One of the last things you’d expect to hear – “Darrelle Revis has fired his agents Neil Schwartz and Jonathan Feinsod.”
When ESPN reported this yesterday, I checked my calendar to see if it was April Fool’s Day.
Schwartz and Feinsod did an amazing job of making Revis one of the richest players in football. That can’t be denied. He’s made around $101 million in his career.
Some take umbrage with the premise that the agents made Revis this money.
“Who made the money?” tweeted one fan.
I understand where the fan is coming from. Of course, ultimately, it’s the player that earns the contract.
But in this case, that would be selling the agents short.
These two agents engaged in guerrilla warfare against the Jets on several occasions, and created PR firestorms that helped the player get extra money. That’s hard to deny.
And the scorched earth campaigns from past, which made the Jets look bad from a PR standpoint, probably contributed to Revis’ monster contract last spring. In a way, it was a make-up call to the fans.
While I haven’t always been a fan of their methods, there is no denying this pair did a great job of getting Revis paid well over and over and over again.
So it’s somewhat shocking he would fire them.
Then again, you could make the argument he doesn’t need an agent anymore because this is likely his last contract.
But when you consider the long history that Schwartz and Feinsod have with Revis, and his uncle, former NFL DE Sean Gilbert (who they also helped make a lot of money), this move was totally unexpected.
*The new issue of Jets Confidential Magazine is on NY-NJ-CT news stands. Get it, you won’t regret it. To subscribe, click below, or call 1-800-932-4557 (M-F, 9-5).
