Karma is a Bitch

Is it odd to not just hope, but expect your team to pull off something that had been proven nearly impossible? Slightly delusional maybe, but not exactly crazy. Now is it strange when that mindset is held by the entirety of the fan base and almost everyone who knows anything about the team?

That's what you got when the Jets played the previously 14-0 Indianapolis Colts. You may be thinking, "Oh great, everyone has confidence in Gang Green!" More likely you know exactly what I mean when I say it was the farthest thing from a ringing endorsement.

Blessed with a convoluted playoff scenario and a late kickoff, couch potatoes across the New York Metropolitan area could sit back and watch as Houston spent the first half destroying Miami, New England handily dispatched Jacksonville and Pittsburgh blindly stumbled in a Raven's team much in the giving spirit (113 penalty yards, two negated touchdowns and a solid Braylon Edwards impersonation by the usually steady Derrick Mason) and suddenly the Jets just needed two wins and they would be playoff bound one week after Rex Ryan declared them dead in the water.

Sidenote: With all he has done this year I am not about to concede the Ryan actually thought the Jets were out of it. I think it may have all been a ploy. Call me a conspiracy theorist, I just don't think Rex is that dumb.

Of course to get that playoff birth they would have to go through the 14-0 Colts and a division winning Cincinnati Bengals team, no big deal. Vegas still had the Colts favored by 6, but most bigtime football fans knew better. The Jets would return home for their final game at the Meadow lands at 8-7 and with a playoff birth on the line.

Yeah, the Colts already had locked up the AFC top seed, but the lack of effort would never enter the head of Peyton Manning. Considering there is an 85% chance Manning is coaching the team and Jim Caldwell is some Japanese Tech Tycoons new "life-like robot" hired to LOOK official, the overwhelming support for the Jet's had little to do with the Colts and everything to do with history.

The Jet's are cruel. They are the anti-Cubs. They don't like to be lovable, they don't like to let you know they're going down, they just lose. In the process they rip your heart out, leaving every Jet fan feeling like they accidentally wandered into the Temple of Doom. Very few loses for any team I follow stands out more than the 2004 playoffs when the Jets gave the shimmer of hope after Nate Kaeding, now the most accurate kicker IN NFL HISTORY, missed a 40 yard FG in overtime, and the Doug Brien made one for the Jets sending them into Pittsburgh to face the 15-1 Steelers. Luck was finally on the Jets side. The Jets played a great game and twice in the fourth quarter Doug Brien had a chance to give the Jets the win. Both times he went wide. Jeff Reed converted in OT and the Jets were done. Needless to say Doug Brien was released and I'm pretty certain if he found himself in New York it would be a less kind environment than the North Side of Chicago for Steve Bartman. That was the last time the Jets fans had faith their team could pull it out, and that was shattered.

They simply HAD to beat the Colts on Sunday. If they didn't, how could they put their fans through the proper amount of agony when they lose to the Bengals in week 17?

Sure, Jim Caldwell proved for the first time all year that he might actually be the coach of an NFL football team by pulling his starters and yeah the Colts were up before Curtis Painter became the most hated man in Indiana (Kelvin Sampson thanks you), but it was all going to happen so the Jets fans could have one more week of optimism.

Sidenote #2: There are plenty of players who's careers are defined by one awful moment but Curtis Painter has a chance to do something special. He may never see meaningful time after this season. If Jim Sorgi weren't hurt he wouldn't even have seen time against the Jets. Next year Sorgi will be back and Painter will be left to throw passes to the likes of Aaron Morehead in preseason. His shit stain on the turf of Lucas Oil stadium against the Jets will be his entire professional legacy.

I'm a skeptic about alot of things. Do I believe in cursed sports franchises? Not really. But do I believe in history just permeating an organization and fan base to the point that punching your fans in the stomach in games like this just becomes second nature? You better believe it.

Will any of that change how I watch the game next week? Not a chance. The Jets may have punched me in the chest, kicked me in the nuts and kneed me in the face, but I'll keep coming back for more.