Free Advice is a periodic feature in which I answer anonymous letters sent to markbialczak.com. Today’s reader asks for my opinion on Super Bowl Sunday.
Joe Namath concentrates between series for the New York Jets against the Baltimore Colts in the 1969 Super Bowl. (Walter Ioss/Getty Images)
Mark,
I know you had mentioned you once wrote about sports and you had once lived on Long Island. I too grew up on Long Island.
I’ve hit a low point this weekend. I am rooting for the hated New England Patriots in the Super Bowl. I dislike the Seahawks and their big mouths along with that jerk, a reporter’s worst interview, Marshawn Lynch, that much.
My problem is much deeper.
While growing up I rooted for the Mets. They now suck. The Jets. They suck. The Knicks. They really suck. And the Islanders. They’ve sucked for a long time but are now my glimmer of hope. The championship winnings look like this. The Mets haven’t won a world Series in 29 years. The Jets haven’t won a Super Bowl in 46 years. The Knicks haven’t won an NBA Championship in 42 years. And the Islanders haven’t won in 35 years. Being a Cubs fan almost seems joyful at this point in time.
Will I ever see one of these teams hoist the trophy in my lifetime? I’m 57 years old and father time is snuggling up next to me.
Rooting for the Patriots this weekend has made me realize I’ve hit bottom. What’s a Long Island sports fan to do?
Punxsutawney Phil
Dear Phil,
My dear wife Karen and I are planning on medium wings, pizza and an antipasto delivered from Twin Trees Too, a locally owned joint a couple miles up the road from our beloved Little Bitty in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood. I pick the place because even though they cut their slices into rectangles instead of triangles — no shoot, and I’ve not only gotten used to this foreign method of pizza pie slice-ature, I actually scramble for the inside, crustless pieces — it tastes very close to downstate pizza, good crispy brown crust, enough olive oil to drip off the the top and run slightly down your wrist. If you get in your car now and head north, you are certainly welcome to join us for the game and feast.
But I digress.
You and are sure would have been buddies growing up on the Island. Same age, same squads in our hearts. Wasn’t that quite the year of our youth when the Jets won the Super Bowl by beating the Colts in January of 1969, defying the world when the AFL was still a nobody, the Mets came out of nowhere to beat the Orioles of the same city in the World Series come October when people still thought they were stinkeroo, and the Knicks carried the magic through in the 69-70 season with an 18-game winning streak, and then beating the Lakers and Wilt the Stilt in the finals when captain Willis Reed dragged himself out there on his injured leg for game seven …
I’m getting misty-eyed thinking about all three titles so close together, and when you’re 12, 13 years old, you’re convinced that’s the way it’s going to be forever. Our real hometown squad, the New York Islanders winning those four Stanley Cups in a row from 1980 to 1983 made me feel like Potvin and Bossy and Chico and Billy would last forever. Al Arbour is a genius. The Rangers? Who were they? Nineteen-forty! We had a dynasty in the Nassau Coliseum!
Then, crickets until our brash-ass Mets of 1986 broke Beantown’s hearts. (Thank you, Mr. Bill Buckner.) And, unbelievably, crickets since. The Jets’ sneaking into the AFC title games those four times, mostly thanks to Giants’ coach Bill Parcells and super flash Rex Ryan is all we even had to make the heart beat faster.
Familiar sports team colors.
So what to do? My long paragraphs above was my clue. Cherish that glorious past. People can razz us about the present, but they can’t take the history away from us. I reminisce about those glory years and clutch them to my heart. When I was leaving Long Island to attend college as a freshman at SUNY Morrisville here in upstate New York, my sister Fran crocheted me a blanket to take with me. It was a brilliant blue and orange, the team colors of the Mets, Islanders and Knickerbockers. It covered my single bed in Stewart Hall in the fall of 1975 and the two years thereafter, declaring that hell, no, I was no Yankees fan. It went with me as I transfered to the University of Maryland, and came up here to Syracuse in 1983, where the hometeam is the Syracuse Orange and the other predominant squad color is blue. But as that blanket sits there on the porch as you see it above today, it means Mets and Islanders to me. I’ve let go of NBA basketball, pretty much, but if pressed, yes, it’s still Knicks (and a bit of Brooklyn Nets, too).
And we can scheme about the future. Hope springs eternal, as they say, and everybody’s undefeated on opening day.
So, I say to you, Phil, we watch the game today and hate the Patriots and dream of the time when our new Jets coach Todd Boles has our squad ready for us to be in the Super Bowl, and when Matt Harvey and the rest of our young pitchers carry the Mets to the World Series title. And yes, this final season in the Nassau Coliseum, when the Islanders skate around the ice hoisting Lord Stanley’s trophy with these players’ names etched onto it levels removed from Nystrom and Gillies. The Knicks? Phil Jackson, teammate to Walt “Clyde” Frazier and Bill Bradley back in the day, has schemed for all that cap room …
Here’s the link for the source for the photo of Joe Namath.
Free Advice is a periodic feature. Send questions to markbialczak@gmail.com. Anonymity is assured.
My qualifications: 57 years of open eyes and ears but no stalking charges. One dear wife Karen, one terrific daughter Elisabeth and her wonderful boyfriend George, one sensational stepson Daryl, one pet Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle and various other family members of scattered location and adjectives. Four decades of writing in public about people, places and things.
Satisfaction is the goal, but is by no means guaranteed.
Mark Bialczak 
interesting post Mark…..
and well, I thought of you this week when they showed Rex Ryan getting his Jets tattoo covered over…..
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Pro coaches who get their team’s name tattooed on any part of their body are not thinking straight that day, are they, Y? Poor Rex. I didn’t see the piece. He didn’t go and get it covered with Bills somehow, did he?
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I think he got “be like Marv” on his neck…
just kidding – I don’;t know if he got anything bills related – but if I find the snippet I will link it to show you – I saw it on ESPN real quick – he was sitting in a chair – and boy is he a thinner RR than I recall….
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Some people would say he’s half the coach he used to be. Ba-da-boom. Just kidding. I did not blame Rex for my Jets’ bad season this year. I was anti-Idzik.
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well I hope he is an asset to Buffalo – just never know….
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heard he just colored in the Jets with some blue….
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He could have somebody write SUCK below it with a Sharpie, Y.
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hah – very funny
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What a wonderful answer, Dear Mark! 😀
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Thank you, Reader Rachel. 😉
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LOL! 😀
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You are one of the guys I trust to find a way to celebrate, even when you are a little on the disappointed or troubled side. Yes, yummy food gets me cheered up and I did not mind the Patriots winning, but if the Seahawks had, I would have still had a good time watching the commercials.Wasn’t the one with the Clydesdales and the cute puppy the best, Mark?
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The puppy-Clydesdale commercial was the best, easily, Robin. It was so sweet! The Nationwide spot with the boy talking from the grave was the worst. It made me angry!
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Buckner never should have even been in the game at that point.
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Yes. Thank goodness he was, Jim.
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Dislike!
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At least you guys have a past you can embrace. If the Indians or the Browns had put together a winning season or two, I probably wouldn’t have all these self-esteem issues. When you grow up following perennial losers, some of it rubs off.
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You may have found your root issue here, Mark. Write me an anonymous email and I’ll think about it some more. 🙂
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My friend, Mikey, from Brooklyn is a Giants fan. He kicked people out of bars for being Jets fans. Doesn’t seem he played very nice now that I’ve read this, Mark. 😉
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That’s the way people are down there, Red. Very divisive! They don’t play nice. Mets vs. Yankees is worse sometimes.
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I’m wearing my Jets jacket right now. The Islanders are having a pretty decent year. Soon the Yankees will be back on the diamond. It’s not all bad!
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I think the Islanders can reclaim the Cup this year, Austin! That would be a great way to close down the old Nassau Coliseum and take it to the Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn, I think.
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I’m excited about my favorite hockey team movie to the borough of my birth!
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Moving from the county I graduated high school in to the borough I was born in!
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No, that’s not right. County I graduated grade school in!
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excellent advice, live on the good from the past, looking to the good in the now and in the future and when in doubt, order the wings and pizza from a great local place. )
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You got it, Beth. I have your ear, don’t I? 🙂
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My memories are almost the complete opposite, Mark and Punxsutawney Phil. (I digress, but is Punxsutawney Phil somebody whose birthday is tomorrow on Groundhog’s Day, like mine?) You see, I remember all the Boston teams sucking when I was young. I remember how thrilling it was when the Patriots FINALLY won a Super Bowl, after being the “Pat-sies” for so long.
Now The Patriots are the arrogant bad guys. Everything goes around in circles, doesn’t it?
Signed,
New England Ann
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You have lived the Polar Opposite, New England Ann. Yes, the Pendulum does swing. Happy Birthday on the Groundhog Day!
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You can dream yes. And 69 was a great year for you. I know we lived it. You can live it each year. It’s called the YANKEES. And that crocheted piece by Frannie. Beautiful! It allows you to move to Idaho(Boise St. and that horrible field), Illinois (Ilini), Denver (Broncos) and Florida (Gators). She was ahead of her time.
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It’s easy to be a Yankees fan, Mica. Wait, let me take that For the last three years, it’s exactly the same as being a Mets fan, not so easy. Yeah, Frannie made a great blanket.
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Well, Mica, being a Yankees fans has been hard work just like being a Mets fan the last three years. Good luck with the ARod backlash this spring. Ugh. That’s pretty awful all the way around. Yeah, Frannie made me something special 40 years ago!
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Don’t forget to include Dogamus Pyle on your credits list.
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Oh, yes, she does add much to my wisdom. Good catch there, Paul. 🙂
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Edward is trying to cut out A-Rod, I hear. Your dad wants none of that?
Thanks for the kind words, Wormy. Hi, Wormy’s Dad. Please visit your daughter in the Big Apple. She knows the short cuts, thanks to Edwards, to skirt the traffic you abhor.
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Love this post! I’m sending it to my dad. I think you may do a better job (than Edward) of convincing him that New Yorkers are not so bad. You see, this is mostly about the Yankees.
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