Antonio Cromartie Talks Defense Of Richard Sherman In Twitter Dispute With Darrelle Revis
Antonio Cromartie defended his Twitter banter with former New York Jets teammate Darrelle Revis on FS1 on Tuesday, a series of tweets between the two that got testy at certain points. In his television appearance, Cromartie acknowledged that Revis is the best cornerback of all time while providing depth and breadth to his defense of San Francisco 49ers cornerback Richard Sherman.
Over the past two days, Revis has provided an interesting commentary on Twitter. First it began with an analysis of Sherman, who had three tackles and an interception in the 49ers win over the Green Bay Packers that saw them advance to the Super Bowl. Revis took some perceived shots at Sherman and then went after Cromartie.
In his comments on his former teammate, Revis said that Jets head coach and Rex Ryan and defensive coordinator Dennis Thurman made him play on ‘an island’ because the secondary had to shade over to supposedly compensate for Cromartie. It was a bit of a dig, given that Cromartie was an elite cornerback during an initial four-year run with the Jets that began in 2010.
Twice during that span with the Jets, Cromartie was named to the Pro Bowl. He played an additional year with the Jets in 2015 when he again reunited with Revis. Both players rejoined the Jets that offseason as free agents.
“Honestly, my initial reaction was like, ‘Really? You really want to do this with me? Out of all people…I was in the meeting room with you every single day, I understand everything,” Cromartie said on FS1’s ‘Undisputed’ on Tuesday morning.
“I was thinking to myself [that], come to think about it, I never came in to be the No. 1 corner for the New York Jets. They already had a No. 1 corner. My job was to come to be the ‘1 B’ or whatever you want to call and go from there. When I look at it, I’m like ‘Man, you can tell your truth, but I know my truth also too.’ My job was to go out there and cover the people I was asked to cover and go from there. I don’t know whatever Rex and Dennis Thurman had going on with Rev telling him, I don’t care. The only thing I had to do was go out and do my job, as long as I did my job well, that’s all I was asked.”
On Twitter, Revis called the back-and-forth with Cromartie and Sherman “barbershop talk.”
“I think the three years me and Revis played together, my quarterback completion percentage towards me was 47 percent. So obviously I was doing a good job, obviously I was doing something,” Cromartie said on the show, which features former NFL star Shannon Sharpe and veteran columnist Skip Bayless.
In talking about the 49ers cornerback, Cromartie said that Sherman is “playing at a very high level.” In defending Sherman, Cromartie said it wasn’t at all a dig at Revis.
“It’s about the scheme that we played in. Everyone plays in a different scheme. Never once did I say that he wasn’t the best. I said he was the best,” Cromartie said.
“2009, no one can ever match that. I said he was the best. But at the end of the day, if he’s going to call me out for speaking the truth about another man what scheme he plays in, that’s uncalled for and I told him that.”
