Looks like Jet fans don't just boo their own players when they get hurt, they also like to degrade women.

Vinny from Kearny, Angelo from Nutley and a guy from work all emailed me an article on Tuesday where it was reported that Jet fans ritualistically harass women during halftime at the Meadowlands.  How?  They gather on a pedestrian ramp at Gate D and engage in an obscenity-laced chant for women to expose their tater tots.

If women comply and expose their breasts they are rewarded with cheers and if they don't they are pummeled with plastic beer bottles and spit.  At least that's what happened to one unlucky lady during halftime of the Jets-Steelers game.

What the hell is going on around here?  When did going to a Jets game turn into Mardi Gras?

I'm not a Jets season ticket holder, but I had a pretty respectable streak of attending at least one Jets game from 1986 to 2003.  This little tradition is news to me.  Maybe it's something that started in 2004 or maybe I just never passed the ramp at Gate D during the half, but this is really a microcosm of why I don't really care to go to games anymore.  It seems like people go to sporting events to get into fights, pester women and make spectacles of themselves.  I don't want to get on a high horse (it's kinda scary way up here), but when did the game become secondary?

Now don't get me wrong -- there should be a home field advantage when an opposing fan comes into the stadium.  I'll relate two quick stories when I was in attendance. 

Example 1.  1991 -- Houston Oilers vs. Jets.  There was a woman sitting in my section who was wearing a No. 1 Warren Moon jersey.  She got up and cheered loud everytime the Oilers made a big play or scored (I think Moon threw for over 400 yards that day and the Jets lost 23-20 so she had a lot to be happy about).  Anyway, we were seated high in the upper deck, maybe six rows from being on top of the lights, and at one point some guys in the section got together and started to chant:

"O-ver the top!  O-ver the top!  O-ver the top!"

Everybody laughed (including the lady) and that was the end of it.  She didn't cheer as loud after that, but she wasn't in any real danger.

Example 2.  1998 -- Buffalo Bills vs. Jets.  Gang Green was in the middle of their 12-4 season so most Jet fans were in a good mood that afternoon.  The section I was in was all Jet fans -- except for one guy.  One lonely and outnumbered man wearing a No. 12 Jim Kelly jersey (Kelly was gone at that point -- Doug Flutie was the QB for that game).  At one point some Jet fan got up and pointed at Mr. Jim Kelly fan and yelled to a security guard standing near an entrance/exit:

"Hey!  This guy's smokin'!! (Short pause)  Marijuana!!!  

The security guard came running down and checked the guy out.  Everybody in the section started laughing, including No. 12, and that was it.  Even the security guard had a smile on his face as he left.  By the way, the Jets romped, 34-12.

Again, I know fights and disgusting behavior happens -- I've also been to games when mayhem erupted.  I'm not naive and I don't want to paint all Jet fans with a broad brush, but it seems to be getting worse.  Maybe I never noticed it before or maybe I'm just turning into an old man, but yelling at women to take off their shirts and then spitting on them when they don't just seems wrong to me.

Maybe I'm in the minority.

C'mon Jet fans -- you're better than this.

Right?