Respectfully Yours, New York / New Jersey.

There’s an old joke that used to float around eastern Pennsylvania when I was a kid, and I know it by heart. Along with knowing who Jim O’Brien and Jerry Penacoli were, knowing this joke is another true test of your provenance if you grew up in the years between the two times that the Phillies won the Series.

A friendly note for a New Jersey Devil fan. You weren't expecting a mint on your pillow were you?

But it’s not necessarily a Philly joke, I don’t think, because when I first heard it I was at summer camp up in the Poconos, and if I remember right, I think I learned the joke from a couple of other camper kids from Staten Island. Anyhow, it goes like this:

Q: What’s the difference between trash and a New Jersey girl?
A: Trash get’s picked up.

Now, sure, that joke is not fair. That is unless by “trash” you're talking about the Kevin Smith film, “Jersey Girl”. Most people I know in Philly and around the area really do like New Jersey for many things: its shores, its comfortable combination of suburbia and proximity to the cities; and even cuisine, which once in a while garners the accolades of “Best New York Style Pizza” and “Best Philly Cheesesteak” according to the magazines. And if you have a little bit of Amish in you or you enjoy the taste of innards you can find many breakfast spots in places like Cape May and Wildwood Crest that even serve scrapple with your cozy morning eggs. New Jersey is a nice place to live with cool people everywhere. Even Jersey girls.

But when it comes to sports and sports fan rivalries, that’s a-whole-nother set of trash. In fact, New Jersey, the land that sits by default between New York and Philadelphia is a wasteland of sports trash talk that never seems to get picked up.

Somehow, a week into the NFL Playoffs, the Eagles crashed out while the New York Giants (who play in New Jersey actually) never made it in, even with a 10 and 6 record. Meanwhile, the Seattle Seahawks, who could not even manage to win the majority of their games this season, look set to challenge for a trip to the NFC Conference Championship.

Yet on the other side of the league, the AFC’s Jets, former denizens of old Shea Stadium who now play at the New Jersey Meadowlands, slipped by the mighty Colts only to find they’ll meet up this weekend with the Patriots in New England. And if odds are correct, the Jets won’t be playing again in Jersey any time soon.

This kinda bums me out just like it bums out everyone back home too. After stealing Cliff Lee right under the nose of the Yankees and a last minute kick return touchdown and win over the Giants at the Meadowlands, Philly fans were hoping to get the chance to meet the Giants in the playoffs, with the possibility of adding insult to injury. And if you’ve ever seen the film Big Fan, starring Patton Oswalt, you get a sense of how bad Giants fans dislike the Eagles and Eagles fans even more. I always think that the rivalry between team’s fans makes the competition ever sweeter.

But instead of rattling cages against the Giants, Philly got to host the Green Bay Packers and their polite fans, as the Pack politely escorted the home team to an early off-season, beating Philadelphia 21-16. My sense about things and personal finger on the football pulse of people I know seems to suggest that after a back to back spanking by the Dallas Cowboys last season, in game 16 and in the first week of the playoffs, Eagles fans wanted to reconcile this season with the last one by rehashing the other division rivalry.

A New York / Philly mash up in the post season would have been the icing on the sweetest cake: a soufflé, half baked of an awful season for Dallas and the other half sugared with the failure of Donovan McNabb at Washington with the Redskins.

What I am getting at is that Philly fans wanted to do what they do best, cheer their team and talk trash about the neighbors. Sure we boo Santa, and sometimes we throw icicles. But that’s not what Philly fans do best. Not joking.

With nothing going on football-wise in Jersey or Philly now, it’s back to civil discourse and good behavior for a while. Until then, New Jersey fans, we’re respectfully yours.

But wait…I guess there’s always hockey season, isn’t there?


Andy Frye writes about sports and life a couple times a month here, and tweets throughout the day on Twitter at @MySportsComplex.

Where he comes from “a-whole-nother” is actually a word.

Written words © 2010. Love note picture courtesy of Tom Weisbecker.