On Sunday, something went wrong for the New York Jets even before kickoff of their home game against the New England Patriots. As NESN’s Zach Cox noted, the end zone paint of “Jets” at MetLife Stadium wound up being tracked throughout the end zone:
Whoever painted the Jets end zone didn’t do the greatest job. There are white footprints all over the place. pic.twitter.com/sJhqGi5sS2
— Zack Cox (@ZackCoxNESN) September 24, 2023
That drew a lot of commentary. Here’s some of that:
could be the only time a Jets employee gets in that end zone so don't begrudge them too much
— kreis (@flounder76) September 24, 2023
The ghosts that haunted Sam Darnold are back. https://t.co/OlNXxxickD
— The Commonest Man in Festo (@hottakeharry) September 24, 2023
Their #1 field painter blew his Achilles, so they had to let Zach Wilson try to do it.
— Ray Hrovat (@RaymondInPDX) September 24, 2023
Those are not footprints – they are Jets tears https://t.co/0m99sylNRR
— Michael Nurse (@Dayton247Gm) September 24, 2023
This also escalated quickly:
The amount of footprints on this end zone is kinda hilarious pic.twitter.com/0YeBvaFEKF
— Zack Rosenblatt (@ZackBlatt) September 24, 2023
The Patriots are favored by 2.5 points in this one. But given both teams’ offensive struggles to date, there are a lot of people expecting the game to hit the under (the total is at 36.5). So there may not be too many end zone tracks on the day. But it’s certainly interesting to see all the footprints there long before the game.
The Jets are 1-1 on the year, thanks to a season-opening 22-16 overtime victory against the Buffalo Bills (but a Pyrrhic one, as they lost Aaron Rodgers along the way) and then fell 30-10 to the Dallas Cowboys in Week 2. The Patriots are 0-2 following a 25-20 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles and a 24-20 loss to the Miami Dolphins. We’ll see if the Jets can do better than their end-zone painters.
[Zach Cox on Twitter]
