This is partly because the Jets always blow a 16-point lead, so it wasn’t as if the meltdown came as a big surprise. But another factor contributing to the crowd’s relatively serene reaction to the defeat was the salubrious effect of tailgating.

Tailgating, a venerable American institution, does more than get people in the mood for the game. It gets people in the mood for a game that the home team might lose. Tailgating is so much fun, so convivial, so life-affirming that even if your team blows a 16-0 lead late in the second half, you don’t feel like you wasted the day. Because at least you got to tailgate.

Why, then, is tailgating essentially limited to athletic events? Why don’t people tailgate before they go to work? Work, like most football games, usually starts out OK but then hits a rough patch. You eventually realize that you’re not going to accomplish everything you wanted to accomplish today, that things are not going to work out the way you hoped when you punched in. In the game of daily life, you’re going to lose by a point. So you go home feeling glum, defeated, sad. Especially if you’re a millennial.

You wouldn’t feel that way if you’d started the day by tailgating. You would have hung out with really good friends for a few hours before work started, had some delicious food, had a lot of belly laughs. And in many cases, you would have networked. Lots of great businesses start out at tailgate parties. So do lots of great marriages. Maybe not lots. But you get the idea.

Tailgating is also a terrific way to get your kid an internship with Morgan Stanley . Or to pitch a complete stranger a variable annuity. Or to unload an ATV you no longer need. Or to just sit back and discuss the meaning of life.

Click HERE to read the full story via The Wall Street Journal.