The Jets have come back from the dead during the spooky season of 2023, beating the Giants in a thriller for the battle of New York on Sunday. Without their Hall-of-Fame quarterback, Aaron Rodgers, playing an entire game this season, the Jets have somehow found a winning record at 4-3. This fact, however, doesn’t hide the fact that the New York Jets are cursed. Let’s look at some of their most unlucky moments over the franchise’s long and dreadful history.
It all seems to have started after one of the greatest upsets in sports history. In Super Bowl III, the Jets became the first AFC team to win the league’s championship since the NFL-AFL merger in 1966 (the AFC, formerly known as the AFL, or American Football League, was seen as the little brother and the much weaker league of the two). Quarterback Joe Namath guaranteed a victory days before the big game. His promise was shockingly fulfilled but he couldn’t have even imagined the magnitude of the consequences. Pain and suffering have been the only thing that fans of Gang Green have experienced since that fateful day. The Jets haven’t appeared in the Super Bowl since, the longest drought of any team to make the championship, at 54 years.
On top of this, the Jets seem to become more miserable each year. Not only do they hold the title for the longest active Super Bowl drought, but they also hold the title for the longest active playoff drought. It has been 12 seasons since, when the Jets played in the AFC Championship against the Steelers.
The Jets have gotten close to ending the drought, especially in 2022, but even that turned into a total horror story. The Jets seemed to have a superstar in the making with rookie of the year front-runner Breece Hall, who almost single-handedly led them to a 5-2 record to begin the season. But yet again, the curse gave them a kick in the gut when Hall fell victim to a season-ending ACL tear in a win over Denver. The Jets went on to lose eight of their last ten games, falling short of the postseason.
New York has also failed mightily at finding their franchise quarterback. Top draft pick after top draft pick has resulted in nothing but busts. Even when everything seemed to be lining up for a Super Bowl run this year when the Jets traded for their supposed savior Aaron Rodgers, the black cat made an appearance. Their fantasy came crashing down after four short plays when Rodgers suffered a torn achilles on his first drive as a Jet.
Who knows what Jets fans have done to deserve this brutality, but as things stand this Halloween, all we can do is ask: will the curse ever end?
