Fireman Ed says Jets tried to get him to come back
By Mike Dyce
New York Jets superfan Fireman Ed stopped bring his schtick to the games and stopped leading the crowd in chants at the game, particularly the J-E-T-S chant. Fireman Ed, whose real name is Ed Anzalone, quit his self-appointed gig in 2012 right around the time of the butt fumble, blaming it on interactions with other Jets fans.
“I decided to leave Thursday because the confrontations with other Jets fans have become more common, even though most Jets fans are fantastic,” he wrote in a guest column in Metro.
Apparently the Jets want him back, and they tried to woo whim with lunch during the offseason. Anzalone wasn’t biting though.
“Originally, they called me to see if I would come back to what I had done. They took me out to lunch to see if I had any interest in coming back,” Anzalone, told Yahoo’s Kristian Dyer. “I said no because it was the same problem, I couldn’t take my kids to the game. I told them I wouldn’t come back.
“I told them they should do something and try to get a young guy. I don’t want to see it go away.”
Hard to imagine there wouldn’t be a line of Jets fans lining up to fill his role.