The State of New York Sports
When you think of New York sports it usually starts with the teams playing in the city such as the Yankees, Knicks, and Jets. The team carrying New York sports right now though is one up north in the Buffalo Bills. It has been a rough year for New York sports in general. Let’s take a look at the state of the professional teams in New York.
Football
Circling back to the professional football teams in New York, we have the Buffalo Bills. This team is in a great position to compete this year for a Super Bowl and has made the playoffs every year since 2019. Right now it looks like they are the only New York team that is in a spot to compete for a championship.
There was hope for the New York Giants before the season but that hope has been quickly fading. The Giants made the playoffs for the first time since 2016 last year. Now, their season is off to a 1-2 start and hasn’t been promising overall in a tough NFC East division.
The New York Jets have one of the longest-playoff droughts in all of professional sports. This season they were expected to compete for the Super Bowl but now it looks like they won’t even make the playoffs after starting 1-2 and a season-ending injury to Aaron Rodgers.
Baseball
Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
The MLB playoffs are about to start as we get into October but for the first time since 2014 no New York team will be in them. It was a rough season marred by injuries for the Yankees. They still have talent and maybe next year they can compete again for a World Series.
The Mets just didn’t have enough talent on this roster. A few hitters had standout seasons but overall there wasn’t enough firepower to win more games than they lost. This pitching staff needs to be upgraded and the offense looks stagnant as well.
Hockey
Both NHL teams from New York, the Rangers and Islanders, won over 40 games last year and made the playoffs. They were short playoff runs however as both teams lost in the first round. There is some hope that these teams can compete this upcoming season but the best finish for either team in the last eight seasons was a conference finals loss.
Basketball
Overall, New York basketball is in a pretty good place compared to the other sports. Every year there are rumors that the Knicks are trying to land the next big free agent but somehow they always end up with what seems like the consolation prize. (See Julius Randle and Jalen Brunson.) These players are good but will keep the Knicks as just that, good. The Knicks made the playoffs in two of the last three seasons but no one has them as true contenders in the East.
As far as the Brooklyn Nets, this team has gone from championship contenders to a borderline playoff team. Brooklyn was able to attract talent like Kevin Durant, James Harden, and Kyrie Irving. That talent was wasted after just a couple of seasons as those players forced their way out of town. Now the Nets are an average team that probably needs to completely rebuild this roster.
By Jack Stradley, I’m a sports writer always looking for a gripping story and a hot take.