Last night, the Jets opened the preseason with a 21-16 loss to the Browns.
A small variety of players you’ll see this season saw meaningful motion.
It’s why lots of you didn’t watch.
It’s comprehensible.
Essentially the most significant event that may occur in a preseason game is an injury, akin to the one suffered by Mark Sanchez in 2013, which is probably going the one preseason Jets memory you keep and a reason why Aaron Rodgers and so lots of his latest friends stayed on the sideline.
On Tuesday, everyone steps back into the highlight, when the primary episode of “Hard Knocks” — featuring the Jets for the primary time since 2010 — premieres on HBO. You’ll learn more — and be way more entertained — across five episodes than of their 4 preseason games, even when the Jets are reluctant participants. “They forced it down our throats,” Aaron Rodgers previously said, noting why the Jets will reportedly limit access, akin to the customary scenes showing players being released.
At minimum, the team on the surface is intriguing enough to warrant deeper exploration.
It starts with Rodgers’ first season in Latest York; already the Jets’ biggest star since Broadway Joe. It’s a likelihood to see how Sauce Gardner and Garrett Wilson are approaching stardom, how Quinnen Williams responds to his latest contract, how Breece Hall is recovering from his injury, how Mekhi Becton is handling a make-or-break moment, how the Dalvin Cook meeting went, how Nathaniel Hackett privately responded to Sean Payton’s uppercuts, how Zach Wilson is handling life in a Hall of Famer’s shadow.
It’s the most-anticipated Jets season in a dozen years, and the team’s best likelihood to finish the league’s longest playoff drought. The Jets haven’t reached the postseason because the 2010 season, when the team also starred in essentially the most memorable edition of “Hard Knocks,” which debuted in 2001.
Those episodes had all of it.
The foul-mouthed, fun-loving head coach (Rex Ryan), who embraced championship expectations and encouraged his players to “get a goddamn snack,” but additionally chided the “jackass” contingent who ate cheeseburgers on the sphere at a Hofstra practice.
The star cornerback (Darrelle Revis) whose holdout stole so many scenes and a lot focus during training camp.
The cornerback (Antonio Cromartie) who couldn’t remember the names of all of his children.
The young quarterback (Mark Sanchez) upset at having to pay 59 cents for a side of ranch dressing together with his pizza delivery.
This time, the Jets feature a quarterback who’s giving up $35 million for a shot at one other championship. Across five episodes, we must always get a greater have a look at how close they are surely.
“There’s nothing like Latest York, so I understand that — I appreciate that,” Rodgers said recently, publicly changing his tune concerning the team’s inclusion. “That is an incredible sports town. There’s loads of great franchises here. So I stay up for all the things that comes with that.
“We form of knew that they were really wanting us to be a component of ‘Hard Knocks,’ and this just brings more attention to us. I don’t think there’s anything nefarious concerning the way it went down, but I’m enthusiastic about people attending to see what we’re all about here.”
Today’s back page
Read more:
⚾ Domingo German smashed TV, confronted Yankees’ Aaron Boone in clubhouse outburst before looking for alcohol treatment
⚾ VACCARO: Yankees must stack up more gutty wins like this one against Astros
🏈 SCHWARTZ: Wink Martindale’s familiarity with Giants makes Yr 2 ‘like going into Calculus 2’
⚾ HEYMAN: Mets placed a hefty price tag on Pete Alonso for unlikely trade deadline deal
🏀 Josh Hart eager for long-term extension with Knicks: ‘A spot I need to call home’
Flirting with disaster
By Sunday, Team USA’s quest for a World Cup three-peat could also be extinguished. If that’s the case, it might cement the team’s worst-ever showing on the tournament.
The U.S. enters its matchup with Sweden because the smallest favorite within the Round of 16 (-170 to advance), carrying no momentum and suspect confidence, following a worst-ever group stage performance, which nearly led to elimination.
Sweden could finish the job. It has done it before.
In 2021, Sweden ended the 44-game unbeaten streak of the U.S. women’s national team with a 3-0 win on the Olympics in Japan. On the 2016 Olympics, Sweden eliminated the Americans within the quarterfinals, marking the team’s worst-ever Olympic finish.
Dating back to the primary women’s World Cup in 1991, the U.S. has never finished worse than third within the tournament. Should this group fall in need of its lofty expectations because the pre-tournament favorite, it might rank amongst essentially the most disappointing national team efforts of all-time, joining this infamous Team USA list:
Men’s basketball (2004)
The 1972 squad was robbed by officials. The 1988 loss to the Soviets was stunning, though Team USA still featured college kids. In 2004, there have been no excuses. Hubris, ill-fitting pieces and mismanagement by coach Larry Brown allowed a roster featuring captains Tim Duncan and Allen Iverson — plus little-used children, akin to LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Dwyane Wade — to drop its opener in Athens to Puerto Rico by 19. Then got here a loss to Lithuania and a semifinal defeat to Argentina, resulting in an embarrassing bronze medal for the Americans, who entered the Games with 24 straight wins in Olympic play.
Women’s hockey (2006)
The U.S. was one win away from one other gold medal game appearance. It had won each of its previous 25 meetings against Sweden. Within the semifinals in Turin, though, Sweden shocked the world with a 3-2 shootout win. Afterwards, Sweden’s coach, Peter Elander, said his team received inspiration from repeatedly watching “Miracle,” the movie based on Team USA’s 1980 Miracle on Ice. The Americans ended up with bronze, the one time the team has ever didn’t secure gold or silver.
Women’s softball (2008)
The Americans won the primary three gold medals in Olympic softball play. In 2008, they won their first seven games by a combined rating of 53-1. One other win got here over Japan. Then got here a rematch within the gold medal game, which Japan claimed, 3-1. It was the Americans’ first loss in eight years.
Men’s soccer (2017)
The winless group stage World Cup exits in 1998 and 2006 were setbacks, but a minimum of the Americans qualified for those World Cups. The identical couldn’t be said for the 2018 event, which the U.S. didn’t take part in for the primary time since 1986. After suffering a pair of losses to Costa Rica in qualifying, the squad’s fate was sealed with a 2-1 loss to Trinidad and Tobago, resulting in Bruce Arena’s resignation as head coach.
Women’s basketball (1992)
They looked set to win a 3rd straight gold medal after winning their first three games by a median of 45.7 points, before the Unified Team — a mixture of former Soviet republics — pulled a 79-73 upset within the semifinals. This was essentially the most recent women’s team to suffer a loss on the Games.
College football’s dizzying ride
By next season, college football will finally realize its potential with a 12-team playoff. It can also be in tatters.
Big Ten school presidents have reportedly authorized commissioner Tony Petitti to explore one other round of expansion, with its deal with Oregon and Washington.
The conference, which created the continuing panic within the Pac-12 by luring USC and UCLA away from its West Coast roots, could ultimately find yourself killing certainly one of the Power Five leagues — whose foundation was built greater than six a long time ago — if it poaches the top-two football programs and TV markets remaining within the Pac-12.
This news comes just days after Colorado left the Pac-12 — which is struggling to land a lucrative TV rights contract on par with other marquee conferences — for the Big 12, which can be reportedly recruiting Arizona, Arizona State and Utah.
Meanwhile, Florida State — also unhappy as a consequence of the ACC’s underwhelming media rights deal — is threatening to depart its league. Nonetheless, the Seminoles face a far harder and expensive potential exit from their conference because the ACC TV rights deal — which can see Florida State make about $30 million per yr lower than schools within the SEC and Big Ten — runs through 2036.
After all, this all comes all the way down to money. It all the time does. It all the time will.
We are able to — and will — bemoan the lack of rivalries, the imbalance of power, the absurdity of teams from Los Angeles playing conference games in Latest Jersey.
But we are going to proceed to observe. And the leagues will command astronomical fees to broadcast their games. And various dissatisfied schools will trigger additional rounds of realignment.
And on it shall proceed.