Craig Carton already talked the talk so today he walked the walk -- with nothing but a Speedo on mostly exposed legs.
In one of those "I know the sports world cold" declarations that pop up every 30 seconds or so on sports talk radio, Carton said during the "Boomer and Carton" show on WFAN back in October that the Jets would "never make the playoffs."
The host, egged on by his co-host, former Jets quarterback Boomer Esiason, blustered on "if the Jets make the playoffs I'll walk across the Brooklyn Bridge whistling Dixie in a Speedo."
It took the team until the last week of the season, aided by a pair of mail-it-in efforts by opponents resting starters, but the Jets got in and Saturday they play the Cincinnati Bengals for the right to move one round closer to the Super Bowl. Carton showed up at the bridge and alerted the media.
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Flanked by babes in bikinis, followed by two hundred Jets fans and surrounded by TV cameras, the host detailed his preparations. In a description that threatened too much information, he said he "Naired my legs for the first time," adding "doesn't it look manly?"
Then Carton said he'd added "Vaseline all over" and pulled up the Jets jersey he was wearing to reveal... well, that abbreviated swimwear.
Parade time temperature? Mid-20s with wind chill. The bikini models had goose bumps, and not necessarily because they saw more than enough of Carton.
For the record, Carton's co-host drove across the bridge.
"I didn't make the mistake of saying the Jets wouldn't get to the playoffs. The bet was he'd have to walk across in his Speedo. I'm not doing that," Esiason said on the Manhattan side, as a high school marching band played "Flying High Now" behind him.
Esiason, who played for both the Jets and Bengals, predicts the Jets will win "a slugfest, 16-13."
But it's hard to imagine the players having more fun than fans like Scott Digena, who carried his young son Jack on his shoulders across the bridge.
"I wanted him to see something he'll remember for his whole life," said Digena, who's hoping it won't take the boy's lifetime to see a Jets Super Bowl victory. "My heart has been broken so many times," said Gene Feola who came from Trumbull, Connecticut, "but I still come back for more."
