(Image Source: Fox Sports)

BY NATHAN BYRNE

ANCHOR LAUREN ZIMA

How about some football fireworks to ring in your New Year? Follow the fuse directly to Dolphins-Jets this week in the NFL, where one of the league’s best receivers will line up against one of its best corners, and much mouthpiece-muffled trash talk should ensue.

But off the field, before the game, Dolphins wide receiver, Brandon Marshall, and New York Jets cornerback, Darrelle Revis are promoting like boxers by talking about...basketball players? It all started when Marshall said cornerback Revis, gets special treatment from referees. That’s according to WTVJ in Miami.

“...I think they gave him the ‘Jordan rule’ … you get a little close to Michael Jordan they are going to call a foul, it works that way in football.”

And Fox Sports says the numbers might back Marshall up.

“Revis has not been flagged for pass interference since his rookie season in 2007, when it happened twice, and has had defensive holding calls against him accepted three times -- total -- in his nearly five-year pro career.”

Revis’ rebuttal? Besides joking that Marshall should modernize his criticism and call it the “Kobe Bryant Rule,” he said...

“Both sides do things all the time … One thing that Brandon Marshall does on routes is he pushes off. But I'm not going to use that...”

So who’s got the edge this Sunday? NFL Network analyst and former wide receiver, Sterling Sharpe, says he expects a Dolphins victory. And he expects Marshall to factor big in that success.

“Let me show you what’s going on down in South Beach. Brandon Marshall, as advertised. Beast of the AFC West comes down to the AFC East and guess what -- he’s doing the same thing. He’s just that kind of guy. Five 100-yard games, he’s got a hundred yards receiving. He did exactly what we thought he would do when he got there.”

As for Jets coach Rex Ryan -- he’s OK with the Revis being compared to his Airness, telling the Associated Press, quote, “I think he's the cornerback equivalent of Michael Jordan.”