New York Jets Cornerback Darrelle Revis Trains Hard, Shuts Down Top NFL Receivers

New York Jets Cornerback Darrelle Revis spent his off-season working out in the Arizona heat with Fischer Sports trainer Will Sullivan. The results through the first two weeks of the NFL season have been thoroughly impressive.

Before Darrelle Revis shut down two of the N.F.L.’s top receivers to open this season, before he entered the discussion for the league’s top cornerback, he went to Arizona and trained like a boxer preparing for a championship bout. There, he found sweltering heat, marathon workouts and the personal torture chamber that is Will Sullivan.

Sullivan is Revis’s off-season coach. They meet at Fischer Sports in Phoenix, where Revis works on strength and conditioning for four hours each morning and trains on a field for three hours every afternoon, alongside pros like Philadelphia’s Donovan McNabb.

This was two-a-days before two-a-days, Sullivan joked.

Revis arrives in Arizona in late June, when many of his N.F.L. counterparts relax or take vacations. Everything with Revis and Sullivan is a competition, be it basketball, video games or training, filled with jawing back and forth.

But this year, as Revis sought to become the best cornerback in football, the training took on added intensity.

Revis came with a goal sheet that included, for the first time, earning top honors at his position. He brought a list of opposing receivers he would be shadowing across the field under the new defense installed by Coach Rex Ryan, with film on each.

Sullivan and Revis broke down that film together, then went about preparing for each receiver on the field. They fine-tuned Revis’s footwork, focused on his weaknesses, discussed receivers like Atlanta’s Roddy White whom Sullivan had trained.

“I’ve been training Revis since he was a junior at Pitt,” Sullivan said. “He’s always been focused. But this year, he took it to a different level.”

The Jets have bestowed the nickname Shutdown upon Revis, and on the NFL Network last weekend, Deion Sanders ranked Revis among the top three cornerbacks in football.

This came after Revis shadowed Moss and Houston’s Andre Johnson. With help on both players from his teammates, Revis held Johnson to four catches for 35 yards and Moss to four catches for 24 yards, and Revis intercepted a pass against the Patriots.

Read the full story at The New York Times. Photo from NewYorkJets.com.