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As reporters we are supposed to be neutral, devoid of emotion, but we all feel a certain way, regardless of trying to stay in the middle ground.
I’m going to honest here about how I feel.
Seeing photos tonight of Darrelle Revis turning himself in at a police station in Pittsburgh made me uneasy, a little uncomfortable.
Look, I have little or no relationship with Revis. I’m sure at times he didn’t appreciate my tough questions.
But my emotions have nothing to do with a relationship. There is none.
It’s more about the fact that I’ve covered this player since he walked in the building in 2007.
I, like all of you, witnessed his meteoric rise to the game’s top corner, which came as a surprise. He was the 14th pick of the first round. Scouts expected him to be good, but not a superstar.
His ascendancy to elite status surprised a lot of people.
I’m not going to lie. I enjoy covering greatness. It’s an honor to be around a player like that – cover his games, talking to him after the games, during the week. Covering superstars is cool.
He told me early in his career he wanted to start a foundation to help Aliquippa, his downtrodden hometown.
Unless I missed something, it never happened.
I hate to say this, but it seems to be, somewhere along with way, Revis might have lost his moral compass.
If he made any charity appearances the last 10 years, they were few and far between. I can’t remember any. He hasn’t exactly resembled his college teammate Larry Fitzgerald in terms of giving back.
And then there was one nasty, vitriolic contract imbroglio after another.
It reached a point that Woody Johnson had enough, and wanted him traded. In fact, when Johnson was interviewing potential GM’s in 2013, along with Ira Axselrad and Neil Glat, the owner asked candidates how they would handle Revis. In other words, what was there exit strategy?
John Idzik, following his bosses edict, traded Revis to Tampa Bay in the spring of 2013.
Revis had a nondescript year in Tampa Bay, and was released after one year when a new coach took over – Lovie Smith.
He signed with New England the next year, and then Johnson, using some faulty judgement, brought him back in 2015 with a monster deal, almost as mea culpa to the fans. It was a very poor decision.
He had two bad seasons in a row. Some people will spin it and tell you he wasn’t bad in 2015. Let’s put it this way, he wasn’t good either. He was just as responsible for the Jets Week 17 debacle in Buffalo as Ryan Fitzpatrick. He was destroyed by Sammy Watkins in that game. often playing too far off the Bills’ receiver. And he had plenty of other bad games, like in Houston.
And now after two bad seasons, and $33 million new money in the bank, we are now at the point where he’s turning himself into the Pittsburgh police.
It wasn’t supposed end this way.
Somewhere along the way, perhaps influenced by his former agents, or others around him, this once great player lost his way.
Not just on the field, but off of it as well.
February 17, 2017
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