December 11, 2007--Instigating

The Jets were getting trounced again. By the end of the afternoon their record for the season would be three wins and 10 loses. They were eliminated from any real chance of making the playoffs more than a month ago. Only the hapless Miami Dolphins had a worse record—winless in 13 games. On the other side of the NFL ledger, the New England Patriots were moving inexorably toward an undefeated season.

But to Jet fans at Sunday’s game in the Meadowlands it was “who cares.” There were two minutes to go in the first half and the stands were already empty. Not out of disgust at the Jets inept play or because the guys needed to get on line ASAP at the men’s room after guzzling so much beer. No, they were heading once more to gate D where, for many years during halftime, regardless of how the Jets were faring, they’d line up along the ramp and try to get some babes to pull up their parkas and expose their, what else to call them, hooters.

Fans Gone Wild!

Now I understand why pro football has surpassed baseball as America’s most popular national pastime. Here I had naively thought it was because football aficionados liked the revved-up action or what the invention of the point spread had done for sports gambling when in truth, all the while, it was about T & A.

Of course I should have known better. After all, what has historically been more important to the faithful season ticket holders—taking in the nuances of the California Offense or the getting tanked up at endless tailgate parties hours before kickoff?

The New York Times began to report about the carryings-on at Gate D a number of weeks ago; and because of the front page publicity the Jets organization and the local New Jersey police who are charged with maintaining order at the stadium, after denying that they knew there was a problem, promised to look into the situation and vowed to make sure that if they “found” anything offensive going on they would do what was necessary to assure that it was stopped.

And they have the power to do so--the fine print on the back of tickets to the games states that fans are expected to behave in a “responsible” way and that if they do not they can be expelled from the stadium and even lose their rights to continue as season ticket holders.

To see how well the reinforced police presence was doing to stop the harassment of women who, not knowing about the scene at Gate D, might wander by in search of a warm place to get out of the cold, the Timesman once again took up his post. And discovered . . .?

Pretty much the same thing. Yes, there appeared to be more police present, but there also were more fans gathered there than ever before, few of them seemingly interested in observing the law being enforced. In fact, to quote the Times, the women who ventured by had to run the same “gauntlet of abuse.” (Article linked below.)

In some places, standing 12 deep, unruly fans taunted the women and called upon them to expose their breasts. If they didn’t comply, some hurled cups of beer at them and even spat in their direction.

Unlike on other occasions when a number of women did bare all, our erstwhile reporter this Sunday did not spot any who did. One woman, a student at Ohio State, did lift her sweater up to over her naval but when she refused to go any further was roundly booed. Even more than the Jets had been during the first half. She said, “If I were a dude, I’d boo me too.” What a good sport.

The police did ask a few to move on, including two women. The authorities claimed that they were “instigating by watching.” That at least I understand. Watching does get dudes crazy.