'Jets Lose, You Win' deal returns: Milwaukee bar offers to pick up tabs when Aaron Rodgers and the Jets lose
MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Aaron Rodgers returned to action Monday night, and so did a unique offer from a bar on Milwaukee's east side. Jack's American Pub on Brady Street revived its promotion pledging to cover their customers' bar tabs any time the New York Jets lose.
Here's how it works: you must start a tab 15 minutes before the Jets game kicks off, and quarterback Aaron Rodgers must start. If the Jets lose, the drinks are free. The offer does not apply to food and top shelf liquor.
Rob Jones, the general manager at Jack's, said management decided last month to revive the offer this season.
In the offer's debut last year, football fans hoping for free drinks appeared to have their tabs covered by the house. Just four plays into the season, Rodgers suffered a complete tear of his left Achilles tendon.
"We were all sweatin'. We were all sweatin' but we love Aaron Rodgers," Jones said. "And we'll cheer for him for what he's done for Wisconsin and the Green Bay Packers."
Many fans at Jack's that night cheered at the sight of Rodgers being helped off the field, figuring the injury boosted their odds of free drinks. Instead, the Jets stunned the Buffalo Bills in overtime, 22-16, and those who racked up some big tabs at Jack's ended up having to pay it themselves.
Jones estimated that had the Jets lost, it would've cost the bar about $10,000 that night. The story made national headlines as outlets picked up CBS 58's live report from the moment the Jets won in overtime, leaving customers in shock at Jack's.
"I remember it was packed everywhere upstairs," Ryen Ryba recalled. "Just packed, and I've never been in a bar where it's just been that electric."
Ryba said his favorite team is the Chicago Bears, but like last year, the chance to drink for free while watching Monday Night Football was too good to pass up.
Packer backers inside Jack's on Monday said they had no ill will toward Rodgers, but they still wanted the Jets to lose. It wasn't personal, they said; it was just business.
"Honestly, I don't hate Aaron Rodgers," Ryan Peyton, a Milwaukee resident, said. "I like what he did for the Packers. It was time for him to go, but if he loses a game, God forbid I have a couple beers."
There was no such shock on Monday as the San Francisco 49ers largely controlled the game, keeping Rodgers and the Jets in check.
Fans concocted strategies for how they'd approach their drinking as the game progressed. It looked good for the customers by the third quarter, when the 49ers opened up at 16-point lead.
"I think about the third quarter, I'm gonna start game planning a little bit more," Roman Kryshak, a Packers fan from Milwaukee, said. "If they're up big, maybe keep it going a little bit harder."
Just about everyone in attendance was rooting for Rodgers and the Jets to lose. Tom Conroy was one of the few wearing Jets gear at the bar. He said he exercised restraint by only wearing a Jets hat.
"When the Jets pull off the victory tonight against the 49ers, I'm gonna be leading the biggest J-E-T-S chants you're ever gonna hear," Conroy said. "I wish I was wearing my Brett Favre Jets jersey right now. That would've been double the troll."
Ultimately, Conroy and the two or three other Jets fans at Jack's were outnumbered. The allure of free drinks was too strong, although the gathering was considerably smaller that the turnout last September.
"I'm hoping for a Niners win and some free drinks," Kayla Giltner said.
Jones said management didn't mind the smaller turnout for this year's opening week. He suggested it might work out for the bar to have the Jets lose and pay out a relatively smaller tab.
After that, he said the hope is for larger crowds to return later in the season, just in time for the Jets -- and the bar -- to start winning.
The offer is in place for a total of 12 Jets games this year. It applies to games where the Jets are not playing at the same time as the Packers.
Learn more about the promotion here.