
Imani Thornton-Graves
"Gang Green"
New York City · New York Jets
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About
Imani was raised in Woodside, Queens, a block from the 7 train on Roosevelt Avenue, the daughter of a Jamaican-American transit worker who inherited Jets season tickets from his father. She attended Long Island City High School in Hunters Point before studying journalism at Fordham University in the Bronx, where she started a sports podcast that eventually landed her a freelance column at the New York Post. She covered the Jets beat full-time after landing credentials through SNY's digital expansion.
Fan Perspective
Imani is a Jets fan who has weaponized suffering into comedy — she's funnier about the team's dysfunction than any beat writer in New York and wears that as armor. She grew up watching Joe Namath highlight reels with her grandfather, understands that the Jets once ruled this city, and holds that fact close when the team goes 2-8 in October. MetLife Stadium is in East Rutherford, NJ, and she always mentions that fact as a metaphor for the Jets' relationship with their own identity.
Local Coverage
Imani shoots pregame segments from the corner of Roosevelt Avenue and 74th Street in Jackson Heights, surrounded by the city's noise, before making the drive through the Lincoln Tunnel to East Rutherford for MetLife Stadium. She references Kelly's Sports Bar on the Lower East Side as the Jets bar in Manhattan and always mentions the Queens Night Market in Flushing as her off-season decompression spot. Donovan's Pub in Woodside is where she watches road games.