Rex Ryan Is Confident, Fat

The Jets are born in the single act of Joe Namath promising victory and delivering. There are other franchises who have suffered longer and in more biblical terms, but the Jets have their miserable bona fides. 40 years of that single moment failing to find even an echo, fans spending decades carrying a mantra of "Same old Jets" to ward off the twin demons of hope & faith.

That was then, anyway. Things are a bit different now. Rex Ryan came to down, ran his big fat mouth, and for better or worse the Jets have again pledged big things. Ryan is bold, and "Handsome" Mark Sanchez is, well, handsome. Together they form some bastard version of Namath's looks and attitude, carrying a spiritual legacy while the actual, real Namath heckles them over Twitter. So yes, things are different. The Jets are television stars, everyone is sick of hearing about them, and complaining about them won't make you any friends. After week one everyone got their schadenfreude in, and then Braylon Edwards came around with seconds for anyone asking. But so What? Tomorrow is Sunday. They'll play the game, and lord willing they'll live or die by those three hours. Or maybe following the game Santonio Holmes will call a press conference and rip out his teeth, one by one, saying nothing and staring directly into Andrea Kramer's eyes. It's a strange year.

But tomorrow is still Sunday, and the Jets will go to Miami and attempt to teach those sun-drenched creeps something about football. I know that Miami are rivals and I will respect that, but I have always had a soft spot for them. I took no small pleasure in watching them rattle Brad Faver's old bones last week. They didn't just knock him down, they held him there and dug their thumb into his eye socket. Four turnovers, one more than they took from him the last time they saw him, back when he was running Gang Green. The Jets deserved that one, though, watching Favre throw the game away while the man the Jets had tossed aside managed his way to the AFC East title. This year is different. Braylon may have his sins to atone for but the team as a whole is fairly clean, spiritually speaking. This should be a game less of cosmic justice and more of stacking the box against the wildcat, Sione Pouha doing his best in place of Kris Jenkins. Revis is out as well, but Miami is usually more of a trenches sort of party so hopefully he won't be missed.

Once upon a time Joe Namath made something of the Jets, and now Rex Ryan is giving it a shot. Godspeed, you wonderful, fat man.