In a league where pretty much everything comes down to inches and moments, some calls just haunt you forever. They stick with the coaches, the fans, and especially the players. Because when a game-changing moment gets snatched away, not because the other team deserved it, but because of the yellow flag? It’s a kind of heartbreak that doesn’t fade away by Monday. It lingers.
And in the New York Jets, where frustration runs deeper than the playoff drought, the ghosts of certain Sundays just won’t let go. The Jets fans know the pain all too well. And just recently, a player brought it all rushing back, reminding everyone that some wounds don’t simply don’t fade with time. Especially when that one call might have changed the trajectory of the team’s season.
If you ask the Jets’ defence what still stings from the 2022 season, Michael Carter II put it into words for all of them. “Still hurt bout this one ,” he wrote on X. Yes, he’s talking about that brutal roughing-the-passer call that erased his pick six against the Patriots. A game-changing moment gone in a flash…and for what? It’s been 32 months now since that flag hit the turf, but for Carter, like every Jets fan, it still feels like yesterday.
Still hurt bout this one https://t.co/0gIIxtF5gN
— Michael Carter II (@mcarter2nd) June 16, 2025
You can almost picture it—Carter II, now heading into his fourth year of the contract, punching at above $30 million, sitting back and watching the replay again and again. The drop into coverage, the read, the pick—and then? It’s all gone. But for him, it wasn’t just a highlight wiped out, it was a memory stolen.
Let’s recall the play. It was brutal. Week 8, 2022. The Jets were up 10-3 minutes before half-time, when Mac Jones dropped back, stared down his target, and gift-wrapped a pass straight to Carter. 84 yards later, he was in the end zone, arms up, ready to celebrate. But as he looked up at the Jumbotron, his celebration stalled—flag on the play. “Dang, that was my first touchdown,” he said. Heartbreaking. And as much as the call hurt the fans, it hit the players a lot harder. And they made their feelings known.
How did the Jets react to the penalty?
After the game, HC at the time, Robert Saleh, said, “JFM’s gotta be better. It doesn’t matter. Do something,” Saleh said. “It’s 17-3 going in the locker room to 10-6, and they got the ball, lapped us, scored another touchdown, just a critical exchange. We can say it’s JFM’s fault. We can blame – it doesn’t matter. It happened. At the end of the day, we just got to be better. Hopefully, get a good explanation on Wednesday.” And that explanation never arrived.
Zach Wilson, who was disastrous pretty much the entire game, throwing three interceptions, said, “Yeah, it was a terrible call, but that’s football. It happens all the time.” Defensive tackle Sheldon Rankins said that regardless of the call, they needed to be better. “That was a huge momentum‑shifting call… We know they’re going to protect quarterbacks… We have to be able to regroup … find ways to win the game“.
Defensive End John Franklin‑Myers, on the other hand, took full accountability. “It’s on me. I can be better. I know that cost the team… I have to be better. That was a momentum‑shifting call… We have to be able to regroup, make stops, and find ways to win the game. As a player, I can’t slow down. I have to make plays — that’s my job,” he said.
Yes, it was a poor call. There’s little ambiguity to it. Yes, it hurts. But let’s face it—the Jets’ heartbreaks run deeper than one bad flag. The Patriots game? It spiralled. It kicked off a six-game skid that completely blew their season. And if you’ve followed the team long enough, you know the pattern pretty well—one bad break turns into an avalanche. They haven’t just lacked the talent—they’ve lacked resilience. That’s why Aaron Glenn‘s arrival isn’t just another hire—it could be the cultural revamp this team desperately needs.
He isn’t just bringing a whistle, he’s bringing a mindset. And as a former DB himself, he knows how to mould battle-tested secondaries. And with guys like Carter still carrying that fire from two seasons ago, he might just have the right weapons to shift the culture. If the Jets are actually serious about wiping off the rinse-and-repeat heartbreaks, they need players who won’t blink when things go sideways. What they also need is a coach who knows how to pull them through the storm—Aaron Glenn might be the guy.
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