Why I'm worried the Jets could ruin my season

Great to have the NFL back this week and I can’t wait to catch my beloved Patriots in action next Sunday on TV when they take on the New York Jets – but I am worried the Jets could ruin my autumn.
Let me explain.
In January 2008, a fortnight before the Super Bowl, I found myself in the US, the last stop on a three-month round the world trip.
What a way to finish – three weeks in the States, driving around LA, Vegas and Arizona. As well as eating some amazing food, travelling around the best country in the world and catching up with some family, I decided to write a book about American football.
Maybe it was the excitement of planning a new book but I started to fall in love with the history of the sport
I’d just visited my uncle, another Nick, in Tucson who told me he’d recently met Joe Namath and had managed to pick up his autograph.
I’d recently picked up some biographies of some of the NFL legends myself – Namath, Walter Payton and Jonny Unitas which formed my reading material on my trip. I came back to England and paid big bucks for a beautiful trade card with swatches of shirts worn by Unitas, Namath and Bart Starr and then paid a fairly large sum for a massive black and white photo of Namath just after the famous Super Bowl III win in 1969.
The stunning photo of Namath, certainly the most famous player to wear the white and green on the New York Jets, arrived in March 2008, just a few weeks after Tom Brady and co had capitulated in Super Bowl XLII and blown their hopes of going 19 and 0.
The Namath photo remained in the large brown envelope over the summer of 2008. I had planned to get it framed, but it ended up under my bed.
Then, as the NFL season started that September, it started to act like some kind of curse. First the Jets signed Brett Favre, while in New England’s first game against Kansas City, Tom Brady ended his season with a knee injury. The Patriots didn’t even win their division that season!
The Namath picture spent was still under my bed last season as the Patriots won the division but bowed out against Baltimore in the Wild Card play-offs as Brady had a nightmare.
The Jets, meanwhile, found their form under rookie Mark Sanchez, winning in Cincinnati and San Diego and making it to the AFC Championship game.
So what does this all mean?
Well since buying that Namath picture, the Jets have suddenly become a big rival to New England’s divisional hopes.
This summer, the Jets, who lets remember are technically the second best team in the AFC, have added experienced campaigners Jason Taylor, LaDanian Tomlinson and Antonio Cromartie to an impressive Sanchez and a powerful offense including Jerricho Cotchery, Braylon Edwards and from October, Santonio Holmes.
For a Patriots fan who has seen his side stall since the glorious winter of 2007, it doesn’t look that good. Sure Brady, Randy Moss and Wes Welker are still around, but I’m worried that the Jets and even the Dolphins could scupper the Pats’ chances of even getting out of the AFC East this season.
You’ve heard of the Curse of the Bambino – the often cited reason the Boston Red Sox failed to win the World Series due to trading Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees in 1920 right?
I wonder if my Patriots are suffering from the Curse of the Nambino. Ever since that Namath picture showed up, the Pats have sucked while the Jets have cruised to a new level.
As a Patriots fan, I do question why I ever wanted to actually own a signed photo of a New York Jet anyway but more immediately, eight days until the two teams meet next Sunday, I just wonder if that picture should pay a trip to the shredder.
Or at least end up back on eBay.