Revis' work ethic is certainly beyond reproach. he cares about being great. what is less important is the team that he is great for.
You can't really compare Revis and Deion. Deion was electric, He shut down a side of the field and if you did throw his way it was often a pick and 9 times out of 58 or so picks they went for 6. He was also electric as a kick off and punt return man. I hate Deion because of the teams he played on. Deion is generally regarded as one of the top 3 CB's of all time, and most regard him as the best of all time. Revis has a ways to go yet in his career, but as good as he's been he'll probably only barely crack the top 10 of all time, mostly because of his comparative lack of interceptions and not being very electric with his returns of interceptions. And that's not a slam on Revis, being a top 10 CB of all time wouldn't be a slouch accomplishment even if he barely cracked the top 10, there have been some truly great corners who were real game changers.
I think another difference was their style of play--Deion was never a tackler, wasn't a physical guy, never wanted to mix it up. Revis was incredibly physical, knocking guys down at the line of scrimmage in press coverage and was always a good and more importantly WILLING tackler. _
Valid point of course, and that was always a knock on Deion was that he didn't like to tackle...so he just made guys pay when they threw his way. I was just thinking who I'd put on my top 10 list, as things stand today. In no particular order I'd definitely have to have Nighttrain Lane, Deion, Lester Hayes, Mike Haynes, Lem Barney. Those 5 for me are no brainers on the list, though not necessarily the top 5. I'd probably have to include Herb Adderly as well, though that might get controversial with some. I'm going to have to think a little more on the other 5 I'd put up there. Charles woodson would probably be one, Darrell Greene would probably be there. Mel Blount. Rod Woodson. A few others would of course include Revis if he recovers his play. Emit Thomas, I'd almost have to put Willie Brown on the list.
Was a big Lem Barney fan when I was a kid. Whenever I was on defense when we'd play in the schoolyard or my back yard, that's who I was. _
Of all positions, CB is one of the hardest to compare across eras. With all the rule changes and/or reinforcements, guys playing today are definitely at a disadvantage to guys from the 60s, 70s, 80s, and even the 90s. That said, I'm pretty sure Deion Sanders would be great in any era... he wasn't a physical guy, so the modern rules would not have impacted him all that much.
Fan bias aside, the "for Revis to be great" argument is over. He's already great. To say he isn't is to be a bitter Jets fan. You could argue, strongly, that he is the best CB since Deion...who is the best CB ever in my humble opinion. He's not here. We put our foot down. Both sides went in different directions. Sucks that he's in the division, especially when our QB tends to stare down receivers at times. Time to move on. We definitely need an upgrade at the position though. Wilson and Milliner are a big downgrade from the Cro and Revis days
