Three posts in one day? We’re in uncharted territory now for sure, but then, we are beginning to transition to regular season mode. And, really, what news could be more worthy of a third post than a potential agreement between Darrelle Revis and the Jets?

First word broke that Rex and Revis met personally in Florida this weekend, already a good sign. Rex is better suited to appeal to Revis’s humanity than cold, number crunching Mike Tannenbaum, whose constant 1,000 yard expression on Hard Knocks has really begun to freak me out. Next “Incarcerated Bob” from the Boomer & Carton show on WFAN reported that a deal had been completed, or would be completed tonight, and that a press conference was planned for Thursday. Why should we believe Bob, whose constant asteriked tweets and accusations that “ESPN frauds” had stolen his scoop have demeaned his already low credibility? We shouldn’t, but it’s still movement. Just as I was ready to write this off as another wild Cowlishaw chase, the real kicker came. Carity Washington, the Gorgonesque, Jets hating bitch of the world, shattered all preconceptions when she tweeted “Jets fans will be VERY happy soon!”

It is important to note that Leon and Darrelle remain close friends, and that Charity knocked down the story of Revis and the Jets meeting back on the Tuesday of Cowlishaw week. Of course, she’s not an official news source, but I find it difficult to believe that all these things, including a tweet from Revis best friend and manager John Geiger that he was “getting on a plane,” could happen the weekend before the season begins (pretty much our last shot), and it not reflect something huge stirring.

Last night’s penultimate Hard Knocks continued the series’ trend of becoming increasingly less fun each week, this time fully corroborating my conviction that, and I am directly quoting myself here, “This preseason has sucked.” With backups eating nearly all 60 minutes of game time tonight in Philadelphia, the Jets hasn’t just run out of chances to convince fans that they’re for real, they’ve run out of chances to convince themselves as well.

What have been the largest criticisms of these Jets this offseason? On the field, they tell us that our quarterback is too green to compete, and that even if he one day evolves into a top rate passer, he is presently capable of washing our entire season down the drain. They tells us that we lack chemistry and maturity, and that by cutting out veteran leaders in favor of mercenaries and bargain bin replacements, we’ve stripped our locker room of its guiding voices. We’ve heard numerous times that we’re either cheap or broke, and that we’ll never be able to pay all our stars, or that next spring is going to turn into a fire sale.

The fourth episode of Hard Knocks didn’t validate any of these beliefs entirely. But it did prove that the team is conscious of these criticisms, and on some level, fears them as well.

Boy, has Around the Horn ever been a vein of wonderful news this week. First Jay Mariotti, scourge of good-hearted, Ebert-loving people everywhere, is arrested on the very charges he spent years decrying (domestic violence; my sympathies, of course, to his girlfriend, for whom life with Jay was apparently not punishment enough), and now Cowlishaw, the weirdly folksy, be-goateed occupant of Kevin Blackistone’s cater-corner, has swooped in to rescue us all from certain doom. Now, I know Cowlishaw hasn’t actually done anything to resolve the Revis dispute. At best, he’s merely an opportunist with some fast tweeting thumbs, and at worst he’s led us all on a credibility-destroying goose chase. But give the man some credit! Cowlishaw took an otherwise newsless Sunday afternoon and infused it with the first good news we’ve heard about Darrelle Revis all summer.

For those inattentive few who have no idea what I’m talking about, here’s the story. Around 4pm yesterday afternoon, Cowlishaw shook the Jets world to attention by tweeting that a “new deal” between the team and Revis would be settled, “probably on Wednesday.” Most people’s initial thoughts were like mine. How does Tim Cowlishaw, a Dallas sportswriter presumably lacking in any serious access into the Jets organization, get hold of this kind of sensitive information? After all, within minutes Jets reporters Jenny Vrentas and Manish Mehta were flatly disputing his claims…yet Cowlishaw stood by them, and some of his peers in national sports media even chimed in to back him up. But, say it were a false lead? What then would he have to gain in its fabrication, or in reporting something so blatantly misinformed as gospel? The only conclusion that some Twitter users could come up with was that Cowlishaw’s account had been hijacked by a prankster.

The Great Furry Chin was all over that theory as well, proving his credentials by referring to Bob Glauber of Newsday as “Cubby,” a (now not so) secret nickname shared between the two. Glauber was convinced Cowlishaw was for real, and, all instincts to the contrary, so was I. It was inconceivable to me that a professional sports journalist with a nationally recognized name would jump so comfortably into such hot water with a 100% dependable source. Why then didn’t the Jets writers have this information? Hard to say, but most speculation seems to agree on two major points: 1) The moratorium on media chatter between the two negotiating parties has kept it out of their hands and 2) Cowlishaw’s source is likely from outside the major camps, with most pinpointing HBO as the likely culprit. Wait, HBO. Wednesday. An announcement on Wednesday!? HBO. Wednesday. OH GOD IT’S HAPPEN—

I don’t know where Schwartz-Feinsod ranks amongst the largest NFL-exclusive sports representation groups. They don’t have the profile of Drew Rosenhaus’s firm, nor the extensive clientele of Eugene Parker, but they are one of the sport’s most successful, and most aggressive, outfits. Their website claims even claims that to date they have negotiated over $900,000,000 for their represented talents, among whom they list such current and former stars as Roddy White, Terrell Davis and Ike Hillard. Of course, there are four other players for whom they have gone to bat, whose names may be of more interest to Jets fans: Marques Douglas, Chris Baker, Vincent Jackson and…Pete Kendall. Yes, that’s right. I can feel your palms beginning to sweat from here. Kendall, as you may recall, was at the center of the Jets’ last major non-Revis training camp dispute, one so full of spit and bile that Mike Tannenbaum would practically have to take a dump on Darrelle Revis’s rose garden to top it.

The long and short of it, for those who can’t think back to 2007 all that clearly: the Jets and Schwartz-Feinsod agreed to restructure the veteran guard’s contract in 2006, with an assumption, on Kendall’s side at least, that he would receive it back in spades the following year. When the Jets refused to up his salary the next year, Kendall and his agent unleashed fiery hell on Tannenbaum and Mangini, then the bi-headed beast known as Tangini. The result was an acrimonious two-way media takedown operation that left Mangini so enraged that he demoted Kendall to second string and the rookie dorm rooms at Hofstra…where a young first round pick named Darrelle Revis would have been staying, had he not been busy holding out for 20 days.

Well, it’s finally here. Ever since last Christmas, when the Jets’ postseason fortunes suddenly did an about-face, there’s been a feeling that nearly everything this team has done has been building up to a Super Bowl appearance. In many ways, however, it’s also been building to this. To my knowledge, no other team in American sports history has played themselves up quite the way the Jets have. No other team has flaunted itself so pervasively, eschewing the NFL company line of “One game at a time” so thoroughly in favor of “Screw you, we’re awesome and you suck.” Not at least without having won the big one first. It’s a maneuver that has thrilled the fan base and brought previously unheard of amounts of attention to New York’s ‘second team,’ but it has not exactly endeared the franchise to the rest of the nation. In each of the other 30 NFL cities, Rex Ryan’s antics are received as though they are the tantrums of a particularly disruptive toddler; all sound and fury signifying nothing. To them, the Jets clearly suffer from delusions of greatness. We are a dolt with a Napoleon Complex, who, having walked into a biker bar, smashes a bottle of Jack Daniels unprovoked, so confident that we can take down the big men inside.

The Jets have a lot of proving to do, and it’s stuff we’re going to have to accomplish on ESPN, not HBO. But the vitality of the Hard Knocks experience can not be understated. We have a long essay to write this season, and this shit be our thesis statement. Let the hard knocks roll.