The New Antonio Cromartie doesn’t call Tom Brady an A-hole.
“He’s a competitor, he hates to lose,” Cromartie said Wednesday. “I’m a guy, I hate to lose, too. And knowing that it’s New England, the New America’s Team, I think that’s the whole thing of going against Brady, ’cause for one he’s one of the future Hall-of-Fame quarterbacks and a guy that’s won multiple Super Bowls.”
The Patriots are the New America’s Team?
“I mean, honestly, you can’t say they’re not,” Cromartie said. “Everybody talks about New England. If they’re losing, they’ll talk about ’em. If they win, they talk about ’em all the time. So I call ’em The new America’s Team.
“They’re always in the playoffs,” Cromartie said. “Every single year they have a chance to win a Super Bowl, and when you have a dynasty team like Coach [Bill] Belichick has put together, they’re always gonna be talked about. They’re a team that every single year, you know exactly what you’re gonna get out of Tom Brady, you know what you’re gonna get out of Wes Welker. You know what you’re gonna get out of those guys.”
How do the Jets become the New America’s Team?
“We gotta win a championship to be talked about first,” Cromartie said. “We gotta build a team, and I think [general manager] Mike Tannenbaum and [coach] Rex [Ryan] have been doing a great job of that.”
Two years ago, Cromartie irritated the higher-ups in the Jets organization when he called Brady an “A-hole.” Asked if his feelings about Brady have changed, he sounds more like Pro-martie than Cromartie.
“I don’t think about what I said last year or two years ago, whatever it was,” Cromartie said. “I just try to go play football the best way I know how and that’s it.”
A Hail Mary followup: Do you feel differently about him? Cromartie intercepted the question and returned it all the way back.
“Understand y’all want to build a story, [but] you’re not gonna get a story with me,” Cromartie said, and smiled. “Y’all gotta go find somebody else. If y’all want to build a story, it ain’t gonna be from me.”
The story these days, as Ryan tries yet again to knock Belichick off the top of the AFC East mountain Sunday, is Pro-martie rising to the occasion of the season-ending loss of Darrelle Revis and reveling in being The Guy in a more cohesive secondary stabilized dramatically by veteran safeties LaRon Landry and Yeremiah Bell.
“One of the things that beat us last year was we were never on the same page on the back end. Even with having Darrelle in the secondary, I think we never communicated the right way,” Pro-martie said. “I think we’re doing a better job this year of communicating than we did in the past two years. … There’s a bigger trust within our group, to understand that our guy’s gonna be there, and understand that if we end up making a mistake, that guy’s gonna also protect us on the back end.”
Were guys maybe too reliant on Darrelle being Darrelle?
“I think so,” Cromartie said. “When every guy’s out there doing their job and know where every guy’s supposed to be, it makes things a whole lot easier, and you can play a whole lot faster without thinking about, ‘OK, if this guy’s gonna be there, if that guy’s not gonna be there.’ ”
Was that trust not there before?
“On the back end, I don’t think we had that much trust in each other, because we were flipping so much in and out on the back end, from Jim Leonhard last year to Brodney Pool to Eric Smith,” Cromartie said. “I think we’re more athletic at our safety position, and it makes things a whole lot easier.”
Pro-martie (three interceptions) is playing like an All-Pro-martie.
“I would say this is by far the best I’ve probably played in my career,” he said. “I’m a lot more focused … not being bored when the ball’s not coming my way,” Pro-martie said. “Make sure I’m always watching my man. I try to make sure I do the same thing on the practice field, not try to lose focus on the practice field.”
Pro-martie has served willingly as a mentor to the young defensive backs in Revis’ absence.
“Make sure I’m paying attention to a little more detail of when I’m watching film, and making sure that the younger guys are paying a little more detail to when they’re watching film also,” Pro-martie said.
Bell has been thoroughly impressed.
“When I was down in Miami, the only other guy that really watched film and could break it down like him was Zach Thomas,” Bell said. “He’s almost similar to a coach in the way that he does that. … I really think, since Revis has been out, he’s kinda went to a whole nother level with his play..”
Brady has noticed.
“He’s really assumed the role of matching to the opponent’s No. 1 receiver — or perceived No. 1 receiver,” Brady said.
Promartie said he doesn’t want Brady, or any other QB, throwing away from him.
“I hope they keep throwing,” he said, and laughed.
New Cromartie, ready for the New America’s Team.