It seemed like it was going to be a quiet week in the land of the Jets. After an emphatic Monday night win over Miami to end a three-game slide, the confidence in the Jets’ locker room was downright buoyant. There were no distractions, no gripes and no finger pointing.
That was until cornerback Darrelle Revis went rabid like a mad dog on WFAN radio show host Mike Francesa. During a Friday afternoon interview with the popular Francesa, Revis took exception with Francesa’s consistent questions about a supposed holding penalty in the Miami game. Francesa accused Revis of holding on the play he intercepted a Matt Moore pass intended for Brandon Marshall and returned 100 yards for a touchdown.
Revis said that Marshall was “tripping” during the play and he wasn’t holding him to gain an unfair advantage. Laughing, Francesa continued to push the point:
“You are still the only one in the world who doesn’t think that was a penalty,” Francesa said
“I don’t care!” said Revis. “I don’t care what everybody thinks. I don’t care what you think. I don’t care what the whole world thinks.”
The exchange got more heated with both the host and the player ratcheting up the tenor and tone:
Revis: “Do you know football or are you good at interviewing?”
Francesa: “I’m both.”
Revis: “No you’re not, you’re good at one and I’m good at one.”
Francesa: “You’re very good at one, but I know what I’m watching here.”
Revis: “You’re very good at one too.”
Francesa: “You know you can’t touch him like that.”
Revis: “Let’s keep it at that Mike, let’s keep it at that.”
Francesa continued to press the point and asked Revis to go on the record that “it’s not a penalty.” The response from Revis was that the penalty wasn’t called so it wasn’t an infraction, and he told Francesa “that there’s a whole bunch of things that go on on the field that you have no clue about.”
“You are still the only one in the world who doesn’t think that’s a penalty,” Francesa said.
After some back and forth, Jared Winley from the Jets’ public relations interrupted the call and told Revis to “stop.” Before ending the call, Revis said “This is why I don’t want to get interviewed by him” and Winley told him to “hang up.”
Both Revis and Winley hung up, leaving Francesa to the sound of a dial tone.
Francesa has long been accused of being hostile toward the Jets. The interview dominated the rest of the show as Francesa continued to defend his position that Revis got away with what should have been a penalty on that play.
“I don’t care if he’s a great corner, and he’s an all-time player, he’s a great player and good guy too. I’ve got no problem with Revis getting mad at me. But just because he’s Revis doesn’t mean because he says it’s not a penalty, it’s not a penalty. It is a penalty. Now I lost the last Jet I can talk to.”
Later in the afternoon, Winley, who is the Jets director of public relations, issued a statement about his actions and why he terminated the call:
“In my judgment, given the tone of the interview, I should have asked Mike to move on to another topic, instead of instructing Darrelle to hang up the phone. That was an error on my part. I’ve called Mike’s producer and I apologized.”
In a statement from WFAN, Francesa accepted the apology by Winley.
Watch video of the incident from YES Network’s simulcast of the show:
Follow Jets beat writer Kristian Dyer on Twitter @KristianRDyer.
