so long fireman ed

this is fireman ed. fireman ed is most famous for being a jets fan. he's more famous for being a jets fan than a fireman and he has fireman in his name. he is a super fan of epic proportions... or was. recently, fireman ed decided he wasn't gonna play the role of fireman ed anymore. the announcement came after an embarrassing loss to the new england patriots on thanksgiving evening. he left the game early, took down his twitter account, and hung up his trademark jets fireman hat.

when i first heard about this, i didn't know many specifics. i just thought he was that embarrassed with the team that he was done with it. maybe he'd come back when the jets decided to show a little more effort. but it was more than that. apparently the super fan formerly known as fireman ed has a problem with fan culture, which naturally deteriorates and gets uglier when it's focused on a losing team that the rest of the nfl is laughing at.

fireman ed chose to rock a sanchez jersey this year. he was trying to show his support for the team's starting qb who finds himself in a qb controversy of sorts due to the signing of tim tebow during the offseason. whenever sanchez starts to suck, the fans start to chant, "TEBOW!" this is kinda standard fair for fans of a losing football team. but fans were starting to give fireman ed grief. people would tell him to take the jersey off or accuse him of being paid by the jets to wear a sanchez jersey. fireman ed denies these allegations (and i believe him).

all ed's ever been is a super fan of the team... such a super fan that it got him much attention over the years. he lead the, "J-E-T-S, JETS, JETS, JETS" chants at the stadium. they'd focus the camera on him and put him up on the big screen as the thousands of fans would follow along. i've seen this dude do pep rallies in times square when the jets were doing good in the playoffs. he put his all into being a jets fan and in return he became one of the more famous sports fans in america... maybe even in the world (i'm not sure... i'm not all up on my worldly sports).

so for ed to suddenly admit that fan culture sucks kinda sucks for me and everybody else. cuz i've been to jets games and i've seen the fans. and a lot of them seem alright... but a lot of them aren't. i've seen fights and screaming matches... i've even been in a screaming match or two and been a witness to a fight that almost broke out between people i was tailgating with and other tailgaters. and i'm talking about jets fans vs. jets fans. it happens... a lot. and it's sad. i can't imagine how many people make the decision to spend all that money on a ticket (nfl games are expensive, no way around it), look at the ticket and think, "oh, this is gonna be fun!" and then they get there and find themselves surrounded by crappy fans who curse, shout, and threaten each other. i'm not saying it happens all the time... but it happens, and it's a fucking bummer.

and if it does happen, and i've seen it, i gotta imagine fireman ed was on the receiving end of all sorts of rage from angry jets fans. he's wearing the target. and that sucks. but i hope things get better for fireman ed. i hope a lesson is learned here. ed says he'll still go to jets games, but he won't be fireman ed anymore. and i'm alright with that. i find the role of super fan a bit overrated anyways. no one should put their all into rooting for a sports team. that's just not the kinda thing you should hang your hat on at the end of the day. if all your life ever amounts to is that you made it as a fan of a team, there's something sorta sad about that. there's so much more to life than rooting for sports.

and that's the lesson. root for sports. enjoy sports. but ENJOY sports. the moment you find yourself becoming angry, tense, frustrated, sad, depressed or whatever over professional sports is the moment you should step back and reevaluate your thought process. there's no sports team or sports outcome worth beating yourself up over. that's not you on the field. you put no effort in and you receive no reimbursement or acknowledgement for a job well done.

as for all the shitty fans, if you're not gonna have a good time, don't go to the game. you're ruining it for everyone else. your shitty ways retired a well known super fan who hopefully will reinvest some of that effort he put into being a fan into other things that will cultivate more positive results.

i guess what i'm trying to say is, it's only a game. once it's over, move on with YOUR life. and stop letting sports influence you to be a shitty person.