There are 12 days left in the Big Apple's Big Game of Chicken. The only thing at stake is the services of the best cornerback in the game. Not to mention the title hopes of a star-crossed franchise that has to look at their last Super Bowl title through the grainy lens of NFL films celluloid.
Darrelle Revis became a household name during the regular season of 2009 when the corner emerged as the main reason the Jets had allowed a staggeringly low number of 8 touchdown passes for the season. With 2 additional interceptions in his three playoff games to add to his 6 regular season picks, Darrelle Revis had climbed to near the top of the ranks for players on the other side of the ball. In only his third year in the league, No. 24 was second in the Defensive Player of the Year voting, losing out only to a ridiculous season by Charles Woodson of the Packers.
As much as Revis produced on the field, this gave him every opportunity to become a selfish, egotistical player, crave attention, and become a locker room cancer like so many others. He didn't do this and kept a professionalism about him at all times. With that said, the man knows he had an out-of-this-world 2009 and decided he wanted to be paid as such in 2010.
So in the midst of the current circus surrounding the New York Jets, from sky-high Super Bowl expectations to the outspoken Rex Ryan perpetually speaking his mind for all the media mics to pickup on, to the "Hard Knocks" HBO season filming every latest subplot, bumping all of that off the New York back pages is the Jets' number one corner. Will they or won't they sign Revis?
Part of the problem in the negotiations is that Revis wants a deal to make him the highest paid corner in football; that means higher than that of the Raiders' Nnamdi Asomugha. While there is no questioning Asomugha‘s elite status among NFL corners, Al Davis' front office is generally thought to have overpaid for his services at $15.1 million a year for 3 years. Revis doesn't care, though. He wants more. And while the Jets (particularly their coach, not helping matters for their front office) love saying they have the game's best cornerback, they don't appear to want to resort to that.
Added to the controversy was an August 11th report saying that Neil Schwartz, one of Revis' two agents (Jonathan Feinsod being the other), called out Jets owner Woody Johnson for claiming the two refused to meet with them to work out a deal, saying, "Whoever said that is a blatant liar." Jets GM Mike Tennenbaum then backed up his owner Johnson, saying that Revis' agents turned down the meeting because it was "technical in nature." Now let me ask you, have you ever heard of contract negotiations not being technical in nature? What is that really supposed to mean?
Darrelle's stance has been that he is not afraid to sit out the season if his demands are not met, nothing short of a disaster for Gang Green. Head coach Rex Ryan has suddenly changed his stance, going from Revis' personal PR guy to now saying that the Jets' defense is great enough that they don't need Revis to remain a top defensive squad. Ryan, of course, made defense his top priority when joining the Jets a year ago, so he is essentially now plugging his own ability to compensate for Revis' potential loss.
Ryan would later suggest the entire Jets organization meet with Revis in an attempt to settle their differences once and for all. Predictably, that didn't go over too well, either.
On August 25th, there were conflicting reports as to whether Revis was or was not close to signing a deal with the Jets despite the Daily News saying the two sides were $40 million apart as recently as three weeks ago. When asked, the Jets refused to comment.
The longer the holdout goes on for, the worse this looks for the Jets organization, as fans call for the team to pay the man who has been so essential to their success his due. And yet if they do manage to work a deal in these final two weeks, and Revis is a starter in Week 1, then this whole ordeal will be nothing more than a bad dream to anyone who bleeds green and white.
If anything good comes of this, it may be that this contract circus has taken all the attention away from any expectations of QB Mark Sanchez, who has shown capable of both stellar and sorry play on the field. While the fate of Revis remains up in the air, this much is true. A Jets team with a healthy and productive Revis still won't survive a lemon of a season from Sanchez in his sophomore effort anyway.
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