In the middle of last season, tired of the Jets and the Jets fans and the lack of respect, superfan Fireman Ed picked up his ego and went home. But now that the Jets have indicated they'll get along just fine without him, Ed's sounding a little desperate.
The Jets revealed that the J-E-T-S chant will no longer be led by one man, but rather chanted in the round by the entire stadium. (Whether this is feasible, given Jets fans' issues with spelling, is another question.) So Metro caught up with Ed Anzalone to ask him what he thinks about being so disposable, and though he swears he's cool with it, there's a distinct undercurrent of delusion.
“I just want to see the ‘J-E-T-S’ chant continue,” Anzalone told Metro. “What I’d really like to see — I’d like to see a young guy take over and do it his way and continue the Jets chant whatever way that might be. I did what I wanted to do. I tried to make a difference. It wasn’t about me, it never was."
"It wasn't about me," says the guy who was once charged with assault for pushing a Giants fan who dared interrupt his show.
Ed says the Jets gave him the heads-up on the new chant protocol, because he's the exclusive arbiter of spelling the team's name.
“They called me just to let me know what their intentions were. I did get asked if I would come back [in the role] and they knew I wasn’t going to come back. It’s just the way it is. But I will always love them, and down the line who knows? I wouldn’t come back on a consistent basis but if you needed me for a big game, who knows?” Anzalone said.
Which is worse self-deception: That Ed believes that during a playoff run, someone in the Jets front office will say, "You know what, this doesn't feel right without the dipshit in the fireman's helmet?" Or that Ed believes the Jets will play a big game anytime soon?
More Ed:
"It’s definitely different not doing it. When you’re able to get 80,000 people up — and I was fortunate enough to do that — and not being able to do that, it’s tough, it’s definitely tough. I’d be lying to say that I left the way I wanted to leave. I left because it was time but that wasn’t the way I wanted to go out. I wanted to go out like any athlete; you always want to go out on top. I wanted to win a championship and go down the Canyon of Heroes.”
All Ed ever wanted was a parade.
[Metro]