Gardner Minshew on ESPN airing Sam Darnold sideline comments: ‘That’s not cool.’

Count Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Gardner Minshew as one of many critical of ESPN’s decision to air Sam Darnold’s sideline comments about “seeing ghosts”.

In the second quarter of a blowout loss for the New York Jets, immediately after his third turnover at the hands of the New England Patriots, he went to the sideline and said, “I’m seeing ghosts.” The clip instantly went viral.

Adam Gase and Le’Veon Bell have publicly aired out their frustrations at ESPN airing the comments and now so has Minshew, who spoke to the media after practice on Wednesday.

“They probably shouldn’t have played that clip. That’s not cool. You put trust in these guys putting microphones in your face for the game, so I feel for him there for sure. It was a tough night for him ... You want to be able to come to the sideline, and be confident and tell your coaches how you feel and have that open line of communication without getting everything and anything thrown up there on TV. So hopefully in the future we’ll do a better job of keeping that — what needs to be behind closed doors, behind closed doors.”

As cliche as it sounds, I can see both sides of this. At first, it was pretty cool to have such a candid look at a struggling quarterback. I don’t think I’d ever heard an NFL quarterback say “I’m seeing ghosts” and be so obviously lost against a defense. But Minshew explains it in a way that makes sense and causes me to feel a little sympathy for Darnold. You want to be able to be totally open and transparent with your coaches after a bad drive or a turnover, especially as a quarterback — and that includes language like “I’m seeing ghosts.”

I’m also sure many other NFL quarterbacks, past and present, have said the same thing or something like it on the sidelines during a game or in the film room with position coaches.

All that said, I can only hope that Jacksonville’s defense gets Darnold just as frustrated as he was on Monday night.