Ed Reed‘s brief tenure in New York has been downright terrible thus far, with the Jets being blown out in his first two games by a combined score of 56-17.
Now, Reed is calling in a ringer ahead of his first home game at MetLife Stadium in hopes of changing the team’s fortunes.
“It’s going to be fun to play in front of the home crowd and have that energy that we need — we’re going to need the 12th man really bad to get this thing going the right way, to get this train moving to where we want to go,” the safety said, per For The Win.
“I think as a team, we need that energy, we need to be here with that energy flowing from the 12th man. That guy with the hard hat on — is he still here? Fireman Ed. I need him to get the whole stadium crunked.”
“Fireman” Ed Anzalone — a stadium icon and longtime leader of the “J-E-T-S” chant — actually retired last season — a fact the nine-time All-Star was not pleased to hear.
“He retired? I can’t believe it. We need to bring him out of retirement,” Reed said. “We need to bring him out of retirement.”
Fireman or no fireman, the Jets enter the home stretch with a legitimate — albeit unlikely — chance of making the postseason. A 5-6 record through 12 weeks isn’t anything to be particularly pleased about, but five of New York’s last six games come against fellow sub-.500 teams (Dolphins twice, Raiders and Browns).
For that to happen, however, quarterback Geno Smith (passer ratings of 10.1 and 22.3 in his past two games, respectively) will need to snap out of the brutal slump he has fallen into. That’s something crowd noise can’t fix.
