Green Smoke

By Ant Cook

Now, this is a story all about how my life got flipped-turned upside down. And I’d like to take a minute Just sit right there, and I’ll tell you how I became an ambassador for a team called the New York Jets …Okay, the end doesn’t work; in fact, hold on… it doesn’t work at all as it’s essentially a Philadelphia Eagles song, right?

It started in Clubhouse. I was chatting with a group of people about the upcoming Super Bowl, and one of the guys there realised that I was British and asked how and why I was watching it. Now most people know how I got into American football, so I recited that story and explained that I was a fan of the New York Jets, and that’s when the story got interesting, as one of the other contributors in the room spoke up and asked if we could connect as he worked for the franchise.

A few days later, I received an email explaining who the person was and how they were connected to the team, and we began chatting about me and my role in Gang Green UK and the Jets in general. This led to me being introduced to a few other people in the office team, including the Vice President of Marketing.

Over the next year or so, we shared emails and chatted in general over video calls about the UK market and the NFL within the UK. Just after the Jets were announced to play in the UK, the VP contacted me with some information and requests to support them in some UK-led endeavours. During this time too, Gang Green UK had been connecting with alumni of the team and with current staff members, one of whom was the legendary Center Nick Mangold. Upon speaking with Nick and his team, I realised that his range of BBQ sauces could be imported to the UK via some contacts I had within the business. Nick was very excited, and we began to plan a launch event alongside the official Jets events occurring while they were in London in 2021.

We set up a venue within walking distance of the official team pub where, on the Saturday morning of the game weekend, we could invite all the Jets fans who were in the UK to come get sauce, meet Nick, and join each other for a bit of a party. We all met at the London Cocktail Club at Monument, where the bar is known for its lively atmosphere and New York dive bar feel. We arranged for everybody to attend. We had two varieties of sauce available for purchase and had commemorative bags made for the event too, and about an hour after the fans arrived, Nick’s large frame and personality entered the basement bar as well. He spent nearly two and a half hours chatting, signing autographs for fans, posing for photos with them, and even participating in making a cocktail that I had designed using his barbecue sauce. The morning was topped off with Nick buying every fan present a shot of Tequila, which was drunk, and finished off with a J-E-T-S JETS JETS JETS chant. As with all of our events at Gang Green UK, they are planned by the fans and for the fans, and the morning was ended by a mass exodus back to the official venue (the Barrow Boy & Banker pub) to excitedly support the team. Dozens of Jets fans swarming across London Bridge in unison was a sight to see.

The official events with the Jets started on Friday, prior to Mangold’s UK sauce launch. All I knew was that the team would be in attendance, and we were asked, as a large fan group within the UK, to reach out and try to get as many of the fans involved as possible. That reach went far, attracting fans from Germany, France, Sweden, Holland, and even as far as Ecuador. It was great reconnecting with so many friends that I had met before, and some I had only spoken to via the Gang Green UK Facebook page. Little did I know that during the event, Christopher Johnson would arrive and spend time chatting, shaking hands, and getting photos with fans. During this meeting, I was invited to finally meet the people I had spent the previous two years speaking to on Zoom, which also included meeting Christopher for a quick one-to-one where we discussed the upcoming game, the season so far, and previous years. We also discussed future possibilities, which, in hindsight, is now the IHMA. The pinnacle of this event was the Vice President of Marketing thanking me for being an ambassador for the team and gifting me an autographed Darrelle Revis mini helmet, which they had signed for me. They knew that Revis is one of my favourite all-time Jets, and it’s fair to say I was absolutely blown away by this gesture.

Although the game didn’t go in our favour, it’s fair to say that I, Gang Green UK, and the Jets are truly connected in the goal of growing the fan base within the United Kingdom. I continue to chat almost weekly, with both the New York and UK teams connecting and collaborating on activities and events to engage and attract fans of the franchise.