Monday Morning Cheerleader: Samantha of the Jets
By Shawn Donnelly
Esquire
After a stunning victory over Brady and the Pats, one of Gang Green’s loveliest breaks down the upset of the year — with some choice words for Wes Welker, of course.
“Shocked the world” might be the biggest cliché in all of sports, but it might just be the only way to describe what the hell was going on Sunday night at Gillette Stadium. Namely: ridiculously nice catches by the underdogs, unlikely sacks of the soon-to-be league MVP, and a 14-2 team with an eight-game winning streak and a trash-talking slot receiver going down to a squad that it had humiliated 45-3 just six weeks earlier.
But if you think the Jets’s 28-21 playoff victory over the Patriots was a strange turn of events, imagine how it must feel to second-year Jets Flight Crew member Samantha, a retailer from Staten Island, New York. The last time these two teams met, she and seven other Jets cheerleaders were on a league-promotional tour of Mexico. “We watched the game in a movie theater in Mexico City,” she says. “The audio was in Spanish, and we were getting killed. It was like, is this really happening?” Fortunately for her, Sunday’s game really happened, too. We think.
ESQUIRE: To begin, the big news before the game was that Wes Welker would not start because of his foot-related comments earlier in the week. Did Welker, ahem, shoot his team in the foot?
SAMANTHA: Well, I think it was very classy of Belichick to sit him out. But not having him on the field for that first series definitely worked to our advantage. We got the interception, which was huge for our confidence. If he had been out there, maybe they would have scored.
ESQ: Do you think Welker regrets saying those things now?
SAM: I’m sure he does. But we’ll never know. He made a decision to do what he did, and there were consequences.
ESQ: But how nice was that interception and run by David Harris? Big man showed good hands — and wheels, too.
SAM: That was a great play. That made Tom Brady a little scared the rest of the game, I think. It sent a message that we were ready this time.
ESQ: And then your defense followed it up by sacking Brady a total of five times. Were you surprised by how much pressure they got?
SAM: I thought that was the biggest factor of the whole game. Five times. Amazing. We just didn’t make it comfortable for him back there. The whole defense played great.
ESQ: Meanwhile, Mark Sanchez had no sacks. Impressive, right?
SAM: No sacks, no interceptions. He had a great game, I thought. At the beginning he seemed like he was a little nervous, but he calmed down and made some really nice throws.
ESQ: What was going through your mind in the third quarter when Tom Brady marched the Pats down the field for a touchdown and two-point conversion to make it 14-11?
SAM: I knew they still had to get another score. But I was getting a little nervous. Fortunately, we came right back. Sanchez had a beautiful throw to Cotchery, and Cotchery had a huge gain.
ESQ: Yeah, for 58 yards. And then how about that touchdown catch by Santonio Holmes in the end zone on third and four? Reminiscent of his Super Bowl grab for the Steelers?
SAM: That was crazy. I think he couldn’t even believe he caught it. He makes huge plays, especially when his team needs them the most. Because we really needed a touchdown right there.
ESQ: Then the Pats tried to rally, albeit very slowly. And when they did start to hurry it up, it looked like some Jets players might have gone down “injured” to slow their momentum. You okay with that?
SAM: I probably shouldn’t comment, but… you have to do what you have to do.
ESQ: Then it came to a fourth-and-13 for the Patriots from the Jets’s 31-yard line. Belichick elected to go for it rather than kick a field goal, and they failed to convert. Bad decision?
SAM: I don’t know why he would think that they would be able to make that. It’s not like it was fourth-and-one or something. Maybe he thought Brady could make a great throw and get the first down. But odds are against you on fourth-and-13.
ESQ: How about Rex Ryan going into the end zone to celebrate with his players after Shonn Greene scored to make it 28-14. You don’t see many NFL coaches pulling that move, do you?
SAM: Anybody would get excited in that situation. He was obviously very happy. I’m okay with what he did.
ESQ: Let’s look ahead to this Sunday. Packers at Bears — who do you see moving on to the Super Bowl?
SAM: If I had to choose, I’d say the Packers. I think Aaron Rodgers will be too much for Chicago.
ESQ: Jets at Steelers?
SAM: The Jets, obviously.
ESQ: So Jets-Packers in the Super Bowl?
SAM: Sounds like a pretty good matchup to me.
ESQ: Finally, you’re a big musical-theater fan. Other than taking you to Jersey Boys, what can a man do to impress you?
SAM: Be nice, be genuine, be funny. Be regular.
