Kerry Rhodes, traded to the Cardinals on Saturday for two low-round draft picks, ripped the Jets today on ESPN 1050 radio.
“Does (the trade) make sense? Evidently for them it did,’’ Rhodes said sarcastically. “I can’t say I agree with it and I’m not going to say I’m mad or sad about it.’’
Rhodes, who clashed with defensive coaches Mike Pettine and Dennis Thurman, accused the Jets staff of stripping him of a leadership role in favor of the former Ravens players Bart Scott, Jim Leonhard and Marques Douglas brought in by Rex Ryan, calling it “a slap in the face.’’
He, too, said he was surprised to have not heard from Ryan since the trade. He also said the organization used his off-field interests as “an excuse’’ to criticize him.
“Ridiculous,” Rhodes called the Jets’ claims that he wasn’t committed enough to football. “Whenever you have something that’s not going the way you think it should, people always try to lay blame. I guess some stuff was said. I was an easy target. I was an easy scapegoat for somebody to say, ‘He’s worried about other stuff. He’s not putting his all into it and doing what he should be doing on the field.’
“It gave those guys an easy way out, just to blame it on that. To hear that stuff kind of bothers me, but I never let it be known until now.”
Rhodes tweaked Jets GM Mike Tannenbaum for telling him he was the only player he could trade to acquire draft picks.
“I still take that as an excuse,’’ Rhodes said. “You can get picks for anybody. You can get picks for Mark Sanchez if you want them, but he’s still there.”