The back and forth going on between the New York Jets and the New England Patriots over who tampered with All Pro cornerback Darrelle Revis when has seen a new layer added to the pettiness pie.
It seems that there are many NFL executives looking at the Patriots' initial decision to file tampering charges against the Jets and snickering, due in large part to a league wide belief that the Patriots actually tampered with Revis in 2014 while he was still a member of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
"People are looking at the Patriots and saying, 'look, you can say something to the league office about what Woody Johnson said' - and literally it was tampering - 'but we know that it was not intentional, so don't take yourselves too seriously, New England Patriots in this one', especially when a lot of people around the league believe that the Patriots tampered with Darrelle Revis the year before when he was about to leave the Tampa Bay Buccaneers," Jason Cole of Bleacher Report revealed Wednesday.
"Nobody has ever said anything about that situation, nobody has ever made any claims against the Patriots, but it was pretty clear to a lot of people that the Patriots engaged in some discussion prior to him being let go by the Buccaneers that made it pretty clear he was going to end up in New England."
Revis, of course, was released by the Bucs after the 2013 season, quickly signed with the Pats and subsequently helped them to victory in Super Bowl XLIX, before defecting to the New York Jets, the team that drafted him, this offseason.
The Patriots originally filed tampering charges against the Jets and owner Woody Johnson after he stated in his year-end press conference that he'd love to see Revis return to the Jets.
"Darrelle is a great player and if I thought I could have gotten Darrelle for that [amount], I probably would've taken him. And it was our best judgment to do what we did. Darrelle's a great player - I'd love for Darrelle to come back," Johnson said at the time, per Yahoo! Sports.
Then, it was reported by Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk Tuesday that the Jets had counter-filed tampering charges against the Patriots after "tracking the language cited by the Patriots when making their tampering charge in January" and specifically, this comment made Monday by Patriots owner Robert Kraft.
"I speak as a fan of the New England Patriots," Kraft said via Tom Curran of CSN New England. "We wanted to keep him, we wanted him in our system. We have certain disciplines and we had hoped it would work out. It didn't. We just don't think about the short-term decisions. For example, next year we have three very good young defensive players coming up [for contracts] and we have to factor that we just don't look at this year, we look out at the next few years. We've done okay doing that.
"[The Jets] are the team that drafted him. I think he feels a great commitment there, so we understand his going back and we're sorry he didn't stay with us."
While all of this will likely amount to little - Ian Rapoport of NFL.com is reporting that the league is currently investigating "more than 20" teams for anti-tampering window violations this offseason - Cole reveals that many league executives are simply tickled by the ticky-tack, he-said, she-said the Pats and Jets are currently engaged in via the media.
"This is fantastic stuff," said Cole. "I talked to about five coaches or executives yesterday after the news came out about what the Jets have claimed in this one and they're just amused by it. They think it's great theatre, it's a great sideshow, it adds to the rivalry between the two teams, it reminds them of the days of Al Davis against the entire AFC West. It's just great, great theatre between these two teams."
What's most interesting about all of this is it paints the picture of a league of billionaires and their coaches entirely unconcerned with the penalties associated with breaking the rules or, more importantly, the authority of their commissioner, Roger Goodell.
