8/14/2026

New York Jets (National Football League) @ MetLife Stadium (East Rutherford, NJ)

The National Football League: up close, in person, and in style

2026: New Venue #27

MetLife Stadium: a modern stadium saddled with not just one miserable team, but TWO of them!

On one side, you have the Giants. Sure, they’re responsible for two of the worst days of my life growing up as a kid from Boston, but outside of those two Super Bowls, what else have they done since 2000? Well...I guess you could say they’ve done a lot of things, but winning isn’t super common among those things (especially since Tom Coughlin left). Of course, landing John Harbaugh might help them this year, but we'll see what happens with that (as part of the reason he was available was because it was believed he may be well past his prime).

On the other side, you've got the team THIS post is about: the New York Jets (nee Titans of New York). I can think of exactly five things I know them for:

1. One random as hell Super Bowl win almost 60 years ago (and they haven't been back to the Super Bowl since)
2. A slew of draft "errors" (mainly the almighty Sanchize)
3. That whole thing with hiring Bill Belichick only to replace him shortly afterwards (TWICE)¹
4. Them creating their greatest demon by almost killing Drew Bledsoe
5. The worst thing to happen on American Thanksgiving since the Pilgrims gave the Native Americans smallpox (okay, so maybe that's a bit of a stretch...)

For the better part of the 21st century, American football hasn’t exactly been a major source of joy for folks in the New York City Metropolitan Area (and I didn't even mention the Giants getting CRUSHED by the murder that is the Baltimore Ravens in 2000²). However, thanks to the abject misery, tickets to both teams tend to be dirt cheap!

Case in point: I started looking into doing this trip in July of 2025, and tickets to a preseason Giants-Patriots game were listed as low as $7! Sure, it was a preseason game full of dudes who would otherwise never sniff the NFL (plus expectations for the Pats weren't very high going into last season), but still...you can't beat that price (I ended up having something else during that game however). I figured that if I wanted to get to a game this year (especially to tick MetLife off for my original 26 in 26 goal plus the fact that the NFL was the only Big Four league I’d never seen live), I’d be better off trying to go earlier in the season - or go in the preseason (i.e. THIS game).

As for the stadium itself, MetLife is the NFL’s largest stadium by seating capacity with 82,500 seats, and given the state of both the Giants and Jets plus the NFL’s old blackout policy³, it feels like a miracle that they’re able to sell tickets to football games. On some level, it was built as a "compromise": it was opened in 2010 as a replacement to the old Giants Stadium (which was basically right next to what is now MetLife), but was designed to be more "neutral" as the Jets were actually involved in its design/construction unlike the old stadium (as opposed to their highly controversial plan to move to the west side of Manhattan). Of course, there's a LOT more than American gridiron football that goes on here: it's one of the New York City metro's biggest concert venues, and it New York/New Jersey Stadium hosted the (kinda sorta crap) finale of that big soccer tournament a month or so before this game (which I'm not sure if I'm allowed to say what it is).

While this is my first visit for a sporting event, I’ve actually been inside MetLife once before: I did a tour on a random weekend back in 2019, which ended with us getting to stand on the same field where names such as Desean Jackson and Steve Gregory have etched themselves into the annals of NFL history. Sure, neither player ever played a game for either New York team, but they’re still responsible for some of the most memorable moments in MetLife Stadium history (okay, fine, there’s also the OBJ catch...).

In terms of amenities here...I'm really not sure what to say. There are three levels of concourse here plus a ground level plaza, but seemingly, only the "third" level concourse is "complete": there's a section of the first level concourse which goes down to ground level (which, it should be noted, does not encircle the entire stadium - kinda like Sports Illustrated Stadium's ground level), and the second level concourse is broken up by premium areas which you need a ticket or stamp to get into (and keep reading to find out how I learned about this). Said concourses are fairly similar to just about every other stadiums of this ilk (i.e. just about EVERY Big Four/Five stadium I've talked about on this blog), so there's really not much to say about them - though the intense grayness of the stadium due to it being designed to be "neutral" doesn't help (for what it's worth, Giants Stadium had red seats).

Despite being a major stadium in a major media market, MetLife is widely regarded as one of the WORST stadiums in North America. I won't get into ALL of why that is, but a BIG reason outside the "neutrality" of the stadium dampening any potential vibes: traffic and parking. Traffic in and around the stadium is usually AWFUL for games - partially as driving in is the way most fans get here with few public transit options normally (though NJ Transit does have train service for games including this one - though I didn't see anything about it in the days leading up to the game). With the Jets usually charging WILDLY EXPENSIVE rates for parking (even in the preseason seemingly), I ended getting a parking pass on the same secondary site I got my ticket at - and for a shockingly low price, I managed to snag a spot in one of the lots closest to the stadium.

Having mentioned that, I should also mention that inasmuch as I've been using the secondary ticket market quite a bit this year (namely for things such as MLB All-Star Sunday), somehow, someway...for this game, I got access to THIS:

This is one of the club areas on the second level concourse that you need special tickets to access. It's a , and given how warm it was , having a cool place to "escape" to was . Also, the food here is WAY different than what's available in the rest of the stadium; for example, I ordered a bowl of pasta here - something I don't think I've seen at a "non food-truck" concession stand at a sporting event (not even a cruddy mac and cheese!). Also, the seats here are padded seats, and this is the view you get for the game:

As this is a preseason game, the final result (a 24-16 Jets loss largely caused by the Bailey Zappe experience⁴) REALLY doesn't mean all that much given that half the guys who played the second half are probably not going to be playing in the NFL come week one (also, again, Bailey Zappe). The visiting team was the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but inasmuch as I'd like to say this was their first visit since that one Antonio Brown crashout...it's not⁵.

MERCH

The tour I mentioned earlier did NOT include a visit to the stadium’s team store, as it was closed for whatever reason; I guess it’s only open during events. However, from what I could tell, said store covers BOTH teams with “reversible racks” (as opposed to the Giants and Jets each having their own space). I should also mention that there were many, MANY merch stands throughout the three concourses of the stadium - but none of the "satellite" merch areas had selections remotely close to what the main store was offering, so if you're looking for certain items, you really are just best off dealing with crowds in the main store.

That said, my interest in American football merchandise is rather limited - especially for teams I don't find myself caring that much about. Usually, if I am to buy anything Giants or Jets related, it's because I found it cheap somewhere (namely some hats I got at Marshalls, a Brandon Jacobs jersey I found at a thrift store, and a Zach Wilson jersey at one of those Dick’s Sporting Goods clearance outlets). At this game, that trend more or less continued: there was one rack of jerseys available at clearance prices, and while most of them were iron-on replicas (as were most of the rest of the jerseys save for a Joe Namath throwback that cost over $300), the rack somehow had a few authentic jerseys from a few years ago (the only ones in the store). This rack was clearly not meant for Indianapolis Colts fans, as pretty much all but like five of the jerseys were Sauce Gardner (sorry Colts fans)⁶.

On the note of authentic jerseys...I was going to get into another "unstitched/iron-on vs. stitched" diatribe, but I think I'll spare you that nonsense. I will note, however, that if you're thinking of getting into authentic NFL jerseys, you should know that the sleeves on them are a VERY short and have elastic garters at the ends (similar to sweatpants) due to how they're typically worn (i.e. with football shoulder pads underneath). This means that, at least in my opinion, they're not exactly good to wear as a t-shirt, but it might work over a long sleeve shirt or a hoodie (though the hoodie is probably a WAY better idea, as I felt the jersey was pretty loose in the chest - again, likely due to the expected presence of shoulder pads⁷).

As a small but funny side note (at least for me and other JavaScript developing folks), a few days before this game, I was at a Dicks Sporting Goods and found a helmet that had a rather strange font:

COUNTING UP THE COST

In total, my ticket, parking, and in-stadium purchases (food and merchandise, as I got a few of the aforementioned clearance jerseys) ended up costing over $100 less than what just the ticket was going for at face value (I checked it a few days before the game). However, when you consider that the only thing I bought at "its intended price" was food (and I even got a free souvenir cup for some reason), then I honestly feel a bit DIRTY having gotten some of the things I got at the prices I got them for (the jerseys ended up being about 75% off together - and one had an MSRP of $350).

Having said THAT...I'm honestly not sure if I'd recommend going to an NFL game. Unlike other sports, the TV view pretty much captures what you'd need to see during the game, and while people complain that baseball is hard to watch as "nothing" happens between pitches/plays, American Football kinda sorta secretly has the same problem IMO. Throw in just how much things cost at a game plus the inconveniences of many NFL stadiums (more on this soon PROBABLY), and it's difficult to justify - both in terms of time and money.

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As a final note, I had some thoughts about also going to Jets training camp as it’s a mere three towns away from me and free, but renovations to the facility this year meant that they had a much more limited capacity for fans⁸. Also, I'm not going to get into the "Jersey" semantics here - yes, both the Giants and Jets play and practice in New Jersey, but they represent the New York CIty Metropolitan Area, so it makes more sense for them to be "New York" teams - even if the city probably doesn't really want them right now...

This post also means that I've seen three of the "Big Four" sports in 2026 (plus Major League Soccer), with the "odd one out" being quite possibly my favorite of the bunch - the National Hockey League. I am looking at visiting a couple of its teams in the fall, however, so be on the lookout for that!