They came for a glimpse, a moment, a memory. They filled two stadiums separated by 10.2 miles of New Jersey highways, on the same steamy night in late August, hoping to catch the sports equivalent of a shooting star.
In East Rutherford, they came to see a future Hall of Fame quarterback trot onto the field for the first time in a Jets uniform — and, maybe, see him make the kind of throw that gives hope for an entire woebegone NFL franchise.
In Harrison, they came to see arguably the greatest soccer player in history play in his first regular-season game in the top U.S. league — and, maybe, deliver the kind of signature goal that would send them dancing into the streets.
They came to see Aaron Rodgers.
They came to see Lionel Messi.
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And this was the odd part for the 99,227 fans that filled two North Jersey stadiums on Saturday night. They filled those seats knowing that the player most of them had come to see might not play for very long — or, in the case of Messi, not at all.
They might see greatness. They might see nothing.
Did that make what happened more rewarding?
Put it this way: It would be hard to imagine the 72,951 paying customers at MetLife Stadium (or, at least, the ones wearing green) could have scripted a better preseason debut for the Jets’ new face of the franchise. Rodgers entered the game at 6:11 p.m., left it for good 19 minutes, and threw the kind of touchdown pass that this franchise hasn’t seen in a good, long while. Most of all, he avoided the season-wrecking injury in the 32-24 victory over the Giants.
“Got in, didn’t get hurt, scored,” Rodgers said. “It’s a good night.”
And it would be impossible to imagine that the 26,276 fans at Red Bull Arena — with some paying more than a season’s worth of tickets would cost just to get into the building — could have come up with a scenario more thrilling than the one that unfolded hours later. Messi entered the game in the 60th…
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