Last year both teams got smoked on the field, but now the Giants and Jets are teaming up with a Brooklyn smoke-eater to preach fire safety to young fans around New York.
Brian Mullen, an 11-year FDNY veteran and second-generation firefighter, enlisted the help of Big Blue and Gang Green to license smoke detectors with the clubs’ logos in a push to make the life-saving devices more attractive to kids.
“We’re just taking a boring, utilitarian product and making it cool, hip, and fun,” said Mullen, 44. “We want kids to say, ‘Hey mom, hey dad, I want a smoke detector in my room. I want a Jets one, I want a Giants one.’”
Mullen noted that blazes in homes with working smoke detectors are 50% less likely to be fatal.
Despite this, one-in-five residences has missing or obsolete detectors.
“The facts are staggering,” Mullen said.
Portions of all sales go to various fire-related initiatives, including Vision 20/20 and the New York Firefighters Burn Center Foundation.
The gridiron-themed detectors are available through Mullen’s website thebuffproject.com, named for the buffalo-skin coats worn by early volunteer firefighters in New York.
“We want everyone to be a buff,” he said, repeating the familiar advice that homeowners check or replace their smoke detectors when the clocks roll forward this Sunday.
“If you’re not a Jets fan, if you’re not a Giants fan, that’s fine,” Mullen said in a good-natured jab at New York’s home teams for their 2014 on-the-field woes. “A lot of people hate them right now — just go out and buy another smoke detector.”
Fans of more recently successful squads are also in luck: all 32 NFL clubs have signed on to offer licensed smoke detectors through The Buff Project.