LARRY: Did he leave a note?
JEFF: Yeah. He said “I can’t take any more disappointment.”
LARRY: That’s what he used to say when we’d watch the Jets game together: “I can’t take any more disappointment.” I’ve seen that guy sob after losses. During games I’ve seen him sob …
JEFF: Who knew he was so tortured?
LARRY: And they just kept losing and it kept eating at him and eating at him … he just couldn’t take any more disappointment.
JEFF: Oh my God …
LARRY: The Jets killed Carl. And a little bit of the Knicks …
That one made the rounds Tuesday, as you suspected it would. That snippet from “Curb Your Enthusiasm” is destined to accompany any nugget of negative Jets news from now until kingdom come, something that is sure to become as much of a tradition as Mets fans circulating the meme of Stewie from “Family Guy” every Opening Day.
And, look, sports are sports, and funny is funny, but the fact is that laughter can only carry us so far. It is hard to dispute it any more: There is a dark cloud rising from the city floor, and it is stalking our sports teams. The 27 or so hours connecting 5:30 Sunday afternoon and 8:30 Monday night was a particularly brutal stretch.
Aaron Rodgers’ injury was the latest in a slew of brutal NYC sports happenings. Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post
• Yankees phenom Jasson Dominguez was diagnosed with a torn UCL, draining the last few interesting drops of baseball season.
• The Giants no-showed their opener at home against detestable Dallas, getting trucked 40-0 in a game that felt like 80-0.
• Aaron Rodgers … well. By now you know all about Aaron Rodgers.
There was little left to watch in the underwhelming Yankees season once Jasson Dominguez went down with an injury. Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post
Again, you laugh to keep from crying, to keep from deleting your season tickets and tossing your team gear into an incinerator. The Jets (and a little bit of the Knicks) finished off poor Carl, and right about now you aren’t feeling so good, either. The Giants looked lifeless. The Jets did win Monday night, but still face an early-season gauntlet knowing their QB1 will now be the team’s highest-priced cheerleader/assistant quarterback coach.
Baseball? Take your pick: Mets, Yankees, it’s all grim, it’s all gruesome. It’s still fun watching Ronnie Mauricio take at-bats, and it sure would’ve been fun to watch Dominguez do the same, but unless you’re taking a break from binge-watching “Suits,” is any of that really appointment TV?
Daniel Jones and the Giants were embarrassed in a 40-0 loss in front of a national TV audience. Bill Kostroun/New York Post
What’s next for Jets after Aaron Rodgers’ season-ending injury The Jets got the news they were expecting but dreading. An MRI exam confirmed quarterback Aaron Rodgers has a torn left Achilles tendon that will require season-ending surgery, a source confirmed. Now, the Jets are back to where they were a year ago, with Zach Wilson back as the starting quarterback of the New York Jets. Here’s what’s next for the star-crossed franchise. Will Wilson get it done? Wilson is 8-14 as a starter and has thrown 16 touchdown passes along with 19 interceptions. Quite a few of those interceptions have helped to turn potential wins into losses, and many believed if Wilson had played to the level of an average NFL quarterback last season, the Jets would have made the playoffs. Talent around him Wilson will certainly have a lot to work with, starting with Garrett Wilson. The 2022 Offensive Rookie of the Year scored the Jets’ lone offensive touchdown Monday. Who else is out there? Former starters Carson Wentz, Matt Ryan and ex-Jet Joe Flacco are unsigned free agents. Journeyman Colt McCoy spent the preseason with the Cardinals and is available. GM Joe Douglas could look to make a trade. READ MORE
At this rate, it’s almost hard to believe that the FIBA basketball tournament that just ended allowed Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart, Mikel Bridges and RJ Barrett to emerge unscathed. Thank the good lord for small miracles.
And you wonder:
How did it all collapse this quickly?
All you need to do is think back to the evening of April 12. It was on that night that the Islanders beat the Canadiens, 4-2, in the first-ever critical game in the history of UBS Arena, clinching a playoff berth. That meant that for the first time in 29 years, all five winter sports in our area were bound for the playoffs.
By then, Rodgers had already told Pat McAfee that he was coming to the Jets, and a few weeks later that deal became official. The Giants were still basking in the reflective glow of a 10-7-1 season that included a playoff win. The Yankees, coming off a 99-win season and an ALCS appearance, beat Cleveland that night to move to 8-4 on the young season; the Mets, coming off a 101-win season, beat the Padres that night, jump-starting a 8-1 stretch that would push their record to 14-7.
The whole damned city was plated in gold, spackled with diamonds.
Now it’s covered in zinc dust.
The hockey teams won a total of one playoff series — there was no choice, two of them played each other. The Nets were swept. The Knicks offered a spasm of happiness before getting knocked off by the Heat. The baseball teams went spectacularly sideways. And now on back-to-back nights the Giants and then the Jets each send their fans through the looking glass, wondering if there might even be a football season left worth talking about in New York City by Columbus Day.
Who knew Carl was so tortured?
Look to your left. Look to your right. Look in the mirror. We knew. We know.
Torturous stretch the latest in NYC sports’ brutal history
