Jets' Revis finally got green light to play

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. - If Darrelle Revis had his way, he'd click the back of his Nike cleats three times and just like that, the Pro Bowl cornerback would be back to his usual playmaking self.

"I wish I could just snap my fingers and make it happen," Revis said Monday. "This is a long process right now for me to get there, and I'm working my butt off to get there when I'm in the training room or doing rehab. In due time, I will be 100 percent and ready to go."

Revis' status for Sunday's 24-20 victory over the Broncos in Denver was up in the air until about 90 minutes before kickoff. That's when he huddled with Rex Ryan and general manager Mike Tannenbaum, and the Jets gave him the green light to play.

One of the initial plans discussed was to just use him on third downs, their way of easing him back into things so he didn't re-tweak his hamstring. Revis wanted no part of that deal, though. Even though he felt 90 percent, he was either all in or all out. He ended up playing about 70 snaps, coming out only in certain sub packages.

"It was juggling up, the yes and no answers of me playing," Revis said. "My thing was if I was playing, I was playing the whole game. If I wasn't, I wasn't. I was just going to cheer my teammates on, so it was just talking about it. 'Am I ready to go? Am I not? How do I feel?' Just those type of questions."

In other words, it was more of the same inquiries he had been fielding from the staff throughout the week after experiencing soreness and swelling in the Jets' win over the Vikings on Oct. 11. Revis was limited in practice during the week and Ryan said the decision whether the All-Pro would play rested squarely on the coach's shoulders.

"It was a big question mark this whole week of me playing and didn't really know until Friday with Coach," Revis said. "Then during the weekend, it was kind of a yes, no, yes, no. No. Then that pregame, me and Rex talked about it a bit more. Then it went to third downs. Then I just came up to him and said, 'I think I'm ready to go.' "

Swelling in Revis' hamstring subsided Monday morning, leading Ryan to say: "I thought it was an encouraging thing, the way he came out of that game. It was big."

The same can be said for these next few days. Revis is scheduled to be around the complex this week to get acupuncture and continue rehabbing.

"We're 5-1 and we're in the bye week," he said. "So I get to get away from football a little bit and just focus on my hamstring right now to get it where it needs to be."