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New Jersey state of mind expands
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. — New Jersey, once the punch line in Woody Allen movies and Saturday Night Live skits, is hot. Why?
Credit Bruce Springsteen, The Sopranos and now the success of the Rutgers
football team and the poise and grace of the Rutgers women's basketball team in the wake of the Don Imus controversy, according to a prominent American Studies professor at Rutgers.
"All of a sudden New Jersey is in — it's very in," says Michael Aaron
Rockland, who teaches the class Jerseyana. "This nothing place, the most
densely populated state in the country, has become a heroic place. It's the
Cinderella aspect of it."
A confluence of this pop trinity of music, TV and sports was evident on a
sun-splashed afternoon at Rutgers Stadium for the football team's spring
game.
Tailgating in the parking lot on Saturday, Rutgers fans blasted Springsteen
songs as they gathered around their grills. Sopranos star James Gandolfini,
class of 1983, milled about the Kid Zone amid inflatable rides like any
other dad. In the stands, members of the women's basketball team, underdogs who became national championship finalists, sat amid the record crowd.
On the field, the football team, once the worst in America but now ranked in
the Top 15, played a glorified practice game.
Gandolfini eschews VIP treatment at games. He sits in mediocre seats and
waits in line for his hot dogs like everyone else. He's also not a bandwagon
jumper. Rutgers was winning only one and two games a year when Gandolfini
filmed two commercials — gratis — for the team. They were directed by
Sopranos co-star Michael Imperioli. The pitch: "It's a program the whole
family can get behind."
On Sunday night, football coach Greg Schiano was in bed watching The
Sopranos as usual. Uncle Junior was featured in the episode with a deranged
Rutgers professor who killed the dean of students and then slashed his
wrists in the faculty lounge. A later scene showed Uncle Junior and others
in his mental institution singing John Denver's Country Roads, which is
about West Virginia.
"Of all songs, right?" Schiano said. After all, the Scarlet Knights' loss to
West Virginia last season ruined their chances at a possible trip to the
Orange Bowl.
So was that scene intended to tweak Rutgers fans? Pure coincidence, Terry
Winter, the episode's writer, said through an HBO spokeswoman.
Arguably the most maligned state in the union, a place usually viewed as a
rest stop between New York and Philadelphia, the forever butt of endless
"What Exit?" jokes, maybe there's a new aesthetic in the Garden State.
Jersey chic?
Even New York City, arbiter of trendy, has noticed. The Empire State
Building twice has been lit in scarlet in honor of Rutgers' recent sports
success. Last fall after a big football win, the marquee outside Yankee
Stadium read: The Yankees salute Rutgers.
A few years ago, the state was about to introduce the new state slogan: New Jersey: We'll Win You Over.
Acting governor Richard Codey immediately shelved it because of its negative
connotation. "I said, 'Tell them to forgetaboutit and let's have a contest
for a new state slogan,' " Codey said. "I would have went with 'New Jersey:
You gotta problem with that?' and I think it might have worked."
In Codey's view, New Jersey already has won plenty of people over. Rutgers'
admissions applications are at a record high, and Schiano is getting calls
from high school players from Kansas, Oregon and Texas who want to spend
their next four years in central New Jersey. Season football tickets are
sold out for this fall, and the demand for Scarlet Knights memorabilia has
never been greater, school officials say.
Somewhat paradoxically, the recent surge of pride comes in the aftermath of
the ugly incident in which radio host Imus called the women's basketball
team "nappy-headed hos."
After America watched a group of self-possessed women rise above the
firestorm, coach C. Vivian Stringer became a national figure, and the team
was lauded by everyone from Oprah to Obama.
At a recent concert in Los Angeles, Elton John dedicated his song, Sorry
Seems to Be the Hardest Word, to the women.
"If it wasn't for the football team doing so marvelously, then it was the
women's basketball team," Rockland says. "If the women's basketball team
wasn't already our heroines, Imus made them our sweethearts. (He) really did
us a favor in the long run. Everybody loves Rutgers now."
And maybe even New Jersey.
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. — New Jersey, once the punch line in Woody Allen movies and Saturday Night Live skits, is hot. Why?
Credit Bruce Springsteen, The Sopranos and now the success of the Rutgers
football team and the poise and grace of the Rutgers women's basketball team in the wake of the Don Imus controversy, according to a prominent American Studies professor at Rutgers.
"All of a sudden New Jersey is in — it's very in," says Michael Aaron
Rockland, who teaches the class Jerseyana. "This nothing place, the most
densely populated state in the country, has become a heroic place. It's the
Cinderella aspect of it."
A confluence of this pop trinity of music, TV and sports was evident on a
sun-splashed afternoon at Rutgers Stadium for the football team's spring
game.
Tailgating in the parking lot on Saturday, Rutgers fans blasted Springsteen
songs as they gathered around their grills. Sopranos star James Gandolfini,
class of 1983, milled about the Kid Zone amid inflatable rides like any
other dad. In the stands, members of the women's basketball team, underdogs who became national championship finalists, sat amid the record crowd.
On the field, the football team, once the worst in America but now ranked in
the Top 15, played a glorified practice game.
Gandolfini eschews VIP treatment at games. He sits in mediocre seats and
waits in line for his hot dogs like everyone else. He's also not a bandwagon
jumper. Rutgers was winning only one and two games a year when Gandolfini
filmed two commercials — gratis — for the team. They were directed by
Sopranos co-star Michael Imperioli. The pitch: "It's a program the whole
family can get behind."
On Sunday night, football coach Greg Schiano was in bed watching The
Sopranos as usual. Uncle Junior was featured in the episode with a deranged
Rutgers professor who killed the dean of students and then slashed his
wrists in the faculty lounge. A later scene showed Uncle Junior and others
in his mental institution singing John Denver's Country Roads, which is
about West Virginia.
"Of all songs, right?" Schiano said. After all, the Scarlet Knights' loss to
West Virginia last season ruined their chances at a possible trip to the
Orange Bowl.
So was that scene intended to tweak Rutgers fans? Pure coincidence, Terry
Winter, the episode's writer, said through an HBO spokeswoman.
Arguably the most maligned state in the union, a place usually viewed as a
rest stop between New York and Philadelphia, the forever butt of endless
"What Exit?" jokes, maybe there's a new aesthetic in the Garden State.
Jersey chic?
Even New York City, arbiter of trendy, has noticed. The Empire State
Building twice has been lit in scarlet in honor of Rutgers' recent sports
success. Last fall after a big football win, the marquee outside Yankee
Stadium read: The Yankees salute Rutgers.
A few years ago, the state was about to introduce the new state slogan: New Jersey: We'll Win You Over.
Acting governor Richard Codey immediately shelved it because of its negative
connotation. "I said, 'Tell them to forgetaboutit and let's have a contest
for a new state slogan,' " Codey said. "I would have went with 'New Jersey:
You gotta problem with that?' and I think it might have worked."
In Codey's view, New Jersey already has won plenty of people over. Rutgers'
admissions applications are at a record high, and Schiano is getting calls
from high school players from Kansas, Oregon and Texas who want to spend
their next four years in central New Jersey. Season football tickets are
sold out for this fall, and the demand for Scarlet Knights memorabilia has
never been greater, school officials say.
Somewhat paradoxically, the recent surge of pride comes in the aftermath of
the ugly incident in which radio host Imus called the women's basketball
team "nappy-headed hos."
After America watched a group of self-possessed women rise above the
firestorm, coach C. Vivian Stringer became a national figure, and the team
was lauded by everyone from Oprah to Obama.
At a recent concert in Los Angeles, Elton John dedicated his song, Sorry
Seems to Be the Hardest Word, to the women.
"If it wasn't for the football team doing so marvelously, then it was the
women's basketball team," Rockland says. "If the women's basketball team
wasn't already our heroines, Imus made them our sweethearts. (He) really did
us a favor in the long run. Everybody loves Rutgers now."
And maybe even New Jersey.
