One of the big winners at Tuesday night's 32nd annual Sports Emmy Awards was the Jets.
More accurately, the Green & White were the stars of HBO's production of "Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the New York Jets," which received three Sports Emmys from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences at the special ceremony held at Frederick P. Rose Hall, Home of Jazz at Lincoln Center, in New York City.
The awards that HBO and NFL Films received for Hard Knocks included:
■ Outstanding Edited Sports Series/Anthology
■ Outstanding Camera Work
■ Outstanding Post Produced Audio/Sound.
The Jets also figured in the Outstanding Live Event Turnaround category winners, NFL Network and NFL Films, which won for their "Sound FX: Cincinnati Bengals at New York Jets," an exclusive one-hour "all-sound" cutdown version of the Thanksgiving night game between the teams.
"Writing, painting, music — those are solitary endeavors," said NFL Films president Steve Sabol. "But great television only happens through collaboration. That's why everyone at NFL Films is proud to share these Emmys with our friends at HBO and our partners at NFL Network."
Among the guests in the Lincoln Center audience was one of the stars of Hard Knocks. Head coach Rex Ryan capped a full day in New York City, which included an appearance on "Late Show with David Letterman" and media interviews for his just-released book, "Play Like You Mean It," with an appearance at the Sports Emmys.
Also representing the Jets at the gala were owner Woody Johnson, general manager Mike Tannenbaum, assistant coaches Mike Pettine, Mike Westhoff and Bill Callahan, and executive vice president Matt Higgins.
Winners were honored in 33 categories at the Sports Emmys, including Al Michaels receiving the headline Lifetime Achievement Award. Michaels' work has covered many different sports, venues and shows but he's well-known for his 20 years as the play-by-play host of ABC's "Monday Night Football' and, since 2006, of NBC's "Sunday Night Football."
In those roles, Michaels has called 30 Jets games, which include three AFC Wild Card Games (2001 at Oakland, 2004 at San Diego, and January at Indianapolis), the 1992 Hall of Fame Game, the "Monday Night Miracle" win over Miami in 2000, the 2003 NFL season opener at Washington, and the 2009 "Win And We're In" triumph in the North Jersey cold over Cincinnati.
So in a small way Michaels has figured in the Jets' recent history and in a small way they in his award. That's a little stretch, but it's safe to say the Jets were players at Tuesday's Sports Emmy Awards.
