A guest post from a guy in the know:
What started as a rare but friendly interview Friday afternoon between Jets star Darrell Revis and WFAN host Mike Francessa became an ugly, entertaining, and embarrassing exchange between two ego’s who simply wouldn’t give in on their belief.
Ironically, Francessa has had a rocky relationship between himself and the Jets ever since 1050 ESPN radio would not allow Jets players on with him during their playoff run 2 years ago. Revis was the one Jet who as Mike would say, “Will talk to me these days.”,
Those days may in fact be over after an argument centering around whether or not Revis held Brandon Marshall on his interception return for a touchdown last Monday Night vs. Miami. Francessa playfully brought up the play and told Revis he got away with one, however Revis insisted he didn’t and the two carried on with the point. Revis even asked Mike, “Do you know football or just how to interview?” To which Mike replied “Both.” This lead Revis to fire back with “No you don’t, you know one and I know one.”
As the exchange continued to fire up, a Jets PR member came onto the line and told Revis to hang up. Revis would leave one last parting shot as he said “This is why nobody likes talking to this guy man.” Followed by a click and a confused Francessa.
Anybody who listens to the Mike Francessa show knows he likes to take jabs at the Jets, but also knows he is great at finding the hard hitting issues the fans want to now about in an interview. Francessa has tackled tough issues with Giants of the past such as Tiki Barber, Michael Strahan, Antonio Pierce, Jeremy Shockey, and even this past summer with Jets coach Rex Ryan. None ended an interview early in such a babyish way in which Revis and the Jets PR department did Friday. Revis comments about Mike not knowing football because he doesn’t play is not only a shot at Francessa, but a shot at all of us who spend our hard earned money on tickets, NFL Sunday ticket, merchandise, etc. What Revis told Mike there (and frankly might as well have told all of us, Jets fans included) is that we all do not know football unless we are playing in the NFL. A player with this selfish attitude to go along with a Jets PR staff that cowardly chimed in and forced Revis to hang up should be ashamed of themselves. Mike Francessa may not be perfect and can find ways to easily rile the Jets and their fans up, but on the very same station Craig Carton did the same to the Giants all through August. There is nothing wrong with this, it creates entertaining radio and stirs an audience up to call. But a player and a team who agree to an interview should know what they are getting into and handle matters differently. Kudos to the Jets for calling Mike’s producer Ray Martel and apologizing for the way in which they handled it, but shame on them for letting it get to that point. Friday was no question entertaining, but yet another black eye on a Jets Franchise that seems to be in the headlines for all the wrong reasons since Rex took over as coach. Will this week be a rallying point towards possibly another AFC Championship game? Or another start to a poor season jets fns know all to well about?
-Shaun Morash
