Episode 2: How the Hell Do You Become a Jets Fan… and Stay One?

In Episode 2 of Trauma Bonding with the New York Jets, I answer a question that probably requires therapy to fully explain:How the hell did I become a Jets fan?My story starts in 1996 — Neil O’Donnell’s first season in New York and the year the Jets finished an absolutely brutal 1–15.I grew up in Brooklyn. The Giants had won two Super Bowls within the previous decade. They even beat the Jets 13–6 that season.I had every opportunity to choose differently.I chose the Jets anyway.We’re going back to where my Jets trauma began: the 1996 disaster, Neil O’Donnell, losing to the Giants, Bill Parcells arriving in 1997, and how nearly 30 years of pain, hope, false hope, heartbreak, and completely unreasonable loyalty followed.No bandwagon. There wasn’t one to jump on.This is my Jets origin story.