Fireman Ed – NY Jets unofficial mascot

Posted on 13. Oct, 2009 by Mike Olaski in Events, Individuals, Social Gatherings, Teams, The Connection, The Fans Perspective, The Sports Perspective

FiremanEd_fans There is one thing that unites all NY Jets fans around the world………that being J-E-T-S Jets Jets Jets! Ed Anzalone (better known as Fireman Ed) is a superfan of the New York Jets and one of the most well known National Football League fans. He was the originator of the famous chant and you can find him in Section 133 at Giants Stadium at every NY Jets home game. In 1999, Fireman Ed was included in the Pro Football Hall of Fame as part of the Hall of Fans. We were fortunate to sit in Fireman Ed’s section during the September 27th game vs the Tennessee Titans and got to see first hand how important he is to both the team and the fans.

Considering that the focus of our tour is to profile the connection between Sports and their Fans, I don’t believe we could have found a better example of this than the connection between the NY Jets football team, Fireman Ed and the faithful NY Jets fans. Fireman Ed went from being a loyal fan like many of the other fans in the parking lot that day, to an icon that truly represents the connection between the team and their fans.

In fact, just a few days earlier on September 25th, Fireman Ed was presented the game ball on behalf of the NY Jets fans for their win over their division rival, the New England Patriots. The NY Jets head coach, Rex Ryan was quoted as saying:

“He wasn’t the only fan you would notice, but I don’t know the names of everybody else,” Ryan said. “I’m sure there was Fireman Joe and everybody else out there. It was great because they’re our fans and we decided it was a little token of our appreciation to give him a game ball.”

Ryan said Fireman Ed was “all fired up” during their meeting.

“He’s expecting a lot of wins, as are our fans, and he said this is only the start and our guys understand that,” Ryan said.

Referring to the rest of the team’s fans in an interview with the team’s web site, Fireman Ed said, “Their passion is as great as mine is. There’s no difference. I’m just blessed to be able to lead the orchestra, to get them crazy.”

Video footage of Coach Rex Ryan placing the game ball into their training facility display case can be seen here: http://www.facebook.com/Jets?v=app_2392950137#/video/video.php?v=103010843046316

It truly is a refereshing site to see how the New York Jets have acknowledged their fans as a major contributing factor to their success. The idea that an average (although passionate) fan can essentially become a part of the team brand and exemplify the connection between the team and it’s fans is an amazing story.

The connection between Fireman Ed and the NY Jets has also been portrayed in promotional videos by the NFL on CBS and in a commercial for Budweiser.

We were fortunate to be two vehicles down from Fireman Ed in our pre-game and post-game celebrations and captured a very cool video of Fireman Ed and his friend leading the charge with one more J-E-T-S Jets Jets Jets. 3 AND 0 BABY!!!!