The Good Grief Bowl between the New York Jets and Giants will produce no winner and one extremely magnified loser.
FLORHAM PARK, NJ—Good grief, Adam Gase. A 1-7 record coupled with the perception that Sam Darnold has regressed, the 2019 New York Jets story through half a season is anything but spectacular.
Good grief, Pat Shurmur. A 2-7 mark through nine games could and should easily be 1-8 if not for a missed gimme field goal in Tampa. Sure, nobody expected much from this New York Giants team this season, especially with a rookie quarterback at the helm, but the Jints terrible stretch of football marches forward without missing a beat.
Good grief, Charlie Brown. Snoopy has officially left the building. He’s bolted from the Garden State amidst the ugliness.
If each preseason tilt is truly dubbed the Snoopy Bowl, Week 10 of the 2019 NFL season brings us the Good Grief Bowl.
New York sports is in the gutter and these two franchises are leading the way. The two organizations’ combined record this season stands at 3-14. Since the start of the 2018 season, the combined record is an ugly 12-37. If 2017 is taken into account, the combined record moves to a frightening 20-61.
Losing football games is one thing. Many owners can handle losing, especially if there’s a perceived plan in place. What’s never tolerated is embarrassment.
The level of embarrassment Jets fans feel at the moment can’t properly be conveyed. After an exciting Sam Darnold return-to-action against Dallas, horrible losses to New England, Jacksonville and, of course, winless Miami has forced the franchise to reach a new low point.
For the players, one week at a time is the only motto they can live by.
“At the end of the day, we can’t worry about that (Jets losing 16 of their last 18), Jets offensive tackle Kelvin Beachum said after Wednesday’s practice. “We just have to focus on this week.”
In terms of embarrassment, of course, Gase has recently doubled-down on his Miami rhetoric on a Monday conference call.
“It’s the NFL,” Gase said. “You can’t be embarrassed by this s—.”
The fans don’t agree. One season of devastation is tolerable. But when a playoff-less drought is reaching a decade and Super Bowl-less drought is now a cool 50 years, embarrassment is all that remains.
At this point, does it even matter if the Jets knock off the Giants?
Yes. It does.
Fans always remember these matchups. For a couple of franchise who’ve shared a stadium for nearly four decades, and who have never made a trade with one another (save for the recent Leonard Williams swap), records are thrown out the window once every four seasons.
For Jets fans, the Al Toon game remains the high-water mark. On Dec. 18, 1988, Ken O’Brien and the Jets offense sent a gut blow to Bill Parcells’s Jints, who eventually finished 10-6, on the outside of the NFL Playoffs, looking in.
The Giants’ high point has to be the Victor Cruz game in 2011. A 99-yard scamper changed Big Blue’s fortunes just before the first half came to a close. The team then went on one of their familiar Eli Manning-miracle runs to a Vince Lombardi trophy.
Unfortunately, the 2019 version will make headlines for all the wrong reasons. The nation will enjoy making fun of the two New Jersey football franchises stuck in the mud. Can you imagine the pregame segments on Sunday morning? Rob Riggle is about to have himself a time.
It’s ammo that adds to the overall feel of the game and the outcome for the losers.
Should one of these two teams find themselves completely overrun, one owner may react with swift justice. A Giants blowout of the Jets might be the only recipe for a Gase ouster. A Jets spanking of the Giants might have John Mara thinking hard about Shurmur.
One fanbase will breathe a little easier come Monday. The other will be out for blood. The only way the two of them can screw this one up is if 10 overtime minutes are played to completion.
It’s not Jets-Giants. Snoopy has left the state. Twenty-nineteen brings the Tri-State area the Good Greif Bowl, a name perfect for cruel and unusual punishment towards the fans, and livelihoods in this game may just be at stake.
Come Monday, one big-time loser will be identified while another just moves on to live another day. There will be no winner this time around.
