Antonio Cromartie has no regrets over receiver comments

CORTLAND, N.Y. -- Antonio Cromartie blamed the media Friday for making too much of his apparent diss of Jets receivers earlier in the week.

But it was evident at the end of practice that the offense has not forgotten or forgiven quite yet.

After Mark Sanchez capped the workout by completing a touchdown pass to Patrick Turner against Cromartie, the cornerback was the target of razzing that specifically addressed his comments. (Jets policy prohibits reporters from directly quoting things said on the practice field.)

Cromartie later said he didn't hear what was said, but he responded with his customary bravado, saying, "At the end of the day, Mark made a good throw. Patrick may have gotten a push-off at the end.

"If you look at it, that's the only play we gave up all day. Those boys can't catch a ball on our defense."

By waiting until Friday to speak to reporters, Cromartie helped extend the shelf life of a story that began Tuesday when he said on ESPN that he would rank himself second on the team's receiver depth chart. (The Jets plan to deploy Cromartie as a wideout in limited situations; he got one practice rep there Friday.)

That led receiver Chaz Schilens to fire back Wednesday, which in turn led coach Rex Ryan to tell everyone to cool it.

"Of course you guys want to blow it up, but we're going to let that go," Cromartie said. "But at the end of the day, I'm a corner first, and whenever that time comes to go out and play receiver, I'm going to go out and do it."

Did he regret his initial comments? "Why would I regret something that's already been said?" he said. "No, I didn't regret saying it."

Cromartie said if the receivers believed they were being disrespected, they should have come to him for an explanation rather than vent publicly.

"I didn't try to disrespect them in any kind of way," he said. "I was just talking about my abilities.''

Cromartie said the reason he gave himself high marks as a receiver was "because of my physical traits and my work ethic and my athletic ability."

And he didn't back down from his assessment, saying "I can still say I am [the second-best receiver], but that's my opinion."

How does Turner feel about all this?

"Cro was just having fun with that," he said. "People were wanting to take certain things out and make it more serious than it is. The guy is a competitor. I'm sure we've got guys on offense who feel like they could do the same thing on defense and just didn't say anything about it."