Hi All!
Just wanted to thank you all for the support, and even those who don't necessarily agree with all of the decisions Dan or I have made, I appreciate the interest... it's what makes this world a special place. I will admit that my emotions got the best of me Sunday night, and I was a bit over-the-top with my tweets. Being on the Race was truly my #1 dream, and to have had that experience.. well, I am just so incredibly thankful. With that said, it is so very hard to sit at home, watching the show as a fan again, and be called a cheater (direct words out of Jet's mouth). I played that game and ran that Race harder than anything I have ever done in my life. After watching the show for 15 seasons, I knew the intricacies of the Race, and reviewed the rules with my brother on a daily basis before leaving. We would have never done anything to put our team in jeopardy, and never once felt that we cheated or broke a Race rule. While it may not change the minds of those of you who only see the good in Jet and Cord and the bad in Dan and I, I wanted to offer up my perspective on Sunday's episode/our interactions with the Cowboys:
The Cowboys were the first team on The Amazing Race 18: Unfinished Business to be introduced on Sunday, with Phil re-introducing viewers to "Jet and Cord, brothers, who were cut in front of by eventual winners Dan and Jordan at the Shanghai airport." Then Jet explains, "I don't think we have to cheat to win the Race, and I don't think nice guys always finish last."
1.) Did Dan and Jordan cheat? Jet McCoy thinks so. CBS even insinuated that they may think so as well... but Dan and Jordan never got a penalty in that final leg in San Francisco. Don't teams get penalized when they break a Race rule? (as an avid Race fan, I can point to numerous occasions where this theory has been proven true -- TAR 14, Mark and Michael for intentionally tampering with bike pumps that would provide an unfair disadvantage for all teams that followed. TAR 13, Nick & Starr AND Terence & Sarah were penalized for 30 minutes due to breaking a Race rule, "speeding". TAR17 Jill and Thomas were penalized for 30 minutes for paying a taxi driver to lead them to the pit stop, breaking a Race rule... the list goes on). Does this mean that when teams "cheat" or break a Race rule, that they are then penalized for it to eliminate any advantage they got by "cheating"? If Dan and Jordan didn't get penalized in that final leg, then does that mean that Dan and Jordan aren't cheaters?
2.) Did Jordan's emotion-driven cut in line at the airport really give Dan and Jordan an edge over Jet and Cord? Did the physical act of cutting Jet and Cord in line truly give Dan and Jordan a measurable advantage in the final leg? When watching the episode, and understanding the timing of events, it becomes obvious that the real game-changer occurred well after that point, hours into the flight, when Dan convinced a flight attendant to move the brothers up to First Class so that they could be the first off the plane. If this act broke a Race rule (which again, had been utilized by other teams in past Races), then wouldn't have Dan and Jordan gotten penalized?
3.) Did Jet watch Jordan spin in circles for 10+ minutes as Dan wrote down the clue at the Star Wars (Lucas Film/Industrial Light & Magic) challenge? Was Jet not only too timid to make a game-changing move in that challenge by inching closer to Jordan right away to get to the next level of the game, but ALSO completely absent-minded when Cord was baffled by the words flashing across his screen? Did this inability to recognize strategy in a challenge cost Jet and Cord more than 10 minutes, setting them back even more in the final leg? Yes. All true.
4.) When the teams (TAR 18) discussed the reasons for not winning in their previous Races, did 10 out of the 11 teams points to a specific decision or challenge that they faced that lead to their elimination. Was there only 1 team that cowardly pointed to an unsubstantiated event that had absolutely zero effect on the Race outcome so that they could put the blame on someone else, and not admit to their missed opportunities? Yes. Jet and Cord McCoy.
5.) Did Jet McCoy call Jordan Pious a "fag" the night before the finale aired (on Jordan's birthday) and in front of his mother? Yes. Do "nice guys" use derogatory words towards others? No. Do "nice guys" finish "last"? Sometimes.
I apologize for rambling. I just wanted to offer up my perspective on everything. I am so passionate about this show, the Race, the game, and wanted to point out some things that I felt were worth communicating to all of you.
I feel so blessed to have been given this opportunity, and just hope that you all can understand that sometimes you can't get a full picture of a person from a 43-minute edited episode each week. Production looks to display certain characters on the show, and carefully chooses clips to support those characters. I can fully understand why so many of you have fallen in love with the Cowboys, but I ask that you consider the circumstances, and understand that Dan and I had a VERY different experience with Jet and Cord than the characters you have learned to love on the Race.
Again, thank you all for the support. It really does mean the world to me.
Race Love.
Jordan