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…i have been asked to provide the following information countless times during the last few hours…so, here you go…
According to a survey from last November, 49 percent of MetsBlog’s readers are Giants fans while 40 percent are Jets fans.
…i don’t believe this is indicative of the overall fanbases, though it could be…because, like we discussed last week with regards to the Confidence Rating, the people who read this site may or may not directly reflect the actual demographics of the Mets true fanbase…that said, i instinctively associate Jets fans with Mets fans, and Giants fans with Yankees fans, because that is how me and most of my friends and family split up…
…actually, the fact that most of my family and friends are Yankees and Giants fans is exactly why i chose to pull for the Mets and Jets…i’ve always been a contrarian like that, i guess…
The only good thing about the Jets are their uniforms, and come to think of it, they aren’t that great either.
Go Big Blue!
Lukas was hateing on the Giants road uni’s on his blog, but I kinda like them..Love the Jet jerseys…thank god Parcells brought the traditional uni’s back…The ones they were playing with in the early 90’s made the players look like Swamp Thing…or Gumby
Mets/Jets. I feel ya Matt.
For me it has always been Mets and Jets. The Jets played some of their most exciting games at Shea Stadium.
I always thought I was in such a huge minority by being a Mets/Giants fan. Since I was a Mets fan first I had always assumed I would gravitate towards the Jets as a kid in the 70’s so I did kind of root for them, but something about those hapless Giants teams from that era…Doug Kotar, the Joe Pisarcik/Jerry Golsteyn QB controversy, Troy Archer, Joe Danelo, etc…had me rooting for them big time by the time the 1980 rolled around. Never did hate the Jets though and I remember rooting for them during the Vinny Testaverde championship game
Personally, I feel one makes no difference to the other, you root for whichever team you’re attached to, for whatever reason. I’m a Met/Giants fan and I’ve got plenty of friends who are as well.
Agreed. To group teams of different sports is kind of ludicrous. One team has no sway over another team in another sport.
Agreed. I’ve always been a Met/Giants fan.
Certainly, growing up on Long Island as a Mets fan, one would think i’d be a Jets fan. In fact, I went to high school with Bruce Coslet’s son. And, Herm Edwards went to our church and lived in our town when he was coach. And, Parcells lived in my parents condo building when he coached the Jets. And, Curtis Martin did as well. But…it was always the G-Men for me.
The difference is I could never root for the Skanks, or the Rangers for that matter …while I root for the Jets if they aren’t playing the Giants. I don’t feel the same level of emotional attachment to the fortunes of the Jets though.
That may be the case, Matt but I’ve always likened the NL in baseball with the NFC of football. That’s why I’m a Giants fan.
Yup. Senior circuits, the grown up league/conference. The traditional game = NL/NFC
So, i could never root for the yankees… against any body… i mean if the devil was on the opposing team i would root for the yankees.
I’m a Jet fan, but still root for the Giants… I’m not as passionate about them, but I still root for them. I don’t see the same animosity as with the Mets-Yankees rivalry.
Plus it’s nice to have a full football sunday and a team to root for in boith leagues.
I agree, I just don’t see the same animosity with the fan bases….
*if the devil was on the opposing team i wouldn’t root for the yankees.
I agree that the Jets and Giants don’t really have any kind of rivalry, but then again what’s the rivalry between the Yankees and Mets? They never played a game before interleague play started!
I think part of the reason is that the Yankee fans are all obnoxious and cocky while the Giants and Jets are a mix of all types of people since they are composed of both Met and Yankee fans. I don’t think there is any kind of relation between the sports. I think it’s whoever you were brought up to root for. If there was a relation, then the rivalry between Giants and Jets would be huge.
I love you. Have my babies
My family has always been Mets – Giants. Not sure why, but oh well.
The reason more Mets fans are Giants fans than Jets fans is that there are more Giants fans than Jets fans in the NY population in general. Giants always get higher TV ratings overall than Jets games even in seasonw when the Jets are better than the Giants. I bet you if you took a poll of Yankee fans a greater percentage would be Giants fans than the 49% above.
Many reasons why the Jets and Mets are linked. Giants and Yankees are the old-time established teams that go back to the early part of the century. Jets and Mets are teams created in the ’60’s. Both played their initial games at Shea Stadium. Both Jets and Mets have the larger chuck of their fan base in LI, Queens and Bklyn, while Giants and Yankees take NJ, Manhattan Westchester CT. Both Mets and Jets get second place when it comes to media coverage in this town. Both are the underdog team in this city.
I think there’s definitely something to the underdog theory…I’m a Mets/Jets/Islanders fan, born in ‘87, so I have not seen any of my teams win a title in their respective sport, yet I still attend as many games as I can, and I still lock myself in my room after a loss
Screw the Fishsticks. Mets/Jets/Knicks/Rangers all the way!
Manhattan usually goes with the “better” baseball team. The exception was the mid-60s when the Yankees were better but the Mets were the town’s “darlings”.
1985 – 1991 you could not find a Yankee cap in Manhattan.
I have always the rule of thumb are the following association Mets/Jets/Islanders or Yankees/Giants/Rangers but myself
I am a Mets/Rangers/Giants fan.
Same here
Mets
Giants
Rangers
(coming from a fan who grew up in Los Angeles, but born in Brooklyn)
I’ve been a Giants/Mets fan since the early 80s. The Mets, because my dad is a Dodger fan and hates the Yanks, and because they had Straw and Dr. K; the Giants, probably cause they won the Superbowl in 1986, one of my earliest sports memories. I root for the Jets too though. Many NYers my age (late 20s/early 30s) are Mets/Giants fans because of those teams’ successes in the 80s when we were all impressionable.
I fall into that age catagory as well, and my first sports memories are the Mets/Astros NLCS. For some reason I didnt catch on to the Giants, I guess the Jets-Dolphins rivalry back then caught my attention more.
Me as well. I think there are a number of us with parents who were Dodgers/NY Baseball Giants fans who hated the Yankees (and thus became Mets fans), but rooted for the NY Football Giants because they were the only gig in town.
The numbers don’t lie Matt, stop projecting your Jets affiliations on us.
Mets/Rangers/Jets here (Knicks again when Isaih is fired)
Its been a common connection for people to be Hankees/Giants/Rangers/Knicks fans as they are the older teams. But as the Jets, Mets, and others have been around for quite a while now I think that standard is much less common.
I’ve been rooting for the Giants, mainly because its the type of team I like to see franchises build (not buy) so I can only hope the Jets use thier slew of high draft picks as well as the Giants did last year.
That looks awful close to a hartford whalers brenden shannahan jersey! Lets go Whalers! Lets go!
Good point Mike… Like many people on this site Im a die hard Met and Giant fan. I think the reason is because the Giants dont “buy” their teams like the Yankees do. I would compare the Washington Redskins organization to that of the Yankees i.e. signing Deon Sanders, Bruce Smith etc to ridiculous contracts… Im 25 and as far back as I can remember the Giants were never the type of team to go out and buy a superstar, the great Giant teams (’86,’90,’07) had alot of GOOD players that played GREAT with each other and the chemistry on those teams was felt…
The thing that annoys me alot though is a Yankees and Jets fan. Yankee fans are the arrongant SOB’s and yet they’re rooting for the Chicago Cubs of Football; to me that makes absolutley no sense.
I always thought all Yankee fans should be Dallas Cowboys fans since most of those fans are front-running, know nothing about sports, obnoxious assholes. I know a few myself. They make a perfect marriage
LOL, Despite your screenname’s betraying your lack of knowledge and respect for one of the greatest defensemen ever to lace up skates….your comment is spot-on perfect.
Well I still can’t get over the “Clean hip check” he delivered on Nilsson as it pretty much ended our season. I will never forgive him. ;0)
I root for the only true NY team, the Bills. Matt, is that considered part of your other 11%?
I did root for the Giants last night though due to my downright hatred for Tom Brady and the Pats. Probably one of the few times Bills and Jet fans united in a game.
Did I mention I hate the Yankees too?
I am a big Jets fan, and I was rooting for the Giants last night. I go to school in Boston so my hatred of the Pats and Tom Brady is tops on my list. My roommate is a Bills fan and we united no question. I think many NY fans united to root for a NY team last night, crossing many fan barriers.
As a football fan in general, I am very impressed with what the Giants did this season. And especially how they finished it all off against the “perfect” ** team.
Agreed w/ other posters about not grouping teams.
I am a Mets/Knicks/Islanders/Patriots fan (yeah I know – congrats to the Giants fans out there – you deserve it)
I was always a NY sports fan, but the first football game I ever went to when I was younger was a Pats/Jets game at Foxboro Stadium – (Tickets were very easy to come by for the pats back in the late 80’s) so as a 9yo I was rooting for the patriots because thats whos stadium we were at……the Jets won on a last sec FG and I’ve been rooting for the Pats ever since…..and despising the Jets….
I’m sure everyone has their own story of how they got rooting for their various teams……
Mets / Giants fan here. I despise the Yankees but will root for the Jets.
My brother is actually a Jets/Yankees fan.
We live in Florida and even though I’m a Mets/Giants fan, we love when Miami teams lose.
We get on each other about baseball, but he goes with me to all the Mets at Marlins games, and I go with him to all the Jets at Dolphins games.
I was a front runner in 1986 (I was 7 years old)
I became Giants fan and a Mets fan because they were winning. The Knicks were my team by default because I will only root for NY teams. I couldn’t stand people in NY in the 80’s and 90’s rooting for Chicago because if Jordan.
I stuck to all my teams through all these years and this is the first championship for any of my teams in my adulthood and i couldn’t be any sweeter.
EDIT=
I stuck to all my teams through all these years and this is the first championship for any of my teams in my adulthood and IT couldn’t be any sweeter.
you are not a front runner when you are 7 years old.
I echo my earlier comments, a lot of this is generational.
As the NY Baseball Giants and Dodgers (the majority of whom were NY Football Giants fans, because the Jets weren’t established) moved west, their fans were looking for another Non-Yankee team to root for and along came the Mets.
Same story with me. I was born and bred Mets and Giants. National League baseball and Giants football fandom in my family dates back 4 generations.
That said, I have no beef with the Jets. The only NY teams I would not root for under any circumstances are the Yankees and Isles.
This Yankees/Giants/Rangers vs. Mets/Jets/Islanders is a very tired and overplayed myth for non-critical thinking people.
couldn’t agree more. i never could understand the rationale that because you root for one team in one sport, you have to root for a corresponding team in another sport.
It could be a generational thing since the Jets and Mets came into existence roughly the same time and gen x followed. I always rooted for the Mets, Giants, Rangers, and Knicks. I’m not sure why? As long as I can remember it’s been that way.
Nets/Mets/Jets
yeah it’s painful
Born in ‘78, I became a fan of Darryl, Doc, LT, Simms (take Simms out and that’s a snowy picture). Anyway, for 23 years it’s been Mets and Giants for me.
This was the greatest weekend of my sports life.
This makes up for birthday, September 30 – Mets final game of ‘07.
It still doesn’t make up for the 1994 NBA Finals for me. I still haven’t fully recovered from that. I loved that mid-90’s Knick team probably more than any other team I rooted for.
I’m also a Mets/Giants/Rangers/Knicks fan (making this the best sports week I can ever remember having).
Became a Giants fan because I lived in Albany, where their training camp was located.
Became a Mets fan…well…because my family rooted for the Mets, because I like NL ball better, and because they weren’t the Yankees.
I’ll root for the Jets some if the Giants are out of it. Never would root for the Yanks.
I call myself a Mets/Giants/Rang…errrr Thrashers fan.
I lived in NYC for 13 years when I was a kid, I’ve been elsewhere and now Atlanta for the last 7 years, the only allegience I switched was from the Rangers to the Thrashers. (Hasn’t worked out too well so far) I also root for the Jets, I’ve been know, in the past to be at a sports bar and switch my Pennington jersey with my Tiki jersey in between games :)
Matt,
Growing up in Brooklyn, I became a Mets-Jets fan for the same reason. I could not ride that Yankees-Giants bandwagon. Go Mets – Go Jets. How about a Jets side blog on how could improve the team for next season?
I like the Mets because my parents grew up Dodgers fans and would never root for the Yankees. Also, being born in 1980 obviously the Mets were the better team through my early childhood. I did go to my fair share of Yankees game back then as well (I’m from Westchester so it was logistically easier) but I also remembered being scared as hell of the Bronx.
Not really into basketball but I guess I would have to choose the Knicks.
When I was younger I liked the 49′ers. No one from my family was that into football and the only time I really remembered watching games was a family friend’s SB party every year. While the Giants had some good teams in the 80’s, the Niners were just a more exciting team to watch. Then I stopped paying attention to the NFL but got back into it for fantasy football which has sort of ruined my allegiance to one team in particular. I was pleased to see the Giants win yesterday though.
The only other team I support as much as the Mets is the Rangers. I played hockey for 7 years and it was obviously easier getting to the Garden from Westchester than NJ or LI.
I think the Mets have a broader appeal over the tri-state area because of the overall popularity of baseball and because since NY used to be a 2 NL, 1 AL city there was a greater dispersion of Dodgers/Giants fans that migrated throughout the region.
Most team choices have to do either with family or who is good at the time.
Being (somewhat) old (45) I’m Mets/Jets/Rangers/Knicks, since at the time when I was really first getting into sports the Mets/Jets were the interesting teams, and Islanders/Nets weren’t around.
Hockey is the only sport though that I really dislike the other NY team. I dislike obnoxious Yankee fans, but I’m really more passionate against teams like the Braves (and Cardinals in the 80’s) that really are our rivals.
The reason many Met fans are also Jet fans is that both used to play at Shea stadium. I grew up in Queens within a short subway ride of Shea. The 1969 season cemented my Met & Jet fandom. The Giants used to play in Yankee stadium as well.
Jets fans don’t hate the Giant fans because they are not as arrogant as Yankee fans. All of those championships in the Bronx have gotten to the heads of the Yankee fan.
I was rooting hard for the Giants last night because the Patriots are the football equivalent of the Yankees. Their arrogance to publish a book about the perfect season is the epitome of arrogance. How dare they! I am soooo glad that they lost.
Don’t forget that the Giants also played in the Polo Grounds before they played in Yankee Stadium and played there for 30 years – which is longer than their stay in YS.
Matt,
Can you recommend a good Jets Blog site? You have the best Mets site, is there a Jets one near as good?
Thanks
very interesting discussion. its funny to look at all the different origins of fandom. myself- Mets/Giants/Devils, so i’m all screwed up. My dad was a huge Dodger fan, thus then a huge Met fan, he was also a big Giant fan. and the Devils? well, when i got into hockey in the 90’s the Mets played on the same cable channel as the Devils… the Rangers on MSG with the Yanks…. Mets=Devils, Yanks=Rangers… and well, i hate the Rangers…
Mets and Giants fan here. Just like the rest of my family and most of my Mets fan friends.
Although, I do root for the Jets when they aren’t playing the Giants, unlike the Yankees, who I never root for.
No football, only baseball & formula one. Used to like the vikings (also painful–first team to lose 4 SBs), but when the circus atmosphere took over completely & sportsmanship in the traditional sense went out the window in that sport, I gave up on football. Ladies beach volleyball is cool too. heh heh. BUT glad to see the pats get beat anyway.
Mets, Giants, Isles, and maybe I’ll like the Nets in a couple years if that move actually goes down, but for now I hate them.
Mets Giants? I guess it’s just a National thing: NL, NFC. It’s what my dad was, right? That’s really it.
Isles because I never liked the Rangers, for the Orange and Blue, for William Shea, and because Brooklyn (my home) is on Long Island. I don’t have too much love for Manhattan, and thus don’t root for the Rangers or Knicks.
And then oddly, my grandfather is from Boston, and a huge sports fan, so he’s shared the Red Sox, Celtics, Pats and Bruins with me, who I support secondarily to the Mets, Giants and Isles. (In the NBA I root only for the Celts, there’s two much conflict to like them and the Knicks, and my grandpa’s had seasons at Boston Garden since the late 1950’s). But don’t worry, I was definitely rooting for the GMen over the Pats, and would root for the Mets against anyone anywhere anytime.
Problem is that in the last couple years this whole thing makes me look like a horrible front-runner, as I root for my home teams and then all these super-successful teams afterwards. But I remember Scott Zolak, Dee Brown and Tim Naehring, and the Bruins ain’t nothing to brag about.
What a Super Bowl.
I come from a line of NY Baseball Giants and NY Footbal Giants fans.
When the NY Baseball Giants left town (any idea where they went ?), the family became Mets fans.
What an amazing few weeks…. Giants roll through the playoffs past Dallas, Green Bay, and Boston (New England) into the history books and the Mets erase the memory of September with one of the biggest moves in their history.
Superbowl and Santana…. has a nice “ring” to it.
I live in CT, and I’m a fan of both Mets/Pats. I guess I’m the only one with such combination.
Bills fan here!! I think I am one of about 10 upstate residents who cheer for the Mets and the Bills…and a Notre Dame fan to boot. What a life!
I am a Mets, Giants, Knicks, Rangers fan. I actually think that as a small child I was influenced first by the colors of the uniforms then by getting to know the players and the teams.
But I loved watching Joe Willie and the Jets as a kid. I don’t mind the Jets..sack exchange..gang green..etc. …Always hated the Yankees.
I am a true Blue Giants fan, and a true (brick owning) Mets fan.
I will however support the Jets because I like all 10 of thier fans :)
Seriously, I have no problems with Jets fans – I think they are good fans. Yankees?? NEVER!!! They are evil.
Can’t wait for the parade tomorrow.
I think more information should be provided in the blog!!