Jets Furious After ESPN Airs Embarrassing Clip of QB Darnold During 'Monday Night Football'
To put it bluntly, New York Jets quarterback Sam Darnold did not have a good night during his team’s 33-0 shellacking at the hands of the New England Patriots on “Monday Night Football.”
The 22-year-old completed just 11 of his 32 passing attempts for a grand total of 86 yards.
Darnold also threw four interceptions and lost a fumble for a total of five turnovers.
Making matters worse, the Jets signal-caller was mocked for a viral clip in which he was heard saying late in the first half of the blowout loss — thus essentially admitting the Patriots defense had gotten in his head — that he was “seeing ghosts.”
Sam Darnold is mic’d up and he came to the sidelines and said, “I’m seeing ghosts.”
(Via @ESPN) pic.twitter.com/9MoM6Rkmo5
— Dan Roche (@RochieWBZ) October 22, 2019
The fact that a microphone caught Darnold’s comment is not surprising in and of itself.
After all, it’s common for players to be mic’d up during broadcasts of “Monday Night Football” on ESPN.
The process goes something like this, according to NFL Network.
The team — in this case the Jets — gives the go-ahead for a play to wear a microphone.
An NFL Films representative will listen for interesting comments that are caught on the mic, then send anything good to the ESPN broadcast, where they’ll be aired.
Per the New York Daily News’ Manish Mehta, NFL Films executives weren’t pleased that their representative approved the Darnold clip.
Here’s how MNF Mic’d process works: NFL Films signed off on Sam Darnold’s “ghosts” comment to be aired. They had a rep on site. My understanding is that people high on NFL Films totem pole are not happy that their rep cleared this for air. (cont)
— Manish Mehta (@MMehtaNYDN) October 22, 2019
Jets coach Adam Gase wasn’t happy, either.
“It bothers me, it bothers the organization,” Gase told reporters Tuesday, according to ESPN.
“Obviously, you never anticipate something like that happening. The fact that it did, it gives us pause to really cooperate anymore because I don’t know how we can allow our franchise quarterback to be put out there like that.”
Gase said the organization is going to look into the situation and how the Jets will cooperate with the league on allowing players to be mic’d up.
“I think we’ll look into that pretty hard,” Gase said.
“That was one of those things that was really disappointing to hear about after the game. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen that where somebody that was mic’d up was basically … a comment like that was allowed to be aired. It bothers me. It bothers the organization.”
“We’re looking hard into our cooperation going forward,” he added, according to the New York Post.
Jets running back Le’Veon Bell wasn’t pleased either, tweeting Thursday that the league “screwed Sammy over.”
The NFL screwed Sammy over…there’s not one player in the NFL who’s cool with having every sideline convo broadcasted to millions…there’s a reason we’ve never heard other QB’s frustrated on the sideline like that before…that’s crazy, @NFL did Sam dirty as hell https://t.co/2XmYXNTNoL
— Le’Veon Bell (@LeVeonBell) October 22, 2019
Darnold, for his part, took it all in stride after the game Monday.
“When I talk to the coaches, I just got to be straight up and, for me, I just got to see the field a lot better; that’s kind of what that means,” Darnold said of his “ghosts” remark.
“It was a rough night out there and obviously I got to be better and learn from the mistakes but we will get better,” he added, NFL.com reported.
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