate! ‘ and that as a Jets fan is what it is all about, catching up with everyone in the morning, talking gobblygook (no change there then!), playing penny gambling games and drinking whatever’s in the freezer bucket … so by kickoff we were completely smashed as we walked in… all I remember during most games is shouting DEFENSE as long as possible when it was the opponent’s 3rd down, banging my hand against the seat in front and celebrating with loads of high fives at any positive play. Next day I had to rewatch the game and read the paper to jog my memory of what actually happened! Losing my voice for 3 days afterwards was also the common theme but was well worth it. I’m sure that everyone in America would take Monday morning off as a sick day as everyone I saw in there were all in the same boat…
Opening week in Manhattan there was always something going on. I met Wayne Chrebet for an autograph signing, top bloke! Greg Buttle hosted an event on Broadway/5th Ave and I was selected to go on stage and answer some quiz questions resulting in winning a VIP ticket on the 50 yd line for the opener vs Tampa.
Best MetLife Moment – Watching Nick Folk nail a FG to beat Brady in OT 30-27 after receiving a penalty that actually went in our favour (for once) so he could rekick his previously missed 56 yarder!
Worst MetLife Moment – Witnessing the Butt Fumble on Thanksgiving. Brutal, say no more. Tailgating in relentless New Jersey rain for both the tailgate/49ers game at home and getting destroyed 34-0 was close behind.
Being amongst 80,000 Jets fans is one of the many highlights in my life and my dream is to take my boy to the stadium to tailgate with others. I strongly recommend it to any UK fan.
The expected Super Bowl never materialised and after the Clown Circus came to town with Tebow, Santonio Holmes quitting, Revis getting traded and John Idzik it was a sign to return home. Luckily I found out about the Hippodrome Casino in Leicester Square, London. I went down there on my own, met Alasdair and the guys and now we have a great group of Jets fans who watch every week who get treated like royalty by Mike the manager. Alasdair and myself would be down every week no matter what with regular reprobates Nigel, Dave, Gavin, Scott, Jeremy, Kieran and Manny with Americans Liz, Garrett, Kam, Wilton, Kev, Mike & Joe before they returned home.
The Hippodrome is such a great venue to watch the games with gigantic screens (just like a NY bar) and also surprisingly a great date venue as I took my girlfriend (Neringa) down there many times to subject her to Bryce Petty and Adam Gase. Fair play to her, she never made excuses to avoid going down to watch us fumble away another loss until she pulled out the ‘I’m pregnant’ card!
For the first time in ages I’m genuinely excited about the Jet’s chances this season and have already placed my bet for them to win it all. If you are an ex Pat or in the London area, you are more than welcome to come and watch the Jets at the Hippodrome Casino, it’s a blast!
J! E! T! S!
Green Smoke 
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