Mike Greenberg abandoned religion after his late father didn’t win Jets a Super Bowl

The New York Jets have beaten down a lot of fans over the years, but they made Mike Greenberg abandon religion.

Greenberg reconciled with his attempt at being man of faith this week when he and his longtime producer Paul “Hembo” Hembekides joined the latest episode of Kevin Clark’s This is Football. During the interview, Greenberg admitted he’s not religious, but he sort of tried to be once.

So @Espngreeny gave religion one more chance a few years ago when he bet on the Jets to win the Super Bowl after his father passed. He promptly gave up on religion.

Incredible THIS IS FOOTBALL episode with Greeny, @PaulHembo (Buy their book!) and Joel McHale (!) dropped today. pic.twitter.com/NNlwtljqwO

— Kevin Clark (@bykevinclark) September 27, 2024

“Hembo is a very religious person and I am not,” Greenberg said. “But the year my dad died, I happened to go to Vegas and I thought to myself, ‘You know? If there is an afterlife, if there is any truth to spirits in the universe, whatever it might be, maybe this is the year. Wherever my dad is, he’s gonna make this thing happen.’ So I bet $1,000 on the Jets to win the Super Bowl. I think they went 4-12. They stunk that year. And so that was when… any chance there was of my coming over to Hembo’s side of this definitely withered.”

That’s called giving it the good old college try. It’s one thing for someone to try to find God after losing a loved one. It’s another for that person to try parlaying that search into a Super Bowl championship and a hefty payout. You can kind of see someone putting their money on Aaron Rodgers by betting on the Jets last year or this. But Greenberg put his money on the great Ryan Fitzpatrick.

Greenberg’s father passed away in Jan. 2016. You can read about him in this cool feature by the New York Times detailing Arnold Greenberg and his wife, Harriet, owning the Midtown bookstore Complete Traveller. Our belated condolences.

But while Arnold Greenberg and God could conceivably partner to get Aaron Rodgers a Super Bowl, they would have been tipping their hand way too much by orchestrating an NFL season to have Ryan Fitzpatrick lead the Jets to their first championship since 1969. The 2016 Jets went 5-11, with Fitzpatrick following up his admittedly impressive 2015 season with a historically bad 2016 campaign. That season didn’t sour Greenberg on the Jets — just God — which pretty much sums up the beliefs of a sports fan.

[This is Football]