Jets fans praying for the best, fearing the worst

George Frouxides of Farmingdale has been coming to Jets games as a season ticket holder since 1984. He estimates that since that time, calculating the cost of the seats, the gas and tolls, the RV he has dolled up in Jets colors for the weekly tailgates, the food and beverages, and the new No. 8 jersey he was proudly wearing among the printed towels and signs he had made for Monday to welcome the team’s new quarterback, he’s dropped half a million bucks on his passion.

He’s gotten nothing in return.

The Jets have disappointed each and every season since he was 9 when they won Super Bowl III.

This year, though, he has a secret weapon.

No, not Aaron Rodgers. Frouxides went even higher up the chain of command for this one.

He brought his priest with him on Monday.

Just before they walked into MetLife Stadium for Monday night’s game against the Bills, Fr. Demetrios Kazakis from St. Nicholas in West Babylon delivered a three-pronged benediction for the crew of a dozen or so who were ready for kickoff. They prayed for the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks in New York and Washington; they prayed for good weather throughout the game; and then they prayed for the Jets to have a successful season.

That’s just a quick glimpse of what it’s like to be a Jets fan these days. After years, perhaps decades, of disappointment and heartbreak, misplaced optimism in promising seasons and validated pessimism in the ones that stunk right from the start, the lots around the stadium on Monday evening were filled with folks who were brimming with a strange new emotion many have never felt in their lives. Some even struggled to come up with the proper word.

Confidence.

Yes, that’s it. Confidence. But the kind only the Jets can supply.

“I’ve been a Jets fan for so long that I can’t let myself be overly confident,” Frouxides said. “I’ve been hurt. But at least I can’t be hurt anymore. There is a case of hardened steel around my heart now.”

This was the night Jets fans have been waiting for since April. They were so amped that many lined up at the gates by 2 p.m. waiting for the barcode scanners to allow entrance to the parking lots at 3:30 (they began letting people in around 3:15 as an act of mercy). It was Rodgers’ debut for the Jets, the start of the most promising season the team has ever headed into, the potential dawn of a new identity for a forlorn franchise and all of it was going to be shown in front of a national audience on Monday Night Football.

What could go wrong?

Never, never ask a Jets fan that question, because they’ll answer it.

In many other tailgates around the lots, similar steel cases were preventing Jets fans from fully enjoying what might happen this season. Everywhere these poor people turn, on TV and on radio and in papers, experts are picking the Jets to win, to reach the playoffs,  even to get to and claim the Super Bowl.

It’s disorienting.

Even the biggest supporters of the team are parsing their hopes. Jay Pomerantz from Old Westbury is actually in the Jets Fan Hall of Fame and is recognized by the team as having the largest collection of Jets memorabilia in the world. Some of his items, including the touchdown ball from Super Bowl III, have been lent to the Jets for display.

Surely he must have bought into the hype.

“I have very tempered enthusiasm,” he said, saying that he’ll wait until at least half the season is over before going all-in. “I can’t give in to the excitement until I see it on the field.”

It seemed the older fans in their 50s and 60s tread into this season more tepidly than those who have been waiting half as long for the Jets to win. The younger crowd was not as cautious.—

“We’re falling hook, line and sinker,” Danny Gearity of Middle Village in Queens said. “Why not? How much further can we fall?”

His tailgate host, Roberto Catalano, added: “This is it. This is the year. Because if it ain’t this year, it’s never gonna be.”

A few spots over in the lot, Mikel Pierre of Pearl River, NY, was just as positive. He noted that he and the other Jets fans have been through enough and kept showing up.

“We’re loyal,” he said. “We’re not running. We’re here. And we’re beyond hopeful.”

Mostly, though, that dark cloud that metaphorically hangs over all things Jets — and literally hovered over MetLife Stadium with some showers and lightning in the hours before kickoff spoiling some of the grilling and other festivities — was too thick to brush aside with such ease.

On their drive to MetLife Monday, Pomerantz laid out what he believes are the two most likely scenarios to his tailgating party, which included friend Michael Levy of Roslyn.

Scenario 1: The Jets start out 1-4, tear off about seven straight wins for “total euphoria,” then an injury befalls Rodgers “and that’s the end of the season there.” That, he predicts, is the most likely way the next few months play out.

Scenario 2: The Jets win their first four games and then Rodgers gets hurt “and we’re stuck with Zach Wilson and we have to hope he bridges the storm.” Then, he said, Rodgers returns in Week 12 or 13 to lead the Jets to the playoffs.

“There will be highs and lows to the season,” he said. “It’s not going to be a straight line. These people who are saying 14-3, things like that, it would be too good to be true.”

Levy wasn’t accepting of all that gloom. Rodgers has him convinced this is the year.

“He’s a totally different animal,” he said. “We’ve never had a quarterback like him. Not Chad [Pennington]. Not Vinny [Testaverde]. This dude is the best quarterback I’ve seen in my lifetime.”

Pomenantz challenged Levy by noting that Rodgers is 39 and turning 40 in a few weeks.

“How many Super Bowls did Brady win after he turned 40?” Pomerantz asked.

“One,” Levy said quickly. “And one is all we need.”

If that happens, every Jets fan will experience another emotion they have rarely felt: Happiness. There will be universal enjoyment from a group that has been dragged through pigskin pain for so, so long, contentment from a fanbase that may have rightly wondered if they were cursed to a lifetime of disappointment.

Then, of course, they’ll start wanting another. And it will all start over again.

Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday’s Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.