The New York Jets are disappointed and angry quarterback Sam Darnold’s comment about him “seeing ghosts” made it on air during the “Monday Night Football” game.
Darnold was wearing a microphone for ESPN’s broadcast of New York’s 33-0 loss to New England. After the third of his five turnovers in the game, the Jets’ frustrated quarterback was sitting on the sideline in the second quarter when he made his comment that quickly went viral on social media after it aired.
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“That was one of those things that was really disappointing to hear about after the game,” coach Adam Gase said Tuesday. “I don’t know if I’ve ever seen that where somebody that was mic’d up, that a comment like that was allowed to be aired. It bothers me. It bothers the organization.”
Gase added that the Jets will be “looking hard into our cooperation” with the networks going forward.
Select players are mic’d up during prime-time games and NFL Films has a representative listening on site. The representative then will approve the comments to air — in this case, on ESPN’s “Monday Night Football.”
“You’re never anticipating something like that happening,” Gase said. “The fact that it did just gives us pause to really cooperate anymore because I don’t know how we would allow our franchise quarterback to be put out there like that.”
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The approval process is designed to help prevent players and coaches from having things they say that might cast them, the team or the league in a negative light from being aired.
ESPN declined comment and deferred to NFL Films. The NFL had no immediate comment.
By NFL rules, each team’s starting quarterback and head coach are required to be mic’d up by NFL Films once a season. New Orleans coach Sean Payton, San Francisco cornerback Richard Sherman and Pittsburgh wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster are among those who have worn microphones during “Monday Night Football” games this season.
Darnold fulfilled his requirement by being mic’d up against the Patriots.
In the Jets’ Week 2 loss to Cleveland, backup quarterback Trevor Siemian wore a microphone while starting for Darnold, who was sidelined with mononucleosis. Siemian left that game in the second quarter with a season-ending ankle injury.
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Jets running back Le’Veon Bell took to social media to defend Darnold — and criticize the NFL.
“The NFL screwed Sammy over,” Bell wrote on Twitter. “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.”
In football parlance, “seeing ghosts” is a phrase sometimes used when a player is having trouble reading the coverages on defense, being fooled into reading them incorrectly or feeling pressures in the pocket that aren’t there.
That was clearly the case for Darnold, who had his worst game of his young career. He was 11 of 32 for 86 yards with four interceptions and a horrific 3.6 quarterback rating.
“I have a lot of confidence in Sam bouncing back from this,” Gase said.
The Associated Press contributed to this article