Ross Tucker paid Jets fans the saddest compliment in sports

Being a fan of the New York Jets isn’t for the faint of heart.

I write this as someone who once considered themselves a die-hard Jets fan. I still care deeply about the team, but I’ve long given up on wins and losses being meaningful. And as an out-of-market fan, I’ve long given up going out of my way to watch them on Sundays.

So I didn’t watch the Jets lose 29-6 to the New Orleans Saints. But I did come across a clip of Ross Tucker praising the fanbase of a team that probably doesn’t deserve the support it still gets, even in The Big Easy.

“I’m incredibly impressed by Jets fans,” Tucker said. “Just how loyal and dedicated they are with that return on investment. 15 years without a playoff berth… There’s actually a decent amount of Jets fans here. I mean, you see them on social media. You talk with them. Most of the ones I talk to have a very realistic perspective of where they’re at and what they want, but they continue to support this team without getting a whole lot in return.”

From personal experience, I can tell you it’s depressing, but it’s also the reality of a fanbase that’s been battered and beaten at every twist and turn. Every flicker of optimism, you feel like Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye character in “Avengers: Endgame.” Don’t give me hope. Please, for the love of God, don’t give me hope.

That’s why, after the Jets lost Justin Fields‘s debut in excruciating fashion, I texted my father not to say a word about “moral victories.” Because that very next week, Fields threw for 27 yards in a 30-10 loss and suffered a concussion. That’s the epitome of being a Jets fan. You are always waiting for the other shoe to drop, always waiting for someone to pull the rug out from underneath you.

The Jets are who we thought they were, and they’ve been exactly that for 15 years straight — owners of the longest postseason drought in North American professional sports. I was in sixth grade the last time this team made the playoffs. I’m 26 now. I’ve graduated high school, finished college, started a career. The Jets haven’t sniffed January football once. While I’ll never move on from this franchise, maybe the rest of the world should just let us suffer in peace.

But we can’t quit. None of us can. And watching Jets fans travel to New Orleans to sit through a 29-6 beatdown administered by a 4-10 Saints team apparently moved Tucker enough to compliment our dedication on national television.

He wasn’t being sarcastic. Tucker genuinely meant it during a game that dropped the Jets to 3-12. And minutes after praising Jets fans for sticking around, Brady Cook validated every word by throwing a fourth-down interception that let the Saints kick another field goal and push the lead to 22-6. The game was already over. It had been over since the second quarter. But there were still Jets fans in the building, and Tucker noticed.