Putting Jets DT Sheldon Richardson’s supposed guarantee in proper context
The New York Jets have made a concerted effort under coach Todd Bowles to avoid the sort of bravado that became the norm in locker rooms led by ex-coach Rex Ryan, so it must have come as a surprise to the organization when the following quote was attributed to Sheldon Richardson in Metro New York.
“This is going to be another win for us. We’ll let you all write the columns about validating wins and stuff like that. This is going to be another win in the win column if we got out there and execute and do what we’re supposed to do,” Richardson told Metro.
“We’re going to be up in the division, that’s how we’re going to look at it. We’re going to be the front-runners, that’s how we look at it.”
Publications both local and national jumped on the quote, pinning the 24-year-old defensive tackle’s words to the proverbial bulletin board — even going so far as to compare them to Joe Namath’s Super Bowl III guarantee — despite Metro writer Kristian Dyer’s caveats that Richardson said “it will simply be another win” when asked “if this game has the potential to validate the Jets’ rebuilding process.”
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Richardson took umbrage with how his comments were portrayed in the media and responded on Twitter.
It appears the original headline to the Metro story was changed from “Sheldon Richardson guarantees a win at Patriots” to “Sheldon Richardson confident in a Jets win at Patriots,” and one can see how the “guarantee” is more likely to draw a reader to the story, especially when it comes to Jets-Patriots.
The Jets went so far as to clarify that Richardson was not making a guarantee, but rather speaking in hypotheticals when asked about what a win would mean for the franchise, and NJ Advance Media’s Darryl Slater does a nice job putting the defensive lineman’s comments in proper context.
But one can also see why Richardson’s comments were so easily taken out of context. Given his history of taking the Patriots to task over deflate-gate before the Super Bowl (“If they ain’t winning with controversy, they ain’t winning“), suggesting this past April the Jets could be the “top team in the league” and stating, “We’re licking our chops,” when asked about New England earlier this week, it’s not hard to connect bravado with Richardson. His Twitter handle is, after all, @Godforshort, and he was cited this past summer for allegedly driving 143 miles per hour with a 12-year-old in the car and resisting arrest just two weeks after earning a four-game suspension from the NFL for a failed marijuana test.
There’s nothing wrong with Richardson believing his Jets could be the league’s best — and he’s probably right about them owning the NFL’s top defense — because you want your team thinking that before the season. Nor is there anything wrong with licking one’s chops over the prospects of playing an unbeaten Patriots team, particularly when you’re on a one-loss unit that could pull even in the division with a win.
So, yeah, the media could’ve done a better job painting Richardson’s comments in proper context, but Richardson could probably do better to help ensure they’re interpreted properly. He did, after all, say, “This is going to be another win in the win column if we got out there and execute and do what we’re supposed to do,” which does more than suggest the Jets are “supposed” to beat the Patriots on Sunday.
When it comes to the Jets-Patriots rivalry, Richardson should understand by now the media will be fishing for outlandish statements, so it’s best not to say anything that can even be interpreted as bulletin-board material. He shouldn’t need NFL commissioner Roger Goodell as an intermediary to accomplish that.
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Ben Rohrbach is a contributor for Ball Don’t Lie and Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @brohrbach
