Sam Darnold probably won't be mic'd up in any more games.
The Jets are extremely upset that Darnold's "seeing ghosts" comments aired during ESPN's telecast of Monday night's 33-0 loss to the Patriots. It became a national story, and everyone has been having fun at Darnold's expense.
Adam Gase came to Darnold's defense and said the organization will re-consider their involvement and cooperation with networks from here on out.
"We'll be looking into it pretty hard," Gase said on a conference call on Tuesday. "That was one of those things that was really disappointing to hear about after the game. I don't know if I've ever seen that where somebody that was mic'd up, that a comment like that was allowed to be aired. It bothers me. it bothers the organization. We're going to be looking hard into our cooperation going forward."
It's nothing new for players to be mic'd up. The head coach and quarterback have to be mic'd up by NFL Films once a year. The Jets authorized it, but they didn't expect this to happen.
The way the process works is NFL Films has a representative on-site who listens to what the mic'd player says. That rep then approves what's put on the air. Darnold's comment was approved by the rep and ESPN aired it.
The Jets spoke to the NFL, NFL Films and ESPN on Tuesday about this situation and expect to have more conversations, a league source said.
Darnold clearly was rattled against the Patriots. He coughed the ball up five times � four interceptions and one fumble. He had three of those turnovers on the Jets' first four possessions. Following one of them, he made the "ghosts" comment that took on a life of its own and made the 22-year-old Darnold look bad.
"You're never anticipating something like that happening," Gase said. "The fact that it did just gives us pause to really cooperate anymore because I don't know how we would allow our franchise quarterback to be put out there like that."
Jets running back Le'Veon Bell was seen talking to Darnold in the locker room after the game. He tried to lift his young quarterback's spirits following his terrible performance.
On Tuesday, Bell showed Darnold support on Twitter, saying the NFL "did Sam dirty" by airing a private conversation.
"The NFL screwed Sammy over," Bell tweeted. "There's not one player in the NFL who's cool with having every sideline convo broadcasted to millions ... there's a reason we've never heard other QB's frustrated on the sideline like that before ... that's crazy, @NFL did Sam dirty as hell."
