I think I don't want to hear what great fans the Jets have. Not for a long time. That crowd Saturday night was a disgrace. At least half the stadium was empty for Favre's debut in a Jets' uniform. I expressed my amazement to a few fellow scribes Saturday night -- emphasizing that N.Y. traded for an all-time-great quarterback, not a broken-down one -- and they gave varying reasons for the poor turnout. Like it's the middle of vacation month for New Yorkers, and it's a preseason game. Horsefeathers. If you really love your team, and you have season tickets, you should have been at that game unless you were in Tibet. Ridiculous.
Right. Because it couldn't have anything to do with the fact that the last memory any football fan in New York has of Brett Favre is this:
The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood 
being an old-timer, i of course remember when preseason games were generally understood to be poor value for money; now of course they are mandatory purchases for season ticket-holders (at full price is my general understanding).
peter king attends games for free. he's a very good football writer, but really, the notion that people are under obligation to peter king to attend a pre-season game is pretty damn silly.
This is slightly OT, but the preseason ticket scheme howard describes above is part of the clear proof that hard salary caps do nothing to make games affordable for fans. The NFL, which has a real, hard cap, also has: mandatory, full-price preseason tickets for season ticket holders (constituting 20% of the season ticket purchase); PSA's; "hold fees" to keep a place in line for season tickets; incredibly high rates for parking; incredibly expensive food/drink.
Owners will try to pay the players as little as possible and charge the fans as much as possible. Those two efforts operate independently of one another. Tickets in all sports are getting more expensive because there are people out there who can/will pay for them. They could get the players to pay for free -- like they do in college -- and they'd still charge an arm and a leg for tickets if the demand is there.
Peter King has long been the president of the Brett Favre fan club. His Favre worshipping is straight-up embarrassing, it's so over the top.
preseason games are glorified practices.
who cares how many people show up?
It's nice to see Howard in the comment section again, always a voice of reason.
I recall paying to see a Lions preseason game because I was so excited about Barry Sanders and the promising Wayne Fontes era. Never again, my friends. Preseason is preseason.
Using preseason attendence as a measurement of fan support is as dumb as using preseason victories as measure of how good the team is.
Besides, times are tough for a lot of people and spending $8 per beer to watch Farve only toss the ball half a dozen times isn't a great bang for your buck.
Preseason football isn't quite as lame as the Pro-Bowl, but it isn't must see. Also, the Olympics are on and it is summer.
Dougefresh is right, AND while Farve will be in the hall of fame for what he has done, he wont be in there for anything he'll do in a Jets uniform. The man's best days are behind him, so if people dont do cartwheels because he's there, they are justified imho.
I can't stand Peter King. There, I said it. This guy worships at the alter of all things Brett Favre, the New England Patriots, and the Colts. This guy is a company man for the NFL and will never criticize the NFL on anything it does. His MMQB column has one page of analysis, and six pages of rubbish. The only thing Peter King has going for him is that he is a better writer than Don Banks. I am not a religious man, but I pray that we can have more Dr. Z.
Meanwhile even preseason tickets are a hot commodity in Green Bay and every game is played before a packed and lively crowd. Not quite like being at home, is it Brett?
The clip is further proof of what I've always thought as a Lions fan: Favre is the most overrated QB of all time. He might win you a couple games with his arm and freestyling, but he'll lose you some even bigger ones.
The other commenters are right- Peter King is second only to John Madden and Chris Berman in the Favre-worshipping cult. He's waiting on them both to croak so he can move up to Grand Wizard.
Peter King has had the kneepads out for Favre for a long time...
Somehow I see Brett's career ending on a very sour note in NYC... This aint Green Bay, Jets fans will turn on him in a second if he doesnt produce..
I know my idea of a great time is paying $40 to watch the third-string QB try to figure out how to avoid all of the D-linemen rushing through the fifth-round-picked rookie OL before lobbing it up directly at the safety. Preseason games exist to see backup QB's get their hopes of starting crushed.
Peter King sucks. But not as bad as Brett Favre is gonna suck this year for the Jets. Even commenting on pre-season attendance is a joke. There is absolutely NO reason to go to a pre-season game. How many series did Favre even QB?
Preseason games exist to see backup QB's get their hopes of starting crushed.
And, to also see the marginal players screw up on their 1-2 plays to shine and end up being cut from the team.
sheesh, am i the only person who thinks peter king is a pretty hard-working, pretty well-informed guy?
he's not Dr. Z, fighting words, i agree, but then, who is?
ps. thanks, steve, too kind! just ask al!
Re: Favre
All of his idiotic cheerleaders (King, Berman, et al) are going into this season convinced that Favre is going to have the exact same season (or better) as he had last year.
I think he's much more likely to have a season like 2005 than 2007. Frankly, I think last year was an anomaly.
snark
No matter how he plays, though, you know he'll be doing it with boyish enthusiasm!
/snark
I think most of the comments have it right, King is second only to John Madden in his man-love of Brett Favre. But if King wants to get text messages from Brett every time Brett's upset that management isn't kissing his ass for the championship he won 12 years ago, King better not say anything critical. Brett gets good press coverage from King because King gets the scoops, who's using who? Seems a bit unethical, but it's only a game.
And I too am bored to death by King's training camp updates. Here are 5 things I know about King's columns.
1. I don't give a shit about where he bought his coffee
2. I don't give a shit what is served in the team cafeteria
3. I don't give a shit about how far away the airport is
4. I don't give a shit about the Boston Red Sox, this is a football column not a stream of consciousness exercise.
5. King doesn't know shit about fantasy football. His idea of a sleeper is TJ Houshmandzadeh.
All that said, King is correct about Jets fans. Total douchebags. They are the most ignorant fans of any team in any sport. SEC football gets better attendance for spring scrimmage. Season ticket holders have already paid for the seats. Cost is not the issue. Heart is. Jets fans are clowns who invariably know nothing about football.
Incidentally, Roger Goodell has been floating the idea of an 18 game regular season lately. He's selling it to owners as a way to increase their profits. No need to pay the players anything more.
Also, the University of South Carolina just approved PSLs. That shit is not going away. A guy that I work with has had Giants tickets for 50 years. They recently informed him that he'll need to cough up $20,000 for the privilege of buying 4 tickets in the new stadium.
Just Karl:
Tell us how you really feel!!
Just Karl,
Also, the University of South Carolina just approved PSLs. That shit is not going away. A guy that I work with has had Giants tickets for 50 years. They recently informed him that he'll need to cough up $20,000 for the privilege of buying 4 tickets in the new stadium.
Like I said, what they pay the players has nothing to do with what they make the fans pay. Well, that's not completely true -- necessity is, to some extent, the mother of invention, and if they think their costs are going up the owners are a little more likely to experiment with new revenue streams. But I think that's a pretty marginal effect. They already have a big incentive to find more revenue, since they're the ones who get to keep it.
Peter King is a total blowhard. All his columns boil down to is bragging about his access and making lame Starbucks jokes.
"So the other day, I was chatting with Peyton Manning over a grande triple-soy mocha latte..."
God, just shut up. The point of having access is to provide interesting scoops that you can't get anywhere else, not to see how many names you can drop in a single column.
Peter King's comment makes no sense for two reasons. First, it was clearly understood in advance that Favre would throw even fewer passes that a first-string QB usually does in a pre-season game. Second, since preseason tickets are a function of season tickets, and season ticker holders are more likely to be away for the summer--especially in NY where going to the beach is de rigeur weekend stuff for people of means--a Saturday preseason game is going to be under-attended.
Peter King functions as part of the NFL publicity and public relations apparatus. He may not be officially employed byt he NFL, but his functionis to promote it. So sure, he's pissed that people don't want to go watch the great Brett play in a meaningless exhibition game. He probably also thinks that fans suck if they don't read his column or change the sdtationwhen he comes on talk radio. He's not just boring, he's a bore.
I really agree with Howard. The name-dropping in MMQB is really over the top. My favorites are when he brags about getting a text message from some player. I can't even read it anymore.
That said, his sycophantic behavior toward Brett Favre was really on display during that whole debacle. It was amusing to watch him and Favre's other media cheerleaders engage in the mental gymnastics required to not come to the conclusion that most objective football fans came to a long time ago: Favre belongs in two Halls of Fame - one for football, the other for douchebaggery.
It almost defies belief that King actually asserts that Jets fans were supposed to cancel their vacation plans to see Favre's first game in a Jets uniform. What an ass.
It's been pointed out above that King is a hard-working, well-informed guy. I think that's absolutely true. But he might as well be on Roger Goodell's payroll in addition to SI's and NBC's. He traded objectivity for access a long time ago.