There are exactly 78 days remaining until the Jets crack open their season at home on Monday Night Football against the Ravens. A tough game to be sure, and one that every Jets fan ought to place special emphasis on. We do not want to lose that game. No, not because it marks our debut at New Meadowlands Stadium, or because we badly want for Rex to tear down his old team, although those two plotlines do sweeten the pot a bit, but rather because we almost sort of have to. After all the talking, all the bravado and letting the world know of our unshakable conviction that THIS. IS. THE. YEAR. we can not afford to blow it in the very first game under favorable conditions against a fellow contender. It’s very easy for us right now to say that pressure won’t be a factor. The weight of our Super Bowl expectations isn’t likely to pull anyone down during OTAs or Training Camp, but once the regular season begins, and fans come to realize just how difficult it will be, even for a team as great as ours, to return to even the conference championship game, well, we may just drown in it.

Incredible. When I first posted my fan census, I expected that maybe 20-50 people would partake in it, and that I would have been happy with any number in that range. Then Bassett over at The Jets Blog was kind enough to link to us and the whole damn thing exploded. Within minutes hundreds of people visited this site, which prior to yesterday had never received more than 130 or so hits. We topped 1,000 yesterday. Amazing. Well, 502 responses later, here are the results of the first ever 2010 Jet Nation census, including two bonus questions that I wish I had asked the first time around. Enjoy, and, please, if you like our site, be sure to bookmark us and keep reading!

Why then doesn’t Jets Nation have its own census? How else will we know how many fans we’ve got, how long they’ve stuck with the team and whether that talk of a New Jersey/Long Island split between Jets and Giants fans is true? I’ll bet you Red Sox Nation’s had one of these things for years, and Raider Nation probably would have too, if any of their fans were literate. So please take the time to fill out at least part of the poll questions provided below. There’s a real possibility that the data we collect from this project could provide a very unexpected snapshot of our fan base.

The fans told the whole story.

On December 27th, 2009, the last football Sunday of the old decade, nearly 79,000 fans traveled out to East Rutherford, NJ to say goodbye to Giants Stadium, their home since 1976. Though acknowledged by most as an outmoded eyesore, the big blue and red bowl meant much to fans of the New York Football Giants. After all, it was upon its swampy soil that the seeds of three world championships had been planted. It was the house of Simms, Strahan, Carson and LT. It was where Mark Bavaro broke his jaw dragging Ronnie Lott, and where Bill Parcells became the Big Tuna. It was a true Giant, not only in name, and respectful fans raised aloft signs proclaiming its greatness. “Thanks for the memories!” they shouted en masse.

Until their guys lost 41-9 to a 6-8 Panthers team, forcing them to shuffle out early into the cold to beat the traffic on Route 3.

On January 3rd, 2010, the first football Sunday of the new decade, over 79,000 fans traveled out to East Rutherford, NJ to say good riddance to the Meadowlands, a worthless hellhole they never should have moved to in the first place. In the two and a half decades since then-owner Leon Hess bullied his across the Hudson River, the Jets had been nothing but two bit losers playing in a stadium named for another team. Every other Sunday, the grounds crew would repaint the end zones, change the flags atop the parking lot toll booths and lay out the green sideline runners, on which the team’s three retired numbers were unceremoniously painted in the northwest corner, near section 107. What didn’t change was the name on the outside, or the bright red seats. Oh, Goddamn those bright red seats. For New York’s AFC franchise, this was the house of Coslet, Carroll, Kotite and Mangini, the place where the Super Bowl dreams that began in 1982 were buried along with Jimmy Hoffa.

The Jets beat the Bengals 37-0 to earn a spot in the playoffs. The fans reacted by violently and spontaneously snapping seatbacks and breaking cupholders.

I’ve already decided that the Jets would benefit from a New England victory in today’s Patriots-Dolphins game, plus I’ve outlined my reasons for such, but now I’d like to ask a different question. Who do we hate more? Stop and think about that for a minute before you answer. There’s no question that these are [...]