Jets Fest: Day One of Open Minicamp to the Public

Added by Justin O'Connell on June 13, 2012.

New York Jets fans lined up to watch practice

The New York Jets organization just cannot seem to get enough attention as they opened “Jets Fest” today along with an open minicamp practice to the public. Hundreds of spectators came to see Tim Tebow and Mark Sanchez, oh yeah and the rest of the team too. It was a sea of green and white throughout the Jets facility at Florham Park, NJ.

Jets Fest started at 10 am and finished at 2:30 pm, while the practice was 11am to 1 pm. The side of the field was lined with fans who wanted to watch their favorite team, hoping to get either an autograph or picture.

Long time Jets fan, Thomas Muller, said, “I drove three hours to come down here and watch my team up close. I also brought my kids, so hopefully they can get an autograph from a few of the players.”

Sure enough, at the end of practice, many members of the team, including Dustin Keller, Nick Mangold, Jeremy Kerley, David Harris, and Aaron Maybin, took pictures with fans and signed autographs. Most were very friendly and talked to their fans, especially Maybin, who appeared to be a fan favorite today; everyone was to be fixated with him.

Before practice began, many fans enjoyed the entertainment provided by the Jets outside of the practice field. They set up blow up Jets bouncy castles, blow up Jets games, stands with food and drinks, stands giving out free gifts, game stands, and, lastly, pictures with members of the Jets flight crew (this seemed to be the most popular event). It was a mixture of adult and child entertainment that kept the fans busy both before and after practice.

Day two of open minicamp will continue tomorrow (same time as today) and is expected to have another great turn out. All who came out today seemed to truly enjoy themselves and most left leaving with more than they came with.

Lisa Freedman, a mother of three, brought her family to the event and left Florham Park with “way more stuff” than she came with. She said, “I bought a little something for all my kids, then I got some free key chains, then some Jets cards, and autographs. I figured this would happen, but it was a lot of fun and I’m glad we came out.”

New technology and social media gave fans a lot to do during practice. A great number of spectators were on their phones the whole time taking pictures and tweeting.

Sam Cheryalich, a young Jets fan, did not put her phone down the whole time, “I must have filled my whole memory card with all the pictures I took. Between that and tweeting I was in my own little world the whole time.”

Tim Tebow and Mark Sanchez only signed autographs for a small portion of the crowd, it was a VIP group, so the majority of the fans were not allowed to see the two up close. All and all, it was a great success for the Jets organization; they reached out to their fans and gave them the opportunity to see their favorite players closer than most have ever seen before.