by Bob Duden

Created on: January 25, 2010

While examining the reasons that the New York Jets have failed to even reach another Super Bowl since their incredulous victory in 1969, one must wonder if the term 'snake bit' has any value?  After all, in the forty one years following that singular moment in the sun, the Jets have only been back to the conference championship three times and come up short on all three occasions.  The mud bowl in Miami ruined their continuity, the collapse in Denver elevated John Elway and finally, they watched one of the all time greats in Peyton Manning, shred their top rated defense by tossing darts to his third and fourth receivers in another second half collapse.  What can the Jet fan say about all this except, "same old Jets".  The snake bit Jets, and is that really the reason why they have not been to another Super Bowl in all these years?

Take into account how they arrived in Miami in that January of 1969.  They were the ultimate under dog from the inferior league.  The Super Bowl wasn't really the Super Bowl yet.  It was the crowning achievement for the National Football League, allowing their representative to exploit the inferior opponent from the American Football League.  The Green Bay Packers had done it the prior two years and this time, the vaunted Baltimore Colts were about to send the AFL representative back to oblivion.  The New York Jets, and their brash young quarterback, had a different idea.  "We will win the game, I guarantee it", Joe Namath spoke those words and followed them up by leading the Jets over the Colts in an upset that rivals the United States Olympic hockey teams victory over the Soviet squad at the Lake Placid winter games.  It is still considered one of the greatest sports upsets of all time.  

It was all so long ago, dusty black and white pictures etched in the minds of fans that are now senior citizens.  And the Jets have never made it back.  At least they can say they were there once, and they won it once, too.  There are teams that have never even made it that far.  The Detroit Lions have never been there, and neither have the Cleveland Browns.  The Houston Oilers had to move to Tennessee to get there and the Jacksonville Jaguars have seen their stadium host the game but, they have never played in it.  The Falcons, Chargers, Cardinals and Sea Hawks have only been there once too, and they all lost the game.  So what is it about the Jets then, that makes it all so frustrating?

Could it be something spiritual at work?  Could it be something that no right thinking individual wants to consider, something from the occult?  Could Joe Namath have signed a deal with the devil?  Give us this one win, this upset for all time, and we will never go back to the big game again.  Could that really be the reason?     

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