New York Jets: Why Red Sox Fans Can Identify with Late-Season Collapse

In one of the odder twists provided by the world of sports, the New York Jets and the Boston Red Sox are two teams whose fan bases probably have very few followers in common. However, they do, in fact, share a common thread. 

That thread is the indisputable reality that both teams—while among the most talented in their respective leagues—collapsed not under the weight of superior competition, but under the weight of internal issues regarding the manner in which players communicate or, in some cases, don't communicate effectively with one another.

For everyone who plays fantasy sports or thinks that sports can always be won by crunching numbers, pouring over stats or even watching film, here's some news for you: It's not that simple.

Fans, media and all observers always hear about things like "character" or "chemistry." They're tough to really define since they're somewhat vague, non-descript ways to say that "teams get along well" or " play well together" or " like each other."

Is that critically important? Not always. There have been teams that have succeeded in spite of internal problems and discord within the structure of the team.

Michael Jordan was never anyone's favorite teammate in the world, and it took time to find a coach and a supporting cast that could—or was willing to—tolerate the brutal intensity of his competitive drive. Even after they started to dominate the league, some players such as Horace Grant and B.J. Armstrong couldn't wait to leave Chicago even if it meant not winning titles.

The New York Yankees of the late 1970s did their fair share of winning. They did so even though the players were, at times, battling with each other or with manager Billy Martin. And everyone seemed to, at one time or another, have an issue with owner George Steinbrenner. 

The New York Jets began their ascension toward the top of the AFC three seasons ago when Rex Ryan took over before the 2009 season. Ryan quickly cultivated an "us against the world" type of dynamic within the team.

For much of their history, the Jets have been the "other" New York football team, often playing second fiddle to the New York Giants. Ryan's motivational method worked. The Jets added genuine talent, displayed real focus and put together two very impressive seasons in which they got all the way to the AFC title game. 

This season, of course, Ryan stuck with what he knew. "Us against the world." "The Jets are headed to the Super Bowl." "This is our year." That's the summation of Ryan's proclamations in advance of the 2011 NFL season.

While almost everyone that wasn't a Jets fan found it annoying, most football fans knew deep down that Ryan had a decent chance of being right. Perhaps that's where the problem started.

Or, perhaps it was something more.

The Jets ended this past season in a manner all too familiar to most Jets fans. It was a total debacle. The team didn't just play poorly, but they made countless mistakes and publicly sniped and denigrated each other throughout the entire season.

Receivers versus quarterbacks, offense versus defense, offensive line versus receivers. Take your pick, it was ugly all year. 

The Boston Red Sox have never played second fiddle to anyone in their own region. They've always held the collective heart of New England in their hands, and all too often, they've broken that heart. Since the conclusion of the 2003 season, the Red Sox had become a team almost unfamiliar to those who had spent most of their lives following them. 

The Red Sox had gone from "lovable losers" to "expected winners." With that came an added burden—a burden not identical, but not all that much unlike what the Jets had brought upon themselves over the past two NFL seasons. 

Expectations can motivate, but that pressure can also weigh heavily on those who are forced to carry it. And at times, that pressure becomes a burden that can't be so easily discarded.

Just as the Red Sox knew in 2011 that winning the American League East or even advancing in the playoffs would only scratch the surface of fulfilling what was expected of them, the Jets knew deep down that merely making the playoffs wouldn't cut it this year. Even beating their most hated divisional rival, the New England Patriots, would be met with a collective, "That's great—where's our Super Bowl?" reaction by Jets fans and the New York media.

So when Santonio

Holmes—a player who at best was a questionable selection as a team captain—was basically removed from the final drive of the final game of the Jets' regular season this past Sunday. It was a very public signal that the Jets didn't just "not get along," but they didn't get it, period.

The Jets suffered from many of the same problems that the Red Sox did in the 2011 season. The 2011 Red Sox will live in infamy due in large part due to stories of certain players drinking in the clubhouse during games.

That may sound bad to some fans, but the 2004 Red Sox also drank in the clubhouse. In fact, they drank before what were arguably the most important games in the entire history of the franchise.

What was the difference? The difference was that everyone was into it.

Given that it's been nearly impossible to get a straight answer on the details of the Red Sox's drinking over the course of the 2011 season, it's not outrageous to suggest that there were players on the team who thought that it wasn't such a hot idea and others who felt it was no big deal at all.

Once that happens, a division within the clubhouse could easily be a logical next step. And once that division happens, well, that's where problems can really start.

In football, one would have to assume that these types of problems can have more acute consequences. Football only has 16 regular season games, so any loss cannot just be interpreted as "critical;" it actually can be critical.

The baseball regular season allows more time for corrections and more time for adjustment. In the NFL, a three-game losing streak (as the Jets finished the season on) is roughly the equivalent of a 30-game losing streak in baseball. Both numbers represent about 18.75 percent of a season's total games.

Imagine, if you will, your baseball team losing 30 games in a row. There is no franchise in baseball that would escape a streak of that nature with its team and front office personnel intact. Now, imagine when the members of that team go public with their laundry list of complaints about other members of their team. 

In the aftermath of the Jets' final loss of the season after Santonio Holmes was removed from the game, running back LaDainian Tomlinson, a future Hall of Famer who had just finished his career as a member of the Jets, wasn't shy about taking Holmes to task for his behavior.

"

I’ll tell you what, it’s tough for guys to follow a captain that kind of behaves in that manner. You’re a captain, guys looking at you. You’ve got to lead by example.

"

Of course, it goes beyond that though.

Holmes, Tomlinson, Ryan, Sanchez, Revis, Scott. Jets fans all know the names of all the high-profile players on the 2011 roster. It's a star-studded, talented crew. It's also an 8-8 football team, and it appears that, more than anything else, the Jets got to that point as a result of their internal personality conflicts as much as any sort of play-calling or defensive scheme goes.

They're not the first team to be victimized by a lack of cohesion. They won't be the last, either.

In the next few weeks, the Jets and their fans will get to watch everyone ask, "What's wrong with the Jets?" Everyone will have an opinion on who should stay and who should go. The solution is, of course, more complex than anyone wants to admit.

Rex Ryan, to his credit, may have started the healing process by doing something that's been lacking in his public persona to a large extent the last few seasons. He admitted his own culpability in the collapse—not just on the field, but internally as well.

"Normally, I’m a guy that really has the pulse of this team, and I don’t think I had the pulse of the team the way I’ve done in the past," Ryan said at a news conference. "When I met with players, I think that became clear to me."

That's a start for the Jets. It speaks exactly to what Tomlinson spoke about with regards to leading by example. It's just a start, but it's not bad. Is it too little, too late? Football fans and, more specifically, Jets fans won't get to find that out until next fall. 

In Boston and all over New England, Red Sox fans are eagerly awaiting the start of the 2012 baseball season. The terrible demise of 2011 can't truly be put in the rear view mirror until the next season pushes it into the backs of fans' minds.

This is still the case in spite of the fact that the team has already changed both field managers and general managers in the aftermath of the 2011 collapse. 

Two summers ago, Rex Ryan allowed his New York Jets to be the subject of an HBO reality series based on NFL training camp called Hard Knocks. Too bad he didn't know that title would be inflicted upon his Jets on a time release.