Quick Slant: Two Damaged Franchises Begin Their Healing Process by Trying to Eat Each Other

Jets @ 49ers, Monday @ 8:20 PM EST

I wonder: As a fan, is it worse to have your heart ripped out of your chest right off the bat; just rip the Band-Aid clean off and get on with your autumn months? Spend more time repairing things around the house, get down the Halloween decorations a little early, and learn to play Mahjong or something? Or would it be worse to scale all the way to the mountaintop – like, you would have recently seen the mountaintop, something not every fan can say – but in the end, your heart is ripped out just the same? Months of hope-built jubilation sustained your spirit, yet, for it, the crash came from such a far greater height.

Aaron Rodgers can be cringe, and letting a blue-collar Northeastern fan base win a championship is like feeding a Gremlin after midnight, but having sympathy for Jets’ fans last year was unavoidable. A tortured NFL culture had become energized with palpable optimism; four plays into the season, the numbness that had left snapped back like a sudden breakup. The death rattle of Aaron Rodgers’ writhing beneath an ultra-lighted Jumbo Tron replaying the pop of his Achilles on the first possession of the season was like stopping the force of an ocean wave with a net.

Then there were the 49ers, who had scrabbled all the way to Super Bowl LVIII to earn a rematch with the Chiefs, the team that had toppled them in the final game five years ago. They forced overtime and scored first – a field goal. That simple gesture would have won every Super Bowl ever played before 2022, but a recent change to the overtime rules made this one different. So, in the end, the Niners found their demise yet again; looking up from the cold earth, there was the familiar sight of Patrick Mahomes holding the knife as the curtains closed.

In its own way, each fan base deserves emotional mercy. At worst, they have each been betrayed by the football gods high upon Mount Canton; at best, they had some real crummy luck. And yet, the Jets and Niners will be thrust into the Arena of the Gods straight away, for the Titans on Mount Canton are never actually merciful.