Should the Patriots Consider Bringing Darrelle Revis Back?
Boston Herald – Darrelle Revis wants to play football for an NFL team in 2017. He wants to resurrect what’s left of his career, after turning into an old, overweight, receiver-friendly cornerback last season with the Jets. …
With the Patriots possibly needing another cornerback, the notion of Revis returning to Foxboro became a hot debate topic last week once criminal charges against him were dismissed …
After walking out of the courtroom Wednesday, Revis claimed he had lost 10 pounds, hired a new trainer, and was “excited” for the 2017 season after being dumped by the Jets. … Said Revis outside the courtroom: “I can really focus on what team I can fit with, the best system and team and coaches.”
Boston Globe – One league executive said the Patriots “are the only team that makes sense” to sign Revis.
The first time somebody asked me about these Revis-back-to-New England rumors, my reflex reaction was that the Patriots should treat him like a piece of unexploded ordinance. Just clear the area and avoid getting anywhere near him at all costs. One of my great joys of last year was finding posts on Jets fans’ sites filled with angry screeds about how Revis was stealing money, videos of him getting burned on deep passes and GIFs of him engaging blockers without making any effort to shed them so he wouldn’t actually have to try to make a tackle. So, no. A hard no.
On the other hand, I have to admit it’s tempting as all hell. He’s got 6 million Woody Johnson Bucks coming to him in 2017, guaranteed. And it’s hard not dream of a world where Revis comes back to Foxboro and gets paid by the Jets to win games for the Patriots. It would be the ultimate act of teabagging revenge against the team that tampered him away with zero punishment from a commissioner who was basically a co-conspirator in the robbery. The ultimate revenge. It’d be like winning your ex-wife back from the douchebag who broke up your marriage only she gets a personal trainer and fake boobs put in and gets back the looks that made you marry her in the first place.
But that’s where it gets complicated. Show me a guy who gets back with his ex-wife and I’ll show you a guy who let Optimism triumph over Experience. It’s possible that somewhere buried inside Revis is still that high football IQ and that freakish closing speed he’s use to dupe quarterbacks into thinking their receivers were open and then pick the passes off. Maybe in New York he was just a droid with a bad motivator, embarrassed himself and now has all the incentive in the world to earn his old reputation back.
Or maybe he had cashed in one last time and just became a lazy shit. Or age caught up to him and no matter how much weight he loses he’ll never get that burst back. I’m worried about the first possibility. It’s rare that you ever see an athlete shut it down mentally and then recapture it. Even Rocky had a hard time getting the Eye of the Tiger back, and Mick died in his fucking arms. The second possibility terrifies me. Revis has hit that age for a DB where they usually lose a step that never comes back, no matter how much time they spend at the gym. And for every Rod Woodson or Ed Reed who keeps it going on grit and balls, there are a thousand guys who lose it overnight.
But if it were up to me, I’d bring Revis back. And I don’t care how much Deflategate Truther nonsense he spewed in New York. To be clear, it would have to be on New England’s terms. Completely. He’s a terrible risk. It would have to be an incentive laden deal where, if he turns out to be 2015-16 Revis, he gets cut in camp with not much loss. Think Terrance Knighton last year. But if he comes and plays his ass off, he can go get paid the next year by somebody else. And then we’d sit back and watch Jets fans like KFC probably move to remote cabins in the wilderness to avoid the pain and shame of seeing their beloved icon crush their dreams yet again. That alone makes it worth taking the chance.