Jets owner says Romney winning election is bigger priority than team winning games

New York Jets owner Woody Johnson is the chairman of Mitt Romney's New York presidential campaign. In an interview with Bloomberg TV, he was asked whether it was more important for the Jets to have a winning season or for Romney to beat Barack Obama in next month's presidential election.

"Well I think you always have to put country first," he replied. "So I think it's very, very important that not only for us but particularly for our kids and grandkids that this election come off with Mitt Romney and Ryan as president and vice-president."

The future of America is more important than a football game? WHAT? I don't know; that seems like a bold statement. Freedom is great, but if Jets fans can't celebrate a 10-6 season while being free, then what is it all for? And think of those millions of poor Americans who lost fantasy games on Sunday because they played members of the Jets offense (the team was shut out) or against teams with the San Francisco 49ers' defense (32 fantasy points against New York). How's that November election going to help them?

Kudos to the interviewer who asked the difficult question, and props to Johnson for answering it as best he could. He didn't minimize the importance of football, he simply stated the logical point that presidential elections can matter more. Now, had the question been: "Would you rather the Jets win 10 Super Bowls in a row than have Romney win?" then we're getting into more difficult hypotheticals.

Either way, many indicators seem to suggest Johnson isn't going to get either of his wishes. Romney is trailing in the polls, the Jets' offense is terrible and the team's defense is injured. Unless Tim Tebow can replace Paul Ryan on the Republican ticket and Mark Sanchez on the field, Johnson may be in for a long November.