How the Jets and Giants have finally restored New York to the capital of the NFL

The most anticipated football season in New York’s history is already breaking an ignominious streak: For the first time since Thanksgiving week 2012, both teams are in prime time.

If that date rings a bell for you, it probably should. The Jets, playing the Patriots at home on Thanksgiving after an overtime loss in New England earlier in the season, suffered a humiliating 49-19 defeat that became instantly famous — or infamous — when Mark Sanchez ran into offensive lineman Brandon Moore and fumbled, with Steve Gregory returning the ball for a New England touchdown.

The Buttfumble was born, and the next 10-plus seasons of New York football misery had its inaugural highlight.

That loss dropped the Jets — who had disappointingly missed the playoffs in 2011 after losing three straight games at the end of the season to finish 8-8 — to 4-7 and was the beginning of the end of the Rex Ryan era. Save for a 10-6 2015 season that featured a narrow playoff miss, the Jets haven’t had a winning season since.

Three days later at MetLife Stadium, the Giants would beat down the Packers, 38-10. The defending Super Bowl champs were 7-4, on course for another playoff berth.

A week later, Pierre Garcon’s fourth-quarter touchdown would hand them a Monday night loss in Washington — one of three losses the Giants would suffer in their final five games to finish 9-7 and miss the playoffs.

They would play just three playoff games for the next decade, with last season’s win at Minnesota being the only triumph.

As New York suffered through 10 coaches, Odell Beckham Jr.’s boat party, Eli Manning’s benching, Dave Gettleman’s misplaced arrogance, Sam Darnold’s mononucleosis, the Patriots owning the AFC East and so, so many different Jets quarterbacks, it slowly but surely became all-but-irrelevant to the NFL’s national picture.

Nearly every other city has had its turn in the spotlight since 2012, including three that no longer have NFL teams (albeit not for reasons that would make St. Louisans particularly thrilled).

As for New York, even the Super Bowl hosted in East Rutherford was one of the least memorable of the 21st century, and did not provide a great advertisement for cold-weather, outdoor stadiums to host such events.

But now, it’s our turn again.

MetLife Stadium will host arguably the two biggest games of Week 1. It will host two of the league’s most fascinating teams, and could host just its second ever playoff game, not counting Super Bowl XLVIII. It might host its third, fourth and fifth playoff games, too.

Every possibility is on the table.

Yes, there is also every chance this could fall apart. The Jets have been down this road before, and it did not go well with Brett Favre. The Giants’ record last season was boosted by an excellent record in close games, and those could just as easily go the other way this time around.

But Aaron Rodgers’ heart seems to be in this, and he looks every bit the real deal. The changes Brian Daboll has brought to 1925 Giants Drive, too, should have a lasting effect and the roster looks a lot better than it did at this time last year.

Both teams will get tested immediately out of the gates — the Giants against a Cowboys team that beat them twice last season, the Jets against Josh Allen and Bills, who have replaced New England as AFC East standard-bearers.

They will be on Sunday and “Monday Night Football.” At MetLife Stadium. The eyes of the football world upon them.

Today’s back page

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A KC dynasty?

To those who were ready to declare the Chiefs a dynasty after a second Super Bowl win in four years last February, slow your roll.

As it currently stands, the Chiefs are the best team of the last five years, but that does not make them a dynasty any more than the Atlanta Braves from 1991-95, the Minnesota Twins from ’87-91 or the football Giants from ’86-91. Two titles in four years does not a dynasty make.

Is that a high bar? Of course, which is what such a designation requires.

A third Super Bowl for Patrick Mahomes, with the Chiefs having gotten to the conference title game or better each year since 2018, would put them on a par with New England’s second trio of titles from 2014-18. That feels like an apt bar for when to start throwing around the term.

And even after Travis Kelce suffered a bone bruise to put his status for the season opener in doubt, that looks like a distinct possibility for Kansas City. With Mahomes and Andy Reid at the helm, and the core of the team that won a Super Bowl just seven months ago largely intact, there’s not much reason to think they won’t be in the mix.

Thursday night’s opener against the Lions — an up-and-coming team with dare-to-dream expectations of its own — should be a good measuring stick for both clubs.

Shelton’s next step will be the hardest

Ben Shelton’s performance in a four-set win over Frances Tiafoe on Tuesday night to reach the U.S. Open semifinals is, unto itself, a massive achievement for the 20-year-old.

Ranked 47th in the world, Shelton has established himself as a household name and part of a generation of American men’s tennis that counts so far as promising, with Tiafoe, Taylor Fritz, Tommy Paul and Christopher Eubanks all bringing varied degrees of hope to the table.

On an individual level, Shelton can and should count this tournament as a major success no matter what happens against Novak Djokovic on Friday.

As far as anointing him as the next great hope to snap a major drought that will reach 20 years for American men if Shelton does not pull off two massive upsets in a row to win this U.S. Open, though, let’s hold off.

At this point, we’ve seen enough false dawns to get carried away.

The U.S. has produced players in the top 10 since Roddick’s win 20 years ago. John Isner and Mardy Fish were both high-level players for decent periods of time. Sam Querrey, once upon a time, reached the 2017 Wimbledon final by beating Andy Murray. Roddick, Andre Agassi and Robby Ginepri made up three of the U.S. Open’s final four in 2005. Tiafoe was there last year.

(Meanwhile, Madison Keys again made it two American women in the semis, joining Coco Gauff on Thursday night’s card.)

The past two decades are dotted with moments in which American men scraped the surface of excellence then fell down to Earth.

That does not make them much of an outlier in a landscape where four people — verging on five if Carlos Alcaraz fulfills his endless potential — have dominated the sport pretty much since Roddick won his lone major.

If Shelton wants to be the one, well, that’s easy enough: Beat Djokovic.