The NFL season opens tonight when the Ravens play the Broncos. I'll watch the game, of course, but for the 30th-plus year I'll really start caring on Sunday, when the Jets open their season.

This season will have a different flavor to it, though.

Not in the quality of play on the field - the Jets will stink, and unfortunately there have been way more of those types of seasons in my time as a Jets fan than the successful seasons.

No, it's the fact that for the first time in my life, my dad is not a Jets season ticket holder.

My dad has had Jets season tickets dating back to the 1960s. I've always been very proud of that fact. And I loved the fact that, less the tickets he'd give away each year, I knew that any game I wanted to go to, I could.

Of course, ever since I moved to Massachusetts it became a lot harder to go to multiple games a year. But if there was a home playoff game (there were a couple) or really important regular season game, I knew I could come home for it.

Not anymore.

But the truth of the matter is, it long ago stopped being convenient to get from Queens, New York to East Rutherford, New Jersey...and I learned to appreciate the benefits of watching NFL Football on TV rather than in person. (Though I still loved the atmosphere of a big game in a winning season at the stadium.)

And despite my dad being a loyal customer for more than 40 years, the Jets didn't treat him as such. There was more leveraging by the Jets over seating in the new stadium than there was appreciation towards long-time season ticket holders.

So as another season gets underway, there have been elements that have made it not just another season. Usually by now I've put my magnetic schedule on the fridge, gone through the yearbook for the upcoming season, and checked out some kind of free gift - all perks of the season ticket holder. (Even though it was my dad's account, I'd get all the spoils.) I know from Twitter that this year I missed out on a fleece blanket.

This year, there was none of that.

My dad and I have talked about taking advantage of not having to use the upper deck season tickets this year and buying some nice seats to one game - spending a little more on a game to sit closer to the action, but spending nowhere near what he would have spent on tickets to all the games.

So that might happen at one point this season.

There will definitely be a different kind of season ticket to this year's Jets games. And I'll be telling you about that New Thing later in the week.