The Jets used to look at the young Darrelle Revis and wanted to see Derek Jeter, because what franchise wouldn’t want its own Jeter, especially a franchise that hasn’t won a Super Bowl since Jan. 12, 1969?
Revis may have been cutthroat at the negotiating table, never had the relationship with Woody Johnson that Jeter had with George Steinbrenner, never won five championships as Jeter did, but for a long while there he made cornerback look as easy to play as the young Jeter made playing shortstop look. Jeter was Mr. November; Revis had Revis Island.
And Revis, who never met a dollar he didn’t like, who has outmaneuvered and out-leveraged everyone in his way and dominated the system the way he dominated the league’s best receivers, who has pocketed an ungodly $124 million in career earnings, was on board with the idea of being the Jeter of the Jets, because who wouldn’t want to be compared to such an icon of class and professionalism so near to what Madison Avenue has to offer?
And Jets fans who mourned his devastating knee injury that led to his divorce from the team, who were sick to their stomachs when he won his only Super Bowl as a one-year rental for Bill Belichick and the Patriots, jumped for joy when Johnson let bygones be bygones and engineered a reunion that resulted in Revis smiling in Times Square in his green-and-white 24 jersey on the cover of Sports Illustrated in July 2015. It was a recreation of the iconic Broadway Joe Namath cover from 50 years earlier.
“You just have to get the right player to go along with it, and Revis was that guy,” Sports Illustrated director of photography Brad Smith said back then.
Then came this shocking bombshell late Thursday:
Charges were pending against Revis after an altercation early Sunday in Pittsburgh.
Huh? Darrelle Revis?
And then this: Charges of aggravated assault, robbery, terroristic threats and conspiracy, according to multiple reports, were filed Thursday night and an arrest warrant was issued for the Jets cornerback.
Darrelle Revis?
Say it ain’t so.
And this, from a Revis lawyer named Blaine Jones:
“He was 1,000 percent the victim. He tried to retreat,” Jones said according to WTAE in Pittsburgh. “Darrelle was by himself when he was physically assaulted by one of the men, and unfortunately, at what point in time do you say enough is enough?”
Well, how about at 2:43 in the morning Sunday, when trouble can beat anybody on a post pattern, in the South Side of Pittsburgh, not far from Revis’ Aliquippa, Pa., home?
For those of us who have chronicled Revis from the start of his Jets days in 2007, whatever truly happened at the intersection of South 23rd and East Carson streets is Ripley’s Believe It Or Not stuff.
The knee-jerk inclination is to call it fake news.
Except it isn’t.
Revis grew up at 309 Seventh Ave., in a red brick house on top of a hill, and the wife of the Aliquippa High School football coach told The Post six years ago: “He was one of those kids that always did everything right, that you look at as a model of what’s expected.”
That was then.
This is now, from the mouth of his attorney: “He’s not going to run from a warrant.”
Revis knows better. But even the ones who know better don’t know better sometimes.
This has been a turbulent time in Revis’ career. He has been forced to confront a mushrooming athletic mortality, with the remorseless Father Time leaving him diminished with such an alarming loss of swagger that he is open to a move to safety, what appears to be a Hail Mary plea of sorts to finish his career where it began.
Except that Revis has a $13 million salary for 2017 and is no longer a $13 million player. His deal includes $6 million guaranteed. He is due a $2 million roster bonus on March 10. He turns 32 in July.
For once, Revis has been cornered on Leverage Island.
He wasn’t 42-year-old Willie Mays in 1973 at Shea Stadium, but he was far from the Jets’ Say Hey Kid.
For so long, Revis was one of the legends of the fall.
Today we grapple with the fall of a legend.
Jeter earned himself a happy farewell tour.
With an NFL suspension of up to four games possible, it is now more probable than not that Darrelle Revis has earned himself a sad farewell.
Grievous Island indeed.