‘Ghost’-flustered Jets miffed at ESPN, NFL
NEW YORK — The Jets are upset that quarterback Sam Darnold’s comment about him “seeing ghosts” was aired during the “Monday Night Football” game.
Darnold was wearing a microphone for ESPN’s broadcast of the Jets’
33-0 loss to the Patriots. After the third of his five turnovers in the game, the frustrated quarterback was sitting on the sideline in the second quarter when he made his comment that quickly went viral on social media after it aired.
“That was one of those things that was really disappointing to hear about after the game,” coach Adam Gase said Tuesday. “I don’t know if I’ve ever seen that where somebody that was mic’d up, that a comment like that was allowed to be aired. It bothers me. It bothers the organization.”
Gase, who was the Bears’ offensive coordinator in 2015 under John Fox, added that the Jets will be “looking hard into our cooperation” with the networks going forward.
Select players are mic’d up during primetime games, and NFL Films has a representative listening on site. The representative then will approve the comments to air.
“You’re never anticipating something like that happening,” Gase said. “The fact that it did just gives us pause to really cooperate anymore because I don’t know how we would allow our franchise quarterback to be put out there like that.”
In football parlance, “seeing ghosts” is a phrase used when a player is having trouble reading coverages on defense, being fooled into reading them incorrectly or feeling pressures in the pocket that aren’t there. That was clearly the case for Darnold, who had his worst game of his young career. He was 11-for-32 for 86 yards with four interceptions and a horrific 3.6 quarterback rating.
The comment approval process is designed to help protect players and coaches from things they say that might cast them, the team or the league in a negative light. ESPN declined comment and deferred to NFL Films.
By NFL rules, each team’s starting quarterback and head coach are required to be mic’d up by NFL Films once a season. Darnold fulfilled his requirement by being mic’d up against the Patriots.
Jets running back Le’Veon Bell took to Twitter to defend Darnold and blast the NFL.
“The NFL screwed Sammy over,” Bell wrote. “There’s not one player in the NFL who’s cool with having every sideline convo broadcasted to millions . . . there’s a reason we’ve never heard other QB’s frustrated on the sideline like that before . . . that’s crazy, @NFL did Sam dirty as hell.”