Jets welcome season-ticket holders to Florham Park
FLORHAM PARK – After being third in line outside the Jets' Florham Park training facility a year ago, Shelagh Wickey was determined to move up.
The 13-year-old redhead from Warren got her father, Daniel, and younger brother Kyle out of bed and on the road even earlier, to make sure they'd be ahead of the pack as the NFL team opened its practice to season-ticket holders.
The family arrived two hours before the gates opened on Monday morning. When they'd traveled to Cortland earlier in the summer, she woke up at 5:30 a.m. "to get ready to go, to walk across the street." Added 11-year-old Kyle Wickey, "It's a bit intense."
Daniel Wickey could only shrug and blame himself for the third-generation Jets fans he'd helped create.
Though he was also raised a Jets fan, he told his children they could root for any team — except AFC rivals Miami or New England. But they adopted the team when then-quarterback Mark Sanchez led the Jets to back-to-back AFC Championship games in the 2009-10 and 2010-11 seasons.
Their uncle, Jamar Nesbit, played offensive guard in the NFL for a decade.
"I'm the ultimate Jet fan," said Shelagh Wickey, wearing a custom-ordered No. 98 Quinton Coples jersey she was hoping to get signed on Monday. "I'm a little crazy, but I just really liked the Jets. I don't even know why."
Ryan and Hannah Mullen, a pair of pint-sized blondes from Succasunna in matching Jets T-shirts and white giveaway sunglasses with the team logo on the lenses, were more excited about the oversized inflatables in the training-center parking lot.
Hannah, 4½, liked "the giant guy," a huge football-player balloon in a No. 99 Jets jersey. Seven-year-old Ryan, who also attended practice last year with their father, Bill Mullen, wanted to see quarterback Geno Smith, and tackle D'Brickashaw Ferguson. But really, it was about the "bouncy houses, and facepaint, and cheerleaders," she paused before adding, "and football."
The Jets' facility in Florham Park will also be open to the public on Tuesday and Wednesday, and they'll return to their former home at Hofstra University on Thursday. The Jets host the Giants at their shared stadium on Friday night.
"The Jets have made a conscientious effort to be more open to the fans," said Michael Melvin, a video producer from Madison. "A bunch of my friends have seen the players around town. They're accessible. I wouldn't go gaga, but I'd definitely say, 'What's up?' and express my appreciation."
Chase Murphy, a 7-year-old from Kinnelon, tossed his father's small-sized football before practice, hoping to add Jets quarterbacks Michael Vick and Geno Smith's signatures to the faded Redskins' autographs. His friend, 10-year-old Aidan Hertzberg, remembered seeing former Jets corner Antonio Cromartie swarmed by crowds when he picked up his daughter, Jordan, who was in fourth grade at Stonybrook School in Kinnelon.
That's part of the reason Scott Eveland, the mayor of Florham Park, helped bring the Jets to town in 2008. His son, Justin Eveland, had practiced at the facility with his Florham Park youth football team last November, a chance to use the professionals' indoor turf when it was freezing outdoors.
"It's achieved (our expectations) and surpassed them," Scott Eveland said, highlighting local programs like NFL Play60 in schools, donations of playground equipment, and the Jets' opening the facility for fundraisers and youth groups.
"They always had open arms for the Florham Park community. It's special to come back."
Staff Writer Jane Havsy: 973-428-6682973-428-6682; jhavsy@dailyrecord.com; www.dailyrecord.com/writerjane/
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