Sports offer some of the best analogies, one event always remind you of another. One moment provides a reflection of a different moment years ago.
The Jets short window of relevance and notoriety is bookended by New York Football Giants championship and tradition. They so easily accomplish what the Jets struggle to even approach. They collect Conference championship trophies like trinkets from a weekend getaway, all while the Jets spend all their money before they reach the souvenir shop. All their resources expended before they can attain anything to make their January trips truly memorable.
The 2009-2011 Jets are best comparable to the 2006-2008 NY Mets. Remember all the talk about the Mets taking back the town from the Yankees and how they were bringing brash excitement and enthusiasm back to the game? Reyes and Wright better than Jeter and Arod? How'd all that work out for them? All I recall is Beltran never taking the bat off his shoulder, a couple of collapses and the inability to ever get back to that moment when it seemed like things could only get better. After that, the Mets sunk back into irrelevance where they usually reside and the Yankees resumed doing what they always do: competing for and winning championships. Yankees fans never really understood all the attention, quotes and magazine covers devoted to the Mets when they hadn't accomplishing anything significant in the first place. I personally remember wondering if Mets fans thought there was some type of "almost made the world series trophy or banner" that should be hanging in their stadium. That almost, near, so close business didn't count for anything in the Bronx and I wasn't interested in hearing about almost history, I was proud to be a fan of the team that always MADE history and gave me a reason to be proud of the past, not always running away from it in hopes of finding a better future. But, that is a luxury I only seem to have during baseball season.

A New York Jets winter is long and cold and brutal. It bites you with the constant reminder of what never was, of the hopes dashed and the infection of disappointment and dismay.

Yes, these are difficult days for the faithful. It's never easy to see your greatest rivals look down at you with contempt, knowing that they regularly compete on a stage that you see and speak of, but never actually step upon yourself.

Tired of being told to step aside, but still waiting until next year.