Massarotti: Can't Spell Revi$ -- Or Patriot$ -- Without The Money
"It really doesn't matter (about) the money or what the situation is."
- Darrelle Revis to New York reporters last night
Well, let's not get stupid now, Darrelle. We all know the money mattered. It matters to everyone. Especially you.
But before anyone in New England lashes out at Darrelle Revis for taking the highest dollar and returning to the New York Jets, let's make this part equally as clear: the money mattered to the Patriots, too. It always does. Bill Belichick is believed to be the highest-paid coach in sports, presumably with a fully guaranteed contract, and we all know how Patriots fans feel about that. He deserves it. Belichick doesn't show up on the salary cap calculations of the Patriots, but he accounts for a good chunk of the real money spent in Foxboro, and so he could always take less to improve the New England roster, or coaching staff, or both.
But he doesn't, at least to the best of our knowledge. And nobody ever complains about it because he is, well, worth it.
In the end, if you are a follower of the Patriots, here is the question you have to ask yourself as the Patriots turn the clock back to the days before Aqib Talib, to a soft zone and everything that goes with it: if it was truly a "no-brainer" for Revis to return to the Jets, as the disingenuous player said last night, why was that so? Was it because Revis' heart was always in New York? Or was it because the Jets bought Revis' heart in the form of $39 million, fully guaranteed, with the chance to earn a whopping $48 million over the next three seasons?
Be careful here, Patriots fans, because you're giving up something no matter what.
You either have to acknowledge that the Patriots weren't willing to pony up for a player who brought their secondary play to heights it had not seen in a decade.
Or you have to suggest that money was not the biggest factor for a player you have deemed, and want to further label as, a pure mercenary.
So which is it?
Don't be stupid. Or stubborn. The Patriots had a chance to keep Revis and they fell short. You are allowed to disagree with the franchise you worship, with the football Yoda himself, because you saw firsthand what Revis meant to the Patriots pass defense.
You also have a right to be frustrated, independent of what is happening in the balance of the AFC East, because we all know that Revis could very well be the difference between a trip to the AFC Championship Game and a fifth Super Bowl championship during the marriage of Belichick and Tom Brady, a feat unprecedented in football history. Good fans don't merely lap up whatever the team tells them, keep their mouths shut, demonstrate blind loyalty – at least in the eyes of some of us. Good fans place winning – not coaches or organizations – above all else. You can support the team and simultaneously criticize the people who run it. That's sort of the point. The team is, in many ways, yours.
Where the Patriots go from here is anybody's guess, though yesterday's signing of linebacker Jabaal Sheard offers, perhaps, some insight. The Baltimore Ravens didn't have a true, shutdown cover corner when they won the Super Bowl in 2012, but they had a dominating front seven and good safety play. Belichick's history doesn't suggest that he will invest in pass rushers, per se, and the interior of the defensive line is currently a question. But if the Patriots wanted to alter their defensive philosophy and truly start getting after the quarterback to improve their potential in the secondary, well, now would be the time to do it.
As usual, in the aftermath of a major personnel loss, the silence from Foxboro is deafening. One of these days, it would be nice if the Patriots actually, you know, explained their stance on something. It would be nice if they clarified whether their "guaranteed" $35 million offer was fully guaranteed – which it almost certainly wasn't – or if they wanted the "outs" that made Revis' decision far easier than it appeared to be. After all, the difference between $39 million fully guaranteed and $35 million partially guaranteed is far more than $4 million, and the Patriots unwillingness to clarify that suggests that they, too, know their offer was inferior.
In the end, as controllers of the purse strings, Robert Kraft, Bill Belichick and the rest of the decision-makers in Foxboro have that right.
But can we please stop with the smokescreen that minimizes the impact of what really mattered here?
And that goes for you, too, Darrelle Revis.
It was about the money.
Tony Massarotti co-hosts the Felger and Massarotti Show on 98.5 The Sports Hub weekdays from 2-6 p.m. Follow him on Twitter @TonyMassarotti. You can read more from Tony by clicking here.
