As this year’s Super Bowl approaches, we note that only one of the four remaining teams can win the championship for the first time.

The Green Bay Packers have won more championships – 12 – than any other team, including the first two Super Bowls and another Super Bowl in 1996.  The Chicago Bears have won 9 championships, including the 1985 Super Bowl.  And then there’s the Pittsburgh Steelers, who’ve won it 6 times, but all of those are Super Bowl victories, making them the winningest champion of the modern era.  That’s a total of 27 trophies between them.

And then there’s the new guys.  The Cinderella team.  The one that’s never won it.  The team that has never even PLAYED in an NFL Championship game.  We refer, of course, to the New Jersey Jets.

(Oh boy, here we go.)  On Wednesday, NJ Governor Chris Christie laid claim to the Jets, saying, “Today when they’re practicing, where are they practicing? New Jersey. And when they play their homes games, where do they play? New Jersey. And where do most of their players live? In New Jersey.”  New York Mayor Bloomberg returned fire, noting the “New York Jets” started life at the Polo Grounds in Manhattan and spent most of their history at Shea Stadium on Long Island, before moving to Joisey.  Besides, he said, referring to Super Bowl III hero ‘Broadway’ Joe Namath, “we can all root for the Jets, but they don’t call him ‘Turnpike’ Joe!”  The players are being pestered by the press to declare their state allegiance, and fans from both sides of the Hudson are making their claims.  Jets coach Rex Ryan was caught in the middle and yesterday tried to play peacemaker.  “There’s enough of the Jets to go around.”

Yikes, with such a fan base, perhaps it has been a blessing that the Jets have no home games throughout the playoffs.  (Who’s afraid of playing in Indy or New England or Pittsburgh when playing at home might lead to a brawl?)  And, to be sure, if they win it all, every muckety-muck in the tri-state area will be jostling to take the credit.
Oh well.  It’s all just another distraction, and another dramatic twist, in the improbable playoff run of the N-Y-N-J Jets Jets Jets.