Jews Better at Protesting Than Catholics

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about how Catholic Tigers fans were being ridiculous for wanting the time of the Home Opener moved because it interfered with their Good Friday observances.  I had a lot of fun and I still look back on that post fondly (making fun of both the Tigers and Catholics fills my heart with such joy).  But now the Jets are in a (sort of) similar pickle with their Jewish fans.  Let’s take a look:

The New York Jets’ first two home games are against two of the AFC’s elite teams — the New England Patriots and Tennessee Titans. A large segment of the team’s fans might not be able to attend the heavyweight matchups, however.

The Jets’ home opener against the Patriots is scheduled during Rosh Hashanah. The next week, the Jets host the Titans hours before Yom Kippur starts. The conflict with the two holiest holidays on the Jewish calendar may keep the team’s Jewish fans who observe the holidays from attending.

New York boasts the country’s largest Jewish population.

On Wednesday, the Jets called the NFL to complain about the scheduling conflict, according to the New York Daily News.

And complain they did.  So much so that the Jets were successful in lobbying to have one of their game times changed.  The game against the Titans was moved up 3 hours so that their Jewish season ticket holders could get home before sundown when Yom Kippur starts.

I applaud our Jewish overlords and congratulate them on their ability to change the world around them.  And before you all call me a hypocrite (that’s going to happen no matter what I write, but I’ll try anyway), let me say that these two scenarios are different for many reasons.

1. Is it just me or did the Jews go about this in a more timely manner? Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are in September and those crafty Jews are raising the issue now in April. When the kerfuffle about Easter came up, it was just a few weeks before the Tigers opener. At that point, the plans for the event were not only in full swing, they were almost certainly finalized. And changing the time of the game’s start at that point would have affected thousands of people. Not to mention the Tigers initial rationale for refusing to change it: night time weather/temperatures.  Either way, Jews have proved themselves superior at pre-planning their protests.

2. Let’s talk percentages. How much greater is 2 out of 8 than 1 out of 81? That’s right, it’s more than 20 times more [Ed Note--I knew our readers were awesome at math.  You owe me $5 Clown]. The Jets would be putting two of their 8 home games at risk to decreased ticket sales (in addition to irritating their season ticket holders) as opposed to the Tigers losing tickets on only one of their eighty-one home games. And that presumes that Tigers tickets and Jets tickets are equal in value which is clearly not the case. The average Tigers ticket cost $18 (two years ago) and the team averages 39,538 fans per game (last year’s numbers). The average Jets ticket costs $75 (2006 prices) and the team averages 77,107 tickets per game (in 2008). As such, each Jets game brings in $5.8 million while each Tigers game brings in $711,000. Can you see now why the Jets are more willing to bend to the will of a (much larger) portion of their fanbase?  Especially considering that we’re talking about 2 games (at $5.38 million)?  Let’s see $10+ Million versus less than $1 Million.  I would cower too, regardless of the religion (except Jehovas Witness…they know why)

3. The two holiest days of the year versus a day where it is only important to be observant for 3 hours.  Oh, and let’s not forget to mention that this is a custom that is only observed by a subset of Christianity: Catholics. The majority of Protestants don’t worry about being holy between 12-3 on Good Friday, neither do Mormons.  Anyone know how many Catholics there are in Detroit?  Want to guess how many Jews there are in New York?  You know how many sects of Jews aren’t celebrating these two holidays?

So are these two issues the same thing?  Well, if you consider that both instances contain issues where trivial things like sports interfere with important religious celebrations, then yes, these are the exact same thing.  Both of these two scenarios involve situations where religious observances are seen as interfering with the day to day lives of the people who are supposed to willingly drop everything for those observances.  As a Jew who doesn’t believe in God but still drops everything on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, I think this whole issue is silly.  It falls under one of those categories where you shrug your shoulders and say, “Yom Kippur’s on a Sunday this year?  That sucks.”  And then move on.

But if you can get the rest of the world to bend to your will, take advantage of it.  Hell, that’s what we do best.