Sunday's matchup between the New York Jets and Kansas City Chiefs is not a revenge game for Darrelle Revis.
Nope. No way. It just isn't. Stop.
Anyone who attempts to sell you on this notion is a liar, a fool or both. This will be a game about the Chiefs trying to right their sinking ship and Todd Bowles trying to keep his job beyond next month. What it's not about is Darrelle Revis getting even with the New York Jets for cutting him. Consider this Football Narrative Building For Dummies.
We don't want it. We don't need it. Fake News. It is vitally important to make one thing exceedingly clear:
This is not a revenge game for Darrelle Revis.
Revis wiggled his way out of New York in 2013, eventually won a Super Bowl with the Patriots (of course), then re-signed with the Jets for star quarterback money in 2015. He proceeded to make almost every quarterback who played against him look like a star for the next two years. Almost immediately, it became clear the Jets' investment was a foolhardy one. They got burned, plain and simple, paying for a version of Revis that no longer existed.
Revis got burned, too. A lot. The Jets hoped he would age like Champ Bailey. Darrelle Revis did not age like Champ Bailey.
Revis had a so-so season in 2015 and came to camp out of shape in 2016. This did not help his effort to keep up with former Olympian Marquise Goodwin in a primetime showcase that shuddered Revis Island for good.
Even worse, Revis started putting out tape that made you wonder if he even cared anymore. It was like he was begging the Jets to move on.
So no, Sunday is not a revenge game for Darrelle Revis. It's just the unlikely intersection of a one-time star who ran out of juice and a star-crossed team that didn't realize that until it was too late.
Revenge game for Revis? Nah. Regret game for the Jets? You bet.
