IT'S the ultimate political football. After nearly 15 months of verbal and legal scrimmages, the battle over the proposed Jets stadium on the Far West Side of Manhattan has evolved into a matchup of two-man teams: Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Gov. George E. Pataki on offense, and Sheldon Silver, the state Assembly speaker, and Joseph L. Bruno, the State Senate majority leader, on defense.
If either Silver or Bruno stands firm in voting "no" when the state's Public Authorities Control Board finally does meet, possibly Monday, the stadium won't happen.
But how Silver and Bruno each vote will let the taxpayers know what they have really been thinking. If either continues to vote "no," he would prove he truly objected to the city and the state each contributing $300 million to the estimated $2.2 billion cost of a stadium with a retractable roof. If they both surrender to the mayor and the governor by voting "yes," they would have simply used their resistance to the stadium as leverage to acquire political favors for other projects.
If you're interested in what side I'm on, I'm hoping one of pro football's oldest chants holds true: "dee-fense, dee-fense."
That chant, which is heard everywhere in American sports now, originated more than half a century ago with Giants fans at Yankee Stadium exhorting a hallowed defensive unit anchored by Andy Robustelli and Sam Huff, each now in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. That chant even changed America's pronunciation of the word. Until then, it was pronounced properly as da-FENSE, but the chant has changed it to "DEE-fense."
And now Silver, who represents Lower Manhattan, and Bruno, an upstate solon, have the opportunity to be the political offspring of Robustelli and Huff.
I'm not against the Jets stadium because Madison Square Garden is against it. If anything, whatever the Garden is against, I'm usually for. But the way the Dolans have turned the Garden into so many weeds named Knicks and Rangers, why would the mayor, the governor and any New York sports nut be on the Garden's side for anything?
I'm against the Jets stadium on its merits. Actually, its demerits.
If Woody Johnson, the Jets' invisible owner, wanted to build a stadium entirely with his own millions, that's his privilege. But to use $600 million of taxpayers' money for somebody's stadium is wrong at a time when the city has a moral obligation to raise the salaries of its teachers, police officers and firefighters as well as to revitalize Lower Manhattan.
It has also been wrong for the city to connect the stadium to the unlikely possibility of landing the 2012 Olympics.
The mayor and the governor kept saying they needed a go-ahead on the stadium to enhance New York's chances for the 2012 Summer Games. But with nothing resolved on the stadium, it's already too late to affect the International Olympic Committee's nonbinding evaluation report, expected Monday, of the site bids by New York and the other four finalists - Paris (considered the front-runner), London, Madrid and Moscow.
Another target date is July 6, when the I.O.C., meeting in Singapore, will announce its vote for the 2012 site.
All along, Silver and Bruno have indicated their preference to vote on the stadium after the July 6 decision. If the I.O.C. were to select New York, it would be difficult to vote "no" on the stadium, because neither Silver nor Bruno would want to be remembered as the politician who deprived New York of the Olympics. If the I.O.C. were to choose another city, the Olympics would no longer be part of the equation.
But the Olympics should not be the reason anyone votes for or against what will basically be the highest cost of any stadium in the world.
Even if the latest overall estimate of $2.2 billion doesn't go any higher, the Jets would need to provide $1.6 billion - an outrageous sum. Johnson could build a stadium in Queens, near Shea Stadium, where the Jets played for two decades, for much less in a much better location for most Jets fans. Not that he seems to care about the Jets' fans.
When Johnson was informed early last year that the Far West Side stadium could not accommodate tailgate parties because the parking areas would be limited, he said, "They can tailgate in New Jersey and take the ferry."
As if all the Jets' fans come from New Jersey. Even worse, Johnson's arrogance was the Jets' version of Marie Antoinette's "Let them eat cake."
Those same Jets fans fear that if the stadium is built, Johnson will not only raise ticket prices, but also install the dreaded seat license.
But if Sheldon Silver and Joseph Bruno aren't just playing politics, they can do the right thing by the taxpayers and the fans.
All together now: "Dee-fense, dee-fense."