It's 6:15 on a Monday morning -- Labor Day, in fact -- and I'm helping Robby get out the door for his scrimmage. High school football coaches particularly like to do two things: (1) Yell very loudly at their players, and (2) "get them prepared." One form of "getting them prepared" is having them at the field by 6:30 for a 9 AM scrimmage.
Even at this early hour, with neither of us truly functioning, Robby's on the internet, checking espn.com -- or whatever it is he checks -- in his never-ending quest for that critical fantasy advantage.
"Revis signed," he says glumly, never lifting his eyes from the screen.
And so begins the best Labor Day ever for me and the rest of Jets Nation. Revis' summer-long holdout is over! The Jets best-in-the-NFL defense is back intact! Yeah, sure, Kyle Wilson's been looking good in the pre-season, and Jets fans have been talking the talk of winning without Revis -- but that was all whistling in the dark. The truth of the matter is without #24, any plans for a Super Bowl appearance are dead in the water. To me, Revis was so key that I named my Survival Football entry after him. Prior to Labor Day, it was called NO REVIS, NO PROBLEM. As soon as Robby gave me the news, I changed it to NEXT STOP, REVIS ISLAND. (For an insightful take on the naming of fantasy teams, please see my oldest son Matt’s Sept. 1 post, “What’s In a Name?,” in his FOOTBALL VS. GIRLFRIEND blog.)
While for me this was like Christmas in early September, for Robby, it was his worst nightmare. Yeah, he'd been sky-high about his Dolphins taking on the Bills in Week One. He'd been crowing for months about how B-Marsh would be by far and away the best receiver in NFL history, how Henne was ready to step up as a truly elite quarterback -- and he liked all the positive hype his team was getting from the ESPN talking heads. But when you boiled it down, two things really got his juices going.
The first was mocking Mark Sanchez. Back in July, when my middle son Greg (quick review of the family dynamics: Greg and I are the Jets fans; oldest son Matt and Robby are the Dolphins fans; Carol claims to be for the Dolphins to appease Robby, but we all know she just roots for whatever result will promote family harmony and peace on earth) was in Anaheim for the MLB All-Star game and had the opportunity to hang with Sanchez, Robby kept bugging him to put Sanchez on the phone. Greg, of course, had the good sense to refuse. He knew, and I knew, that if Robby got on the line with Sanchez, all he'd talk about would be how Sanchez threw three picks to the Pats' Leigh Bodden in one game last season.
And the second, of course, was the Revis holdout. Sorry, Robby. Bummer.
In my last post, I mentioned that it looked like Greg might be able to get me in to the first game at the New Meadowlands Stadium -- Jets vs. Ravens in a Monday Night matchup of Super Bowl hopefuls -- and it turns out he came through! So look for the two of us at the Meadowlands Monday night. I'll bring the sausages, the burgers, and the Foreman grill. Greg'll bring the tickets. And we'll both by wearing our Revis jerseys.
-Hank
