When Darrelle Revis was traded to the Buccaneers, it looked as if the All-Pro cornerback had escaped the circus just in time.
After missing the playoffs the past two seasons, the Jets were expected to be one of the worst teams in the league. Former general manager Mike Tannenbaum already had paid the price for putting together a team perceived to be poorly prepared for the future, while the Jets looked as if they would open the season with a lame duck coach (Rex Ryan) and quarterback (Mark Sanchez) — or a rookie quarterback — leading the team.
Landing in Tampa, Revis had reason for optimism, joining a young team that posted a three-win improvement in 2012 under first-year coach Greg Schiano.
But for Revis, the circus wasn’t over. It loaded its trucks just as Revis was packing his bags.
While the Jets have stunned everyone outside of Florham Park by winning three of their first five games this season after trading their best player, the Buccaneers — one of four winless teams left — have been an embarrassment on and off the field.
After tearing his ACL in Week 3 of last season, Revis returned for his first game with the Buccaneers in the first game of the season — against the Jets at MetLife Stadium.
Revis, who accused new general manager John Idzik of lying to him about whether he would get traded, was booed in his return to his team of six seasons and had a relatively quiet day. He was credited with two passes defended and a tackle, but was avoided most of the game in Geno Smith’s professional debut. Smith completed one pass for 13 yards against Revis.
But a nearly assured win was ripped away after Bucs linebacker Lavonte David was called for a 15-yard personal foul in the final seconds, setting up Nick Folk’s game-winning field goal and the Jets’ 18-17 win.
The tent was being raised, the trapeze net nearly in place.
Following another loss in Week 2, Revis was reported to be unhappy with Schiano’s strict style — honed in the collegiate ranks at Rutgers — and his defensive schemes, which rarely allow the cornerback the man-to-man coverage he excelled at with the Jets.
NFL Network reported Revis and Schiano met for 15 minutes that week “to clear the air” and Revis had “no issues” with the coach.
Revis tweeted, “Just to clear the smoke. I’m happy to be a Buccaneer & I’m happy to be a resident of Tampa.”
Revis thought the media had blown the story out of proportion.
“I thought those New York days was over,” Revis said.
Far from over. The clowns were just getting ready to jump out of their tiny car.
Revis must have really felt like he was back in New York, dealing with the drama of Mark Sanchez and Tim Tebow, as the Buccaneers exiled quarterback Josh Freeman.
The Buccaneers were supposed to have their franchise quarterback in place, not to have to turn to a rookie (Mike Glennon) — as the Jets had. Freeman, taken 12 spots after Sanchez in the 2009 draft, often had been cited as the player the Jets should have taken instead, especially after Freeman made the Pro Bowl in his second season.
The sideshow started when Freeman overslept and missed a team photo. He reportedly missed at least one other team meeting.
Schiano was accused of rigging the team vote so Freeman would not be named a captain, which he wasn’t for the first time since his rookie year.
“There’s a lot of disarray in Tampa,” former Bucs quarterback Shaun King said in September. “Some of the players felt there was an unfair counting of the captains vote. Greg Schiano is a micro-manager, and it’s starting to wear thin with some of the players. I don’t think those guys are currently buying into the my-way-or-the-highway.”
A more bizarre twist in the saga occurred when it was reported Freeman was a participant in the league’s substance-abuse program. The 25-year-old released a statement verifying the report while saying it was for his ADHD and because he had been flagged for taking Ritalin instead of Adderall.
The NFL Players Association is investigating the quarterback’s claim that someone in the Bucs organization leaked confidential information about him being in the program to the media.
When the team was unable to trade Freeman, he was released.
However, Schiano’s problems began before his split with the quarterback. During training camp in August, Buccaneers safety Dashon Goldson took complaints from a players-only meeting to the coach, who told the players he would listen to the feedback, but that they needed to trust his disciplinarian style would lead to wins.
Even after that, some players felt there was no change, with full-pad practices resuming almost immediately.
Buccaneers great Warren Sapp noted a style like Schiano’s only works if the team is winning.
“When you’re my way or the highway, you must win now,” Sapp said. “Because guys don’t believe in your way when you’re losing. And you lose the way they lost the first two weeks, you gave away those football games. And whenever you’ve given away football games, that means your style needs to change.”
Sapp also criticized Schiano for his handling of the Freeman situation.
“If I’m down in Tampa, I’m questioning this whole thing because it’s a mafia style,” Sapp said. “I know [Mike] Glennon is not the quarterback that Josh Freeman is. There’s no question about it. The film tells me this. Practice tells me this. Even my quarterback demeanor tells me this. If you wouldn’t let [Freeman] throw the ball at the end of the game, why is Glennon throwing the ball at the end of the game?”
After the Buccaneers’ most recent loss, a 13-10 setback against the Cardinals before their Week 5 bye, Sapp said he could not figure out why someone as talented as Revis wasn’t being use better.
“Why is Revis standing eight yards off [Larry] Fitzgerald running a slant route and nobody’s there? Touchdown. Are you kidding me?” Sapp said. “Let’s lock up our No. 1 corner who we’re paying $16 million and then we rotate the coverage. There has to be a plan.”
It could be worse. At least Revis has his health. Teammates Lawrence Tynes and Carl Nicks have been diagnosed with MRSA this season, a bacterial infection which is suspected to have come from the team’s practice facility. The Buccaneers have since cleaned their facility multiple times. On Thursday, Fox Sports reported Nicks had suffered a recurrence of the infection.
And Tynes, the former Giants kicker, has filed an injury grievance with the team, arguing the Buccaneers didn’t follow proper protocol and placed him on the non-football injury list, which pays his base salary, but doesn’t cover other benefits.
“This whole thing is wrong,” Tynes told Fox Sports. “My biggest emphasis is I don’t want this to happen to any current or future player. I’m going to fight this thing as long as I have to, because this team should not be allowed to do this to players.
“If I drop a 45-pound plate on my foot while lifting weights in the weight room at the facility, it’s IR. So I just don’t understand how my situation is any different. I went to work, I kicked, I practiced, I cold-tubbed, I hot-tubbed, I showered for all those days there. I come up with MRSA and it’s a non-football injury? They’re basically trying to exonerate themselves of this, and I’m not going to allow it to happen.”
Revis hasn’t complained openly about the chaos surrounding him, but for the man Idzik claimed wanted a contract of “historical proportions” to stay in New York, it’s fair to wonder how much Revis would pay to be 3-2, rather than 0-4.
Everyone wondered how the Jets defense would do without their best player. Well, it is ranked second in the league and being anchored in the middle by rookie defensive lineman Sheldon Richardson, who was selected with the No. 13 pick the Jets acquired in the Revis trade.
No one wondered what Revis would do without the Jets.
What he did was find a bad, humid impersonation and grab a front-row seat to another implosion.
The circus isn’t gone. It’s just gone south.