NFL New York Jets

New York Jets Fans Face Dilemma of Rooting for Present or Future Success

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By @GregSulik

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Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

Most fans have reached the point that New York Jets fans are at right now. It’s over halfway through the season, your team is really bad, and you’re in contention for the No. 1 overall pick. As a fan, you never want your team to lose. This is magnified even more in the NFL, where fans wait all week for the games and there are only 16 precious contests all year. However, the logical side of you knows that losing may actually be better for the team long term.

This is the dilemma Jets fans are currently facing. They’re 2-8, the butt of quite a few jokes, and the future looks grim. As a fan, you’d love to see the team rip off six straight wins to close the year 8-8 and shut some people up, however unrealistic that may be. On the other hand, you recognize that going 8-8 would still fail to get the team into the playoffs and would earn another draft pick in the 10-15 range, taking away the chance to land a star quarterback. Going 2-14, however, could lead to Marcus Mariota and the franchise quarterback this team has lacked for decades.

Obviously, how strongly you feel about this depends on how you view Mariota’s potential as well as how badly you want John Idzik and Rex Ryan fired. If you think Mariota is going to be a star and want to see new regime in charge, then you’re probably a lot more okay with losing than a fan who doesn’t believe in Mariota and thinks Idzik deserves more time (let’s be real, Ryan is gone no matter what happens).

There are a lot of people who would argue that a real fan never wants their team to lose, and frankly they’d be right. However, after years of failures due to the same problem (a lack of a franchise QB), what fan wouldn’t want to take the chance on a potential savior? Look at the Indianapolis Colts. They dealt with the misery of a 2-14 season, and now they get to enjoy Andrew Luck for the next 15 years. I guarantee you their fans would take that trade again 100 times out of 100. I’m not saying Mariota will be as good as Luck, but he looks like he’ll be better than anything the Jets have had in the last couple decades.

It’s an interesting moral dilemma that fans in every sport struggle with, and Jets fans are among the groups going through it right now in the NFL. The chance to add a true franchise quarterback is something that is too great to pass up, but no one wants to sit around watching their favorite team lose.

At the end of the day, the closest thing to the truth is that you’ll always root for your team to win, but right now you’re not really going to be that upset if they lose. Maybe that’s not the best way to support your team, but for a fan base like the Jets’ the chance to have a successful future is worth one more really bad season.

Greg Sulik is a New York Jets writer for Rant Sports. Follow him on Twitter @GregSulik or add him to your network on Google

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