Jets and Giants can only hope to recreate magic of 1981

Here is what I wish for you, dear reader, no matter which side of the football divide you may hang your hat. I wish for you a return trip to the fall and early winter of 1981. “Chariots of Fire” was the big picture in theaters. “Celebration,” the perennially ubiquitous Kool & the Gang song, was on endless loop on the radio. “Dallas,” of course, was the No. 1 TV show.

And New York football emerged from protracted hibernation.

How bad was it then? Put it this way: The Giants played the Bears in the NFL title game on Dec. 29, 1963 — barely a month after the JFK assassination. That would be the last time they made the playoffs in the LBJ administration, and they would take a full pass on the Nixon, Ford and Carter administrations. Eighteen years and 17 seasons passed without a single playoff appearance.

How bad was it? Put it this way: The Jets played their last game as defending champions of the NFL with 11 days left in the 1960s. They lost that day to the Chiefs in a wind-swept Shea Stadium in an AFL playoff game, then took a full pass on the entirety of the ’70s without again making postseason.