Jets are grabbing New York's attention from Giants

IN EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. As New York Jets Coach Rex Ryan stepped to a microphone late Monday after a loss in the team's opening preseason game, a few dozen fans crowded behind the glass walls that surrounded him in the just-opened $1.6 billion New Meadowlands Stadium. Many cheered. Others snapped cellphone photos through the glass. One man yelled: "Go get 'em, Rex!"

For Ryan and the Jets, it truly is a fishbowl existence these days.

For most of their history, the Jets have been regarded as the pro football junior varsity in New York, widely viewed as far less relevant than the Giants, the franchise that shares their city and their stadium. The Jets could look back fondly on Joe Namath making good on his victory guarantee in Super Bowl III, and little else.

But suddenly it is in vogue to pay attention to the Jets. They have a larger-than-life head coach in Ryan, the straight-talking son of famously combative former NFL coach Buddy Ryan, and they have begun to resemble the NFL's "it" team as the new season nears.

The Jets improbably reached the AFC title game last season with Ryan as a rookie head coach and Mark Sanchez as a rookie starter at quarterback. Now they are a trendy Super Bowl choice among preseason prognosticators. They also are media darlings, their training camp featured on the behind-the-scenes HBO weekly series "Hard Knocks."

They are soaking it all in.

"Expectations are very high," linebacker Calvin Pace said in the Jets' spacious, still-glistening locker room following Monday's 31-16 loss to the Giants in the first preseason game at the new stadium. "You're playing in a huge market, and people expect you to put a winner on the field . . . It's win or bust. And that's good. If you don't expect to win the Super Bowl, what's the point of going out there and playing?"

The Jets now regularly challenge the traditionally more popular Giants for back-page headlines in the New York tabloids. The two franchises cooperated with one another to build the new stadium and land the 2014 Super Bowl. But they clashed over which team would host the first regular season game in the new venue - the Giants got the nod, but the Jets will host a Monday night game the following day - and it's clear that some in the Giants organization feel threatened.

Giants linebacker Keith Bulluck, a New York native, told the New York Times before Monday night's game that the Giants, not the Jets, are "New York's football team," and tailback Brandon Jacobs told reporters the results showed who the stadium "really belongs to."

Ryan certainly isn't shying from great expectations. When ESPN stopped at the Jets' camp in Cortland, N.Y., on the network's bus tour of NFL training camps, Ryan signed the bus with the phrase: "Soon to be champs."

Jets linebacker Bart Scott, who also played for Ryan when Ryan was defensive coordinator of the Baltimore Ravens, said there's no reason for the Jets to be uncomfortable under such a bright spotlight.

"We don't change things that we do whether we're winning or losing," he said. ". . .We believe in the way we go about our business. If you just stay the course and believe and everybody buys in, more than likely things will work out for you."