By Alfred Branch, Jr.

In most sports circles, a record of 2-9 could be considered bad enough. But for the New York Jets, the team’s record this season is only the beginning.

Not only has the team suffered on the field, the behavior of its male fans toward female fans has become a growing controversy following a recent New York Times story about the verbal abuse often heard on the stadium entrance ramps. But on top of that, now it appears the Jets are not moving tickets at the secondary ticket level the way most National Football League teams do. During the team’s last home game, which was a victory for Gang Green over the Pittsburgh Steelers on Nov. 18, the number of Steelers fans in attendance was staggering, as hundreds of Steelers fans snapped up a lot of the unsold tickets that normally would go to diehard Jets fans.

“It’s been horrible,” said one Connecticut ticket broker about sales of Jets of tickets this year. “The last [home] game against the Steelers was pretty good because their fans are local in that they can drive to a game. But other than that, this season has been terrible. I’ve had to eat a lot of tickets this year.”

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The team has two home games left, Dec. 9 against the Cleveland Browns and Dec. 30 against the Kansas City Chiefs, but brokers would be lucky to break even this season.

What hurts for the last two games is that Cleveland and Kansas City fans are not exactly plentiful in the Northeast, and the two cities are too far away to stimulate a rush of out-of-town interest.

“I doubt we’ll break even on the Jets this year,” the broker said. “And, that’s bad.”

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