New York Jets quarterback Sam Darnold became a viral sensation for all the wrong reasons earlier this week when a live microphone picked up a conversation between he and his teammates on the sideline in which he admitted to “seeing ghosts” out on the field.
Darnold was, of course, referring to “The Boogeymen” — a New England Patriots defense that picked him off four times in 33-0 drubbing on Monday Night Football.
Twitter ferociously mocked Darnold in the aftermath of that comment, while Jets head coach Adam Gase and running back Le’Veon Bell have railed out against ESPN for airing the comment. Even New York Giants head coach Pat Shurmur came to Darnold’s defense, expressing a disdain for putting live mics on players and coaches.
In fact, Darnold seems to be the only one unfazed by the incident, telling reporters on Thursday that he has no plans to change how he communicates on the sideline and isn’t giving any additional thought to being mic’d up.
“No. I’m going to continue to be myself because if I start worrying about that kind of stuff I’m worried about the wrong things,” Darnold said, via Pro Football Talk.
Darnold concluded by saying he’s “done with it” and moving on. He also got a quality pep talk from Bell, who told the sophomore gun-slinger that things can “only go up from here.”
Say what you will about Darnold, but he’s handled this entire situation about as well as anyone could.
