CORTLAND — It seems the Jets’ star turn on reality TV might not be entirely real.
Jets cornerback Antonio Cromartie turned the tables on HBO’s “Hard Knocks” documentary series yesterday, telling The Post that his much-discussed interview scene in Wednesday’s episode was restaged by the segment’s director.
Cromartie found himself being roasted on blogs and in print for appearing to struggle mightily with the names of his eight children and their ages in what was portrayed as a casual, post-practice chat on some football padding.
But Cromartie pulled back the curtains on the Emmy-winning series yesterday by telling The Post the scene that has earned him so much ridicule was a second take ordered by the director.
Cromartie said the director — whom HBO officials refused to name — told him to “redo it” because he had not paused long enough between each of his kids’ names.
Asked if he had as much trouble listing the names as the scene appeared to show, Cromartie told The Post: “Nah, I didn’t have trouble. I mean, they asked me to pause. I had nailed it the one time before, but they had to redo it and they just told me to pause between each one of [the names].”
The popular series — billed as a no-holds-barred documentary of an NFL team during training camp — is produced by NFL Films, the league’s official video arm, in conjunction with HBO Sports. Wednesday’s episode was the second in a five-episode run for the Jets.
Ray Stallone, a spokesman for HBO, told The Post yesterday that the show’s producers and the unspecified director of the scene dispute Cromartie’s version of events.
“I spoke to the director and everyone involved, and this scene was done in one take,” Stallone said.
Stallone also forcefully insisted that, despite Cromartie’s comments, nothing about “Hard Knocks” is staged.
“The show is factual, it’s real, and it’s not manufactured,” Stallone said of the series, which began in 2001 and has won four Sports Emmy Awards.
Cromartie, a 26-year-old cornerback acquired from the Chargers this offseason, drew national attention for his remarkable virility when it was revealed that his eight children are with at least six different women and spread over five states.
He also has been hit with five paternity suits in the past two years, and the Jets reportedly fronted him $500,000 of this season’s salary to deal with those legal issues.
Cromartie grew testy at the perception — now fuel-injected by “Hard Knocks” — that he can’t keep track of all his kids.
“So it’s not a point of me not knowing my kids’ [names],” he told The Post. “I know every single one of my kids. I know the age of every single one of my kids.”
Cromartie also said he isn’t bothered by the online mocking that resulted from what he describes as a re-shot scene.
“I can’t worry about what somebody else thinks,” Cromartie told The Post. “That’s not my responsibility. People got their own opinions. My thing is to be a father to my kids and be there for my kids as much as I can. I can’t worry about what somebody else [has] to say.”
Cromartie added that he enjoyed his segment of Wednesday’s episode, which showed him spending time with his new wife, Terricka, and two of his children away from the field.
“I’m straight,” Cromartie told The Post about the personal scenes. “I mean, I had fun with it. I went out with my family and just enjoyed every single bit of it.”
bhubbuch@nypost.com