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Darrelle Revis was introduced to the media in Tampa Bay today, and he said some interesting things. Let’s take a look at some of what he said, and analyze it.
Let’s start with this comment – “It’s a blessing, how highly this organization (Tampa Bay) looks at me. It didn’t happen in New York.”
It didn’t happen in New York?
Do you know how much money he made with the Jets? I’ve lost count. Two huge contracts; his rookie deal ($36 million over five years), and then the deal in 2010, where he made about $40 million in the first three years. He didn’t see the fourth year due to the trade.
And the Jets did him a huge favor. They weren’t prepared to give him a large long-term extension until they saw that he was back to his old self on the field. However, they traded him before he was 100 percent to Tampa, a team that was willing to pay him now. He’s reportedly going to make around $16 million this year. He was going to make $6 million with the Jets.
To say the Jets didn’t think highly of him is a joke. How many times did Rex Ryan call him the “the best cornerback in football?”
And then there was this quote, where he made it seem like the Jets tossed him to the curve because he got hurt.
“It feels like that team is giving up on you. At a time in my career where I’ve never had an injury like this,” Revis said. “I’m human. I have feelings just like everybody in this room. Especially at a time where I was injured. I didn’t know what to expect.”
I’m sorry, this is just psychobabble.
Gave up on him? Maybe he gave up on them, considering the non-stop smear campaigns unleashed by Neil Schwartz on the team, through the agents friends in the media.
As I’ve said before, Schwartz burned practically every bridge between Revis and the team, during the four contract disputes – 2007, 2010, 2012 and 2013.
Just because the Jets didn’t want to extend him before his rehab was complete, doesn’t constitute giving up on him.
That is ridiculous.
And like he has done in the past, he accused the Jets of lying to him.
“I definitely feel like I haven’t gotten the truth [from the Jets],” Revis told reporters from the New York Post, New York Daily News and Newsday in Tampa on Monday. “Anyone can sit there and tell you to your face, ‘Yeah, you’re going to be a Jet.’ But what’s the truth out of it? What is really the truth?”
“It was more from Idzik,” Revis told the reporters. “He told me I was going to be a Jet. He said it then when we first talked and he said it last week, too. I know it’s a lie. Not on my part, on their part.”
I called around on this one today. Idzik never told him that. Revis heard what he wanted to hear. What Idzik said, was what he has said all a long – he wanted to keep Revis. Wanting to keep somebody is categorically different than saying – “you are going to be a Jet.”
Idzik is a really, really smart guy who measures every word that comes out of his mouth. I can assure you, there is no way he said that to Revis. No way.
Revis heard what he wanted to hear.
April 22, 2013
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