My Favorite Football Team – The New York Jets
My Favorite Football Team – The New York Jets
Jan 05
I admit it, I’m a New York Jets fan. A long, long, LONG suffering New York Jets fan. But what most people don’t know is that the team was originally chartered as the New York Titans. When the American Football League was incorporated in 1959, the New York City franchise was granted to Harry Wismer, a well known sports personality and broadcaster on the then active DuMont Television Network. Dumont made early attempts to bring football coverage to TV, but it failed and the network filed bankruptcy in 1954 (the same year I filed for a birth certificate). Rather an odd fate when you consider that today football games are among the most widely watched sporting events, or for that matter, any type of broadcast show, and the broadcast rights to EACH game alone bring in about $35,000,000 from the various networks.
Wismer wasn’t much better at business than had been DuMont and by 1962 the AFL had to assume the costs of operation to finish out the season. The AFL sold the franchise to a syndicate headed by Sonny Werblin whose success at TV and entertainment programming while at MCA earned him the nickname “Mr. Show Biz”. He later came to own Madison Square Garden and was a driving force on building the Meadowlands Sports Complex. The very first thing he did was rename the team from the New York Titans to the New York Jets. This made sense from several points of view. First, why keep the name of a failed enterprise. I was once advised never to name a business for your children because if it failed the name of the child would be a continuing nuisance. Second, Werblin moved the team from the decrepit Polo Grounds to the new Shea Stadium. As Shea is located on the roadway between what were at the time the only two airports serving New York City, La Guardia Airport and Kennedy Airport, and Jets were just arriving on the scene (the Boeing 707, the first true jet airliner, only entered service at the end of 1958) and had a strong cache’, it seemed a good choice.
But we still haven’t answered the original question, why were they named the Titans? For this you have to consider the genesis of the American Football League. The National Football League, which includes the New York Football Giants, spurned many applications for admittance to the successful league that it eventually occurred to Lamar Hunt that there were enough applicants to form a second and competing league. As an interesting side note, at the time of the founding of the National Football League, 1925, the New York baseball team was the Giants. I presume that the team took the same name as a way to “steal” a little of the cache’, and maybe attendees, of the well established New York Giants. This became moot when in 1957 the Giants moved to San Francisco, California. However, in order to differentiate themselves somewhat, the team incorporated as the New York Football Giants, and are referred to as such to this day (listen to the announcer at the beginning of a game). And in the interest of full disclosure, from a time I can’t even remember, my father took me to New York Football Giants games until I left for college. I only became a New York Jets fan around 1993 (but it has been a long and painful time to be a Jets fan).
Whereas the New York Football Giants wanted to be associated in people’s minds with the New York Giants baseball team, the new and competing football team wanted to contrast themselves to the established New York Football Giants. So once again, why Titans? To put it simply, Titans are greater than Giants. We all pretty much know what giants are; essentially they are monsters of human appearance but of prodigious size and strength. It is easy to see why that was a name for a team that would suggest success on the field. But giants are still essentially human. Titans are gods! In Greek mythology, the Titans were a race of powerful deities descended from Gaia (Earth) and Uranus (Sky) that ruled the Earth, were immortals, and had incredible strength and stamina. So being really big and strong makes for the name of a fearsome sports team, but it sure isn’t the same as being a god. In the words of Harry Wismer, “Titans are bigger and stronger than giants.”
One last note, if you ever wanted to field a third New York City based football team (as Donald Trump attempted in the 1980’s with the New Jersey Generals) I have a suggestion for a team name. The Titans, though immortal, did not survive and were eventually overthrown by a younger race of gods, the Olympians. What do you think of that idea, the New York Football Olympians?
A NY Giants 2021 Update
If you are a college football fan, you may have heard of standout defensive end Romeo Okoye. It’s interesting how this guy has developed into one of the best defensive ends in college football. Okoye has played both defensive end and outside linebacker in the Giant’s defensive unit. He has been extremely effective in each position. It is impressive what a strong and athletic body could produce if given the opportunity to play in the Giant’s defense.
So as you can see, there is a lot to like about the New York Giants. Although they are not considered the Super Bowl favorites, they do have enough talent to make them a dangerous football team. The addition of David Baitler and Romeo Okoye only make this team that much more interesting to watch. This will be a very interesting team to follow all year long.
The New York Giants is a football team that always wins when they are playing in the big game. They have proven themselves to be a dominant team that no one wants to beat. They are a very experienced team that has never been afraid to put their foot on the gas. They are known for grinding out the game on offense and on defense. If you want to be successful in this league, you have to be willing to go into the trenches and battle.
This is a very important season for the New York Giants. It will be interesting to see how this team performs in the first two weeks of the season. They will need to establish a running game if injuries occur to Will Smith or possibly even Emmitt Smith. Without a running game, the Giants will struggle early in the season. Then they will need to find a way to replace that rushing attack after the trade of Hall of Fame running back John Henry.
With injuries to key players, it is important that the New York Giants prove that they are serious about winning the Super Bowl. They will need to go into the first two weeks with a lot of energy and try to make some big plays. If the Giants can stick to their game plan, they will have a very good chance to go into the playoffs with a very strong start. This will be an exciting year for the New York Giants to watch, and it will be even more exciting to sit behind the bench and call the plays.
