National Football League: New Meadowlands Identity Crisis
The New York Jets and Giants have a unique relationship with each other. They both represent the same New York Metropolitan area and share the New Meadowlands Stadium and call it home. In a sense, the exhibition match between the two teams was a battle for New York fought for the first time on neutral territory. Before the New Meadowlands stadium opened, the Jets were forced to play in the ‘Giants Stadium’.
Before the game, in the parking lot of the stadium that is replacing the Giants stadium, fans squabbled over whom exactly it belonged to. The Jets are no longer tenants in the Giants home. The Jets struck a compromise with the Giants and now the two teams share the stadium and seating. The Jets had as much representation on Monday as the Giants. As the red and green Jerseys, green more than red, started to flood the stadium, it seemed like two nations had converged on the 80 cheer their warriors.
While the fans couldn’t agree, the president Mark Lamping said that the venue should feel like the Jets home. Therefore, on Monday night it was. Electronic signs outside welcomed the Jets Fans to the game. The Jets fans no longer have to sit in seats doused with the Giants colours. Joining the ever growing Chorus of overzealous and blunt Jets was head coach Rex Ryan. “It’s going to be our city sooner or later, and it might as well be now,” Ryan said. “I’m not playing second fiddle and our team is not playing second fiddle to anybody, let alone a team that plays in our building.”
The Giants were at hand too and their trash-talk was no less ‘trashy.’ NFL veteran and New Yorker now with the Giants, Keith Bullock has a unique insight into New York’s identity crisis. “If you’re from New York, you know who New York’s football team is: the New York Giants,” Keith Said. So far so good but then Keith pushed in a jab at the Jets along with that. “The Jets haven’t won nothing since Broadway Joe.”
It’s true that the Jets haven’t had a whole lot of success in the NFL but their fan base is on par and as crazy as any other. For the Giants fans, the stadium would always be the Giants Stadium and the Jets just guests. Even Giant season tickets were labelled ‘New Giants Stadium.’
The Irony of the whole fiasco is that neither team is based in New York. Both the Giants and the Jets moved to New Jersey. The Giants haven’t played in the Yankee stadium since 1976 and the Jets moved out of the Queen’s Shea Stadium more than two decades ago. The New York name just stuck with the teams because, let’s face it, New Jersey Jets or Giants just wouldn’t fly with football fans.
The only thing the two sets of fans could agree on was that the Stadium was an improvement on the previous one. The Stadium is adorned with massive screens that along every corner giving each one of the maximum of 82,500 fans a view of the game up close. Among the crowds, there were those who oddly came to see the stadium in all its glory and the game was just an added bonus. The reception was mostly positive, while some fans complained about grey seating, others accepted the compromise.
Jets fans want Green, Giants fans want red and the management settled on a dull grey for peace. It’s a fair compromise for both teams if they real want to share the Stadium and not brawl over it. Compromise is what it’s about. The old Giants Stadium could have served for many more years but the purpose wasn’t just building a shiny new stadium for New York fans but also to put both of New York’s teams on the same footing. The fans aren’t quite ready for that yet but they will be. It’s only been one game.
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