In 2007, former Chargers cornerback Antonio Cromartie put together a Pro Bowl season. In 2008, he regressed -- due in large part to a hip injury that the team allegedly understated.
Kevin Armstrong of the New York Daily News reports that Cromartie was icing his hip after practice on Tuesday, and that coach Rex Ryan downplayed the condition in his daily press conference.
“I figured I’d float it out there, ‘Now they need Revis more than ever,’” Ryan said. “Cromartie missed two plays of team period.”
During the offseason, Cromartie missed some reps during minicamp practices due to a “fatigued” hip. But it was the left hip, not the right hip.
This time, it’s the right hip. And it’s the right hip that was fractured in 2008.
There’s already speculation and conjecture that the condition from two years ago has returned. And, of course, Ryan would have to be coy about it, because if there’s any truth to it Revis’ leverage goes up even more.
Meanwhile, some league insiders are wondering why Ryan hasn’t used his enormous pile of political capital within the organization to press for the team to agree to Revis’ demands. It’s possible that he’s tried, and that he’s simply gotten nowhere with it. It’s also possible that he’s not willing to burn up any capital to get Revis in the fold, if he realizes that he’ll need all of it and more if the home run that Buddy’s bambino is predicting ends up being a slow roller to the pitcher’s mound.
Finally, we continue to be amused by the persistent reporting from one specific reporter at one specific organization that the Jets and Revis are making progress and continue to be close on a deal. The report is incorrect. There was no meeting last Tuesday (as the reporter reported, citing apparently the same single source), and no progress has been made. The two sides aren’t talking. Indeed, there’s nothing to talk about. The deal will get done when someone caves. And so it appears that the reporter in question will continue to say “it’s coming” until it happens, and then he’ll claim that he was right all along.
We’ll leave it at that for now, since we don’t want to be accused of getting anyone else suspended this week -- and we don’t want to give the reporter any additional exposure for reporting something that is flat-out incorrect.
That said, a deal could get done tomorrow. But it won’t be due to any meetings that didn’t happen last week or any negotiations that haven’t occurred. It’ll happen if the team or Revis cries “Uncle,” which if it’s Revis who does it, the “Uncle” could be followed by “Sean.”