Revis and Ochocinco: Who gets the last word?

FLORHAM PARK, N.J — A day after he was sent home early because he was ill, Darrelle Revis wasn’t coughing and wasn’t contagious enough to be separated from his teammates for another day.

Revis still may be suffering from the lingering effects of his cold, but it’s something he can remedy with a strong performance against the chatterbox he’ll line up against Sunday evening when the Jets host the Bengals.

“Yeah,” he said with a laugh, “I’ve got the Ochocinco flu.”

Revis and Chad Ochocinco have been embroiled in a friendly war of words throughout the week, throwing verbal barbs at each other in 140 characters or less on Twitter. The Bengals’ flamboyant wide receiver took things to another level Wednesday when he gave some unbelievably funny answers to several questions asked by Newsday on a conference call with the New York media.

Ochocinco did throw a few compliments Revis’ way, but he still made it clear he’s quite confident that the Jets’ Pro Bowl cornerback — “Master Lock Revis,” he calls him — can’t check him.

“Darrelle Revis couldn’t cover me in a brown paper bag on a corner of a Manhattan street in a phone booth,” Ochocinco said. “It’s impossible.”

Revis wasn’t around to respond Wednesday because of his illness, but he sent out a tweet at night making fun of Ochocinco and calling him “a clown.”

Of course, Ochocinco wasn’t about to let that one go. He posted a picture on his Twitter feed showing Revis wearing a suit with his hands in his pockets, standing on a big rock in the middle of a body of water. Ochocinco is in the foreground of the frame in full uniform with a cartoon-type bubble over his head with a message that reads: “Revis Island? It’s A Nice Place To Visit, But It’s Too Small And Nothing Covers You There.”

“That’s funny,” Revis said of the picture. “That’s Chad for you. Everybody knows he brings the media to his attention. It’s Chad. I know Chad personally, so I’m not taking it personal. The stuff I say to him, he’s not taking it personal. It’s just having fun this week, that’s all it is. It’s going to be good competition on the field, and I think this is maybe one of his strategies to make me second- guess myself or put him up higher than me by saying the things that he’s saying.”

Calvin Pace suggested a career path for Ochocinco when his ball-catching days are over.

“I think Chad, once he gets done with football, he needs to be a promoter of some sort because he can promote a game like no other,” Pace said. “If you read what he said, I think he has the utmost respect for Darrelle. He was just kind of challenging the game so he can say a little bit. But I didn’t take it personal.”