New Jets Head Coach Robert Saleh Questions Giants Fan Base’s Passion

New Jets head coach Robert Saleh’s attempt to win favor from the Jets fans was probably well-meaning, if not poorly executed.

Saleh, who attended Michigan State, which has a rivalry with Michigan, compared Jets fans to his alma matter and Giants fans to their rivals during an interview in the Huddle and Flow podcast.

“The [Jets] fan base is so passionate,” he said. “When you look at [the] Michigan State fan base versus [the] Michigan fan base, it’s very similar to what you see in New York if you think about it.

“We always make fun of Michigan for kind of being more the uppity-ups, sit on your hands, where the Spartan fans are a little bit more rambunctious, a little bit more passionate, a little bit more — they’re louder. Like we always say a loaded stadium in East Lansing is a hell of a lot louder than the loaded stadium at the Big House.”

Saleh didn’t stop there, adding, “When you get here, you just feel that. When we’ve played the Jets in the past versus the Giants — no disrespect to them, they’re absolutely a phenomenal franchise—but the Jets’ fan base feels more invested. They feel more invested in the way they are just so passionate about their team,” Saleh said.

Saleh probably didn't intend to come across as dissing the Giants fan base. Still, his condescending-worded comment about the Michigan fans, which he compared to the Giants fans, being "more the uppity-ups, sit on your hands" type, certainly could have been avoided.

And not for nothing, but since when did Saleh attend enough Giants and Jets games to draw any kind of conclusion?

These are two very different fan bases, the Giants fans being a group that, despite the recent love-hate affair with the home team, has stuck with Big Blue through thick and thin.

The Jets, meanwhile, who haven't been to a Super Bowl since the 1968 season, saw its most ardent super fan quit on the team a few years back out of frustration.

A certain former Giants head coach used to always say, "Talk is cheap; play the game." Saleh might want to start winning a few games before making any comparisons between his team's fan base and another team's, a lesson that another Jets head coach (Rex Ryan) learned the hard way several years ago.

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