NFL Settles Jets-Giants Stadium Catfight

So the Jets and the Giants have built a stadium together in New Jersey, and they plan to co-exist there as they did in the old place. And with what they're going to charge for seats and PSLs, everybody should be able to make enough money that getting along shouldn't be a problem.

You'd think.

But if the brouhaha that just transpired to determine which team would get to play the first game in the new Meadowlands stadium is any indication, it could be a rockier relationship than expected. At the end of the day, the NFL has determined that the Giants will play the first regular-season game there, but that both teams will play there on the season's opening weekend -- the Giants on Sunday, Sept. 12 and the Jets on Monday night, Sept. 13. Additionally, the Jets will play the first preseason game at the new $1.7 billion place. All sounds fine, but if you've been following the thing in New York for the past couple of days you've been following a mini-soap opera that appears to have been exacerbated by the NFL commissioner's bizarre settlement of the issue.

It came out over the weekend that the Jets wanted to hold a coin flip to determine which team got to play the first game at the new stadium. Saturday night, the Jets actually made a formal announcement that the NFL had approved such a plan. But the NFL denied that on Sunday, saying it was commissioner Roger Goodell who determines the schedule.

A report then surfaced Monday in the New York Daily News that a coin flip had already been held, that the Giants had won it and that Jets owner Woody Johnson was upset because the teams weren't represented at the coin flip. Finally, late Monday afternoon, the NFL issued a statement that clarified everything. Or at least, a statement that got the league's version of the story out there.

The league's official release quotes Goodell has saying he had "extensive discussions with both teams" before arriving at his decision. The release goes on to say the following:

"Commissioner Goodell noted that both the Giants and Jets ownership felt passionately for their fans about being the first to play at home on the opening weekend of the regular season and could not agree on how to resolve the issue, including whether to conduct a coin flip. The commissioner said that, since both teams presented good reasons for playing first, he concluded that the fairest resolution would be to play both teams at home on the opening weekend and to make his decision on which team plays Sunday by flipping a coin. The commissioner flipped the coin last Friday with his staff at the NFL office. He then notified both teams on Friday of his decision and that he flipped a coin to determine the team playing on Sunday."

Huh?

The league's story is even weirder than the fact that these teams were fighting over this in the first place. To believe the release, you have to believe:

(a) That Goodell flipped a coin in his office on Friday, with no one there except people who work for him, and called the Jets and the Giants on Friday night to tell them he'd done it.

(b) That the Jets then put out a release the next day that said there would be a coin flip, even though they'd been informed that there had already been one and they'd lost it.

(c) That after "extensive discussions with both teams" on an issue about which both teams "felt passionately," Goodell decided to do the coin flip without telling either team he was doing it or inviting anybody from either team to witness it. This is completely preposterous, because if a coin flip falls in the forest and nobody's there to see it, did it really happen? If the commissioner determines the schedule, let him determine the schedule. If a coin flip determines the schedule, let a coin flip determine the schedule. But for the commissioner to come out and say, "Trust me -- I flipped a coin. You didn't see it, but I really, really did. Swear to god," smacks of silliness and a fear of making somebody mad. How can anybody truly believe he flipped a coin?

Woody Johnson certainly seems to have his doubts.

"An NFL coin toss has a few fundamental elements that are missing here, most notably the presence of the teams involved," Johnson said in a statement Monday night. "That's how it's always done in the League, whether it's determining the order of the draft or deciding who's going to kick off the game. When the issue of which team would be hosting the first regular season game could not be resolved on the merits, I suggested a coin toss as the fairest way to resolve this issue. The League rejected that idea. Then, I was told on Friday that a coin toss had taken place at the League office and that the Jets had lost. We rejected a process in which neither team was present. The League departed from our time-honored tradition and declined the opportunity to set the matter straight with a transparent process."

If I'm the Jets and Johnson, I can see the reasons for making a stink. They played for years in "Giants Stadium," have always felt like second-class citizens in New York, currently have the better team and are perpetually fighting an uphill marketing battle. Getting the first game in the new stadium would have been more important for them than it surely will be to the Giants. But so it goes. This is what it is to be the Jets.

On the flip side (pun intended), I can also see why the league would award the game to the Giants. There are countless reasons -- more fans, more history, more tradition, a longer and more deeply demonstrated loyalty by the team toward the New Jersey location... Goodell had plenty of good reasons to just decide the Giants would get the first game. What I can't understand is why he didn't just show some guts and do that, instead of telling everybody he had a coin toss all by himself in his office with nobody watching.

Regardless, if there was this much to-do over something like this, what's the fight going to be like when it comes time to figure out what to call this new place? I'm sure both sides are hoping some corporate sponsor comes along to make that issue irrelevant, but that doesn't always happen anymore. Does it, Jerry Jones?