It didn’t take long for The Shrine to come to The Island.
The Island needs no introduction to Jets fans. He’s Darrelle Revis, the Green & White’s uber-cornerback from 2007-12 and then for an encore in 2015-16.
And The Shrine is short for the Canton Shrine, a.k.a. the Pro Football Hall of Fame, which wasted no time in welcoming Revis as a new member — in his first year of eligibility — on Thursday night in Phoenix during the 12th annual NFL Honors telecast.
“I’m a big fan of everybody here,” Revis said during a group interview for the Class of ’23 shortly after the show conlcuded. “I think we’re all GOATs. Everybody has a special skillset here. I think everyone worked very hard and was very passionate to get to this point to be Hall of Famers. And now it’s time to say thanks to everybody who helped you along the way.”
Jets CEO Robert Wood Johnson was among the many fans who had words of congratulation and high praise for Revis upon his striding into the Hall.
“Tonight, Darrelle earned the games highest honor — first-ballot election to the Pro Football Hall of Fame,” Johnson said in a statement. “Early in his career, we witnessed the strength of character, dedication to the game and special football acumen that made him into an elite competitor. We look forward to seeing his bust enshrined forever with the other titans of the game in Canton, Ohio.”
Thus Revis, as well as Jets defensive lineman Joe Klecko as a seniors finalist, become the 19th and 20th NFL members with Jets connections and the seventh and eighth “primary” Jets to be selected for Hall of Fame membership after the Hall’s 49-person Selection Committee voted in the days before Super Bowl LVII is played at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, AZ.
Also, Revis becomes the first primary Jets player to be named a first-ballot Hall of Famer, in his first year of eligibility after his retirement five seasons earlier. Neither Joe Namath (in his third year of eligibility), Weeb Ewbank (third), Don Maynard (eighth), Curtis Martin (second) or any other player who played the majority of his career with the J-E-T-S made it to the big stage in his first year of eligibility.
Further, Revis is the only primary Jets cornerback to be inducted into pro football’s temple located in eastern Ohio, an hour south of Cleveland. Only one other CB with Jets ties, Ty Law, had previously been enshrined, in 2019. In fact, Law, who hails from Aliquippa, PA, just like Revis, introduced him as a newly minted Hall of Famer to the packed house at Phoenix’s Symphony Hall.
Ahead of the nationally televised announcement of his selection on the NFL Honors program, Revis told Jets reporters in November that the secret for winning awards — such as his four All-Pro first-team berths, three with the Jets, seven Pro Bowls, five with the Jets, and his Jets Ring of Honor induction during this past season’s game against the Bears — is about not thinking about winning awards.
“When you’re in it, you’re hyper-focused about winning games and contending and trying to be at the top of your conference or in the playoffs. The ultimate goal is winning championships,” said Revis, who that day sported a black baseball cap with the slogan “Chase Your Dreams.” “You’re just hyper-focused, and whatever accolades the team or any individual receives, it’s OK at that time, but at the same time, our ultimate goal has been to always win championships.”
Revis won a Super Bowl with New England in 2014 but never won one with the Jets, although he was a major force in helping them get to the 2009 and ’10 AFC Championship Games. Along the way he had a number of Fame-ous accomplishments that are familiar to longtime fans of the Green & White:
The 2009-11 seasons were the peak of No. 24’s rule on Revis Island. In ’09 alone he added to his 31 PDs a total of six interceptions, one for a TD, while putting the cover-corner kibosh on some of the best wideouts of that season — Randy Moss (4 catches, 24 yards at home, 5-34 at the Patriots), Terrell Owens (3-13 at MetLife, 3-31 at the Bills), Andre Johnson (4-35 at the Texans), Reggie Wayne (3-33 at the Colts) and Chad Ochocinco (no catches for the Bengals in Game 16, 2-28 in the AFC Wild Card Game).
“I had to cover some of the greatest Hall of Fame receivers, and for me it was just being the best prepared that I could be,” Revis said. “If a practice squad wide receiver had to be Randy Moss or Chad Ochocinco that week, then I know where you’re supposed to line up, what routes you’re running in this formation. I was just making sure I wasn’t letting my team down in any way.”
Now Revis is a Hall of Famer along with those wideouts he covered like a wave crashing on the shores of his own private island. And as fellow Hall of Famer Charles Woodson, enshrined in 2009, told newyorkjets.com’s Eric Allen this week in Phoenix about what made Revis so dominant:
“I think it was his patience, man. Playing man-to-man, you’ve got to have a certain level of patience. I think if you ask the guys that played against him, at the line of scrimmage he was that patient player. There weren’t too many times you were going to get away from him. And he had that dog in him, he had that mentality. You put those two things together, you’re going to have a pretty good player.”
