New York Jets head coach Rex Ryan: The gift that keeps on talking

June 11, 12:54 AMNew England Patriots ExaminerSean Crowe

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New York Jets coach Rex Ryan
(AP Photo/Bill Kostroun)

Rex Ryan might have gotten an NFL head coaching gig sooner were it not for the fear that he'd be a loose cannon. It turns out those fears were well founded.

The man started talking the day he was hired, and I’m not sure he’s stopped yet. There isn’t a reporter he won’t give a quote to, a camera he won’t stand in front of, an interview request he won’t grant, or a person he’s afraid to tick off.

Ryan apparently didn’t watch the Patriots play the Jets the last time Tom Brady was healthy. All of New York (well, New Jersey) spent the 2007 season complaining about the Patriots running up the score.

Tom Brady decimated the Jets. It was a brutal thrashing.

The Patriots beat the Jets by a combined score of 58 to 24, and the games weren’t nearly as close as that score indicates. But Rex Ryan "never came here to kiss Bill Belichick's rings" and thinks his team is the better one in 2009.

He’s probably the only one who thinks this, but that won’t stop him from saying it.

Belichick took the high road and refused to respond, choosing instead to praise the Jets and their new head coach. But don’t think he won’t remember that comment when trying to decide whether to run out the clock or run up the score come September 20th.

Dolphin linebacker Channing Crowder, last seen by New England fans being pounded in the back of the head by Matt Light, awarded the June OTA Super Bowl to Ryan and the Jets. Most head coaches would have ignored Crowder’s comments. But not my new favorite New Yorker (taking that title from a recently conspicuously silent Hank Steinbrenner).

"I don't know this Channing Crowder," Ryan said. "All I know is that he's all tatted up, so I guess I ought to be nervous about him. He's right about one thing: I am a first-time head coach, but I've been around the game all my life. I'm no different than I've ever been, just that more people are listening. The other thing is I think he's wrong because I do think you win in June. I think you win with your preparation and all that kind of stuff. If I was younger, I'd probably handle him myself."

Crowder, to his credit, accurately pointed out that a part of preparation is knowing the starting linebackers for a team you play twice a year. Pretty rough when your head coach is outwitted by a tatted-up middle linebacker.

"It's fun to ruffle feathers,” says Ryan. “I have no problem doing that. I'm confident in my football team. I'm confident in myself. I'm confident in this organization. I make no apologies for those statements I say."

That’s the guy the Jets have running their team.

"With all the cameras and all that, I was looking for our new president back there," Ryan said at his first press conference as Jets’ head coach. "You know, I think we'll get to meet him in the next couple years anyway."

Can you imagine Bill Belichick, Tony Dungy, or any other legit head coach saying something like that? The dude is out of control.

Highly entertaining. I can’t wait for him to be put in his place come regular season time.

The Jets are the third best team in the AFC East. If the Bills can put it together offensively, they’ll be the worst team in the AFC East. They’re starting a rookie quarterback, both of their running backs are angry at the organization for not upgrading their contracts, and they’ve already managed to give both the Dolphins and the Patriots bulletin board material.

Can you imagine the press conference after the Patriots lay a 42-14 whooping on them? Or after Crowder and the Dolphins’ defense knocks his rookie quarterback out of the game?

He’s insane, and insanity is extremely entertaining. So long as it isn’t the head coach of your football team.

For more on Rex Ryan and the New York Jets, check out the New York Jets Examiner.

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Questions? Comments? Insults? You can email them to Sean Crowe at scrowe@gmail.com.

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