Jets Loss Should Slow Talk of an All-New York Super Bowl

After Week of Premature Media Hype, an Opportunity for Sane Reflection

By MATT UFFORD

Updated 2:54 AM PST, Mon, Dec 1, 2008

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As correctly predicted by Patrice Evans last week, the combination of the Giants' season-long success with the Jets' dominating win over the Titans in Nashville led to a wildly premature media discussion of a Super Bowl between New York's two teams. Mike Francesca kicked it off with talk of a "Jersey Bowl" on WFAN, and a website called The Broadway Bowl quickly popped up, celebrating the possibility of an all-New York matchup.

With the Jets coming down to earth with a disappointing performance at home against the Broncos, it looks like it may have been the Premature Exclamation Bowl (don't worry, New York media -- it happens to lots of publications). With that in mind, let's look back on the discussion that began with five games left in the regular season and no teams in the NFL locked into a playoff spot.

First up: the New York Post's Steve Serby, featuring brutal puns and a casual disregard for teams outside of the New York metropolitan area:

We are left with this $XLIII Million Question: Can the Best Team in the AFC (your New York Jets) beat The Best Team in Football (your New York Giants)? [...]

One man's conclusion: The Giants are 1. The Jets are 1a. It's up to Favre to take them higher between here and Tampa. So Favre, yet so near. No 4-gone conclusion in your New York- New York Super Bowl.

Next, the Daily News, which coupled its ackowledgment of early declaration with the assumption that a Broadway Bowl is inevitable:

The Super Bowl is only 68 days away and the Giants and Jets are the two best teams in the NFL. Giants first. Jets second. Each week they move closer to the ultimate New York football fantasy: Big Blue vs. Gang Green in the Super Bowl in Tampa.

Meanwhile, New York Magazine's Will Leitch tried to employ some restraint, but fell victim to the allure of a "Subway Series" of football:

Let’s try to keep our enthusiasm in check here, but right now it looks like the two best teams in the NFL play in the same building. Are you prepared for a Jets-Giants Super Bowl? [...]

So let it begin: A Super Bowl Subway Series — if subways went to East Rutherford, anyway — is more likely now [than] it has possibly ever been.

The New York Times oft-maligned sports page checked its history books and opted to disagree with Leitch's sentiment in its subdued evaluation of a possible Broadway Bowl:

[P]ro football aficionados are singing “New York, New York” louder than ever before. Maybe they’ll even sing it at Super Bowl XLIII in Tampa, Fla., on Feb. 1. [...]

[But] remember that no matter which teams are in first place before the Thanksgiving Day games, the road to the Super Bowl always goes through the X-ray room. Torn knees, pulled hamstrings and concussions can be only one play away.

Also remember 1986, when the Jets were 10-1, the Giants were 9-2 and Las Vegas oddsmakers were posting 15 to 1 on a Big Apple Super Bowl. It never happened. The Giants kept soaring to their first Super Bowl, while the Jets, with their defense riddled by injuries, lost their last five games to fall to second place.

Why, that's downright even-handed! Bravo, Old Gray Lady.

Looking at the situation with clear eyes, yesterday's Jets loss doesn't make them a bad team or a non-contender. It's just a loss, in the same way that the win over the Titans was just a win. A New York Super-Subway-Jersey-Broadway Bowl may yet happen, but let's all wait for the two weeks after the conference championships to beat that story line into the ground.

Besides, isn't there some other pressing New York sports event to speculate wildly about?