COOLING THEIR JETS
Darrelle & Brandon say that they’re OK
After taking more than 24 hours to cool off, Darrelle Revis belatedly stepped forward to insist “everything is fine” between him and Brandon Marshall after their Friday sparring match in practice.
It wasn’t the most convincing argument from the Jets’ All-Pro cornerback, who described the incident with the phrase “It’s just football” eight times in a tense, post-practice interview session that lasted just 3 ¹/2 minutes.
“It’s just football to me,” Revis said. “That’s how I look at it. It’s competition. We’re not going to go back and forth about who [did] what. Everybody does things when you’re out there playing on the field.fie At the same time, it’s training camp and we’re trying to get better as a team.” Revis was giving his version of events a day after he exchanged punches and some apparently very personal trash talk with Marshall during Friday’s practice that the wide receiver had described as “crossing the line.” With a large crowd of fans on hand for Saturday night’s practice, Jets coach Todd Bowles appeared to be taking no chances of a Revis-Marshall rematch. Revis did not cover Marshall on any passing plays throughout the entire workout, which Bowles claimed was not planned but did not seem to be an accident. Revis admitted Saturday that he made contact with Marshall’s face after Marshall made a catch on him in a one-on-one drill. Marshall cited Revis’ slap as the reason for the en- tire dustup, but Revis said it was accidental.
“It was during the play,” Revis said. “But it’s football. Things happen. You might jam and the hand might slip. You might get poked in the eye. It’s all football. It’s a very physical sport. It’s football. It’s training camp.”
Marshall retaliated later by slapping Revis, then the two veteran stars jawed at each other in front of stunned teammates. Marshall at one point taunted Revis about getting burned by Texans wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins last season in one of Revis’ worst games as a pro.
At least publicly, Revis shrugged off the Hopkins insult.
“Did that bother me? No,” Revis said. “It’s fine. You’ve got to do more to get under my skin than that.”
Marshall said Friday that he and Revis are close friends and wouldn’t let the incident linger, but Revis conspicuously made no mention of that friendship Saturday.
“We’re two very competitive guys, and this hasn’t been our first time getting into it,” Revis said. “We’re both physical players, and we like to compete. And I think this is good for us. Brandon’s not going to stop competing the way he competes, and I’m not going to stop, either.”
Revis, though, did claim the matter is over — echoing Marshall’s statement that no hard feelings would linger.
“We’re fine,” Revis said. “We’re moving on. I might get into a scrap with another receiver tomorrow. It is what it is. It’s competition. It’s why you go to training camp.”
Their teammates seemed to agree. Quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, who had a front-row seat for the showdown, claimed too much was being made of Marshall versus Revis.
“It was a good, high-energy, competitive practice,” Fitzpatrick said Saturday. “Sometimes things can be overblown a little bit, but that’s all we took it as players.”
Bowles wasn’t so lighthearted about it, though, admitting that he talked to the entire team after Friday’s practice on players keeping their cool when it comes to doing something like throwing punches that would get them kicked out of a game.
“I talked to the whole team about it,” Bowles said Saturday. “It wasn’t exclusive to those two guys. We understand what happens. It’s camp. It’s no big deal.”
Revis then tantalized listeners by refusing to rule out a rematch with Marshall.
“We’ll get after it [again],” Revis said. “It’s still the early stages of camp. We’re definitely going to get after it.”