New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers has hosted “Jeopardy!” but he knows very little about the history of how the two New York teams ended up playing on the west side of the Hudson River.
In his latest of a long stream of dubious sound bites, Rodgers claims the Jets and Giants for New Jersey.
Aaron Rodgers: “We are the New Jersey Jets. So are the Giants.”
Insanely refreshing to hear for NJ people.
And as a Jet fan from NJ this is basically porn pic.twitter.com/cA3n1qVPUC
— Matt_NJD (@matt_NJD) July 22, 2024
The facts are as follows:
The Giants moved to Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, in 1976 after playing home games in New York since 1925 with the exception of the year and a half they played at the Yale Bowl in New Haven, Connecticut (1973-74).
They did not take the “NY” logo with them, changing their logo to “GIANTS” instead to appease their fans in all three states. They did, subsequently, keep the “New York” in their name.
“It always has been and always will be the New York Giants,” co-owner Wellington Mara said at the time.
Case closed. Mara also mentioned the Giants were maintaining their offices in Manhattan.
Late Jets owner Leon Hess had no intention of changing his team’s name either. That mindset has carried over to current owner Woody Johnson.
Over the years, several groups on both sides of the Hudson have sued to have the names of the Giants and the Jets (who moved to Giants Stadium in 1984) to New Jersey but to no avail. Again, case closed.
Neither of these teams is dumb. Changing the name to New Jersey could open the door for a third team to crop up in the New York metro market. That is possible thanks to the precedent set by the area’s three NHL franchises.
By keeping New York in their names, the Jets and Giants claim the New York tri-state market as their own.
There’s a thing called territorial TV rights, which keeps the lights on in NFL stadiums. Do not mess with the golden goose.
Rodgers will learn quickly how vast both teams’ fan bases are. Fans come from all over to attend games — even from as far away as Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Delaware.
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