Patriot fans can’t ever get enough of Rex Ryan
COMMENTARY
How does the act not wear thin?
Rex Ryan is bit parts buffoon, defensive mastermind, poor judge of quarterbacks, aspiring podiatrist, and inspirational blowhard, a blend of vexation that fans of the New England Patriots should have tired of by now.
Yet, the guy remains as entertaining a presence as there is in the National Football League.
Indeed, one can imagine that if a little closer to the day-to-day operations in Rex’s world, the view might be different, particularly with the suffocation of Ryan’s personality on a less-than-welcoming periodical stay. Then again, he still lasted six years in New York with the Jets, a relative eternity for an NFL head coach who hasn’t had a winning record in five years.
It was only following 2014’s 4-12 campaign that the Jets figured a new direction was in everybody’s best interests, effectively putting an end to two of the most entertaining showdowns on the Patriots’ annual schedule, until the Buffalo Bills stepped in, that is.
Ryan is 1-0 as a head coach for the fifth-straight season, following the Bills’ 27-14 win over a deflated Indianapolis Colts team, who clearly had their defense in recent postseason form last Sunday in Orchard Park, N.Y. It is a place the Patriots will visit this weekend in an AFC East clash of undefeated teams, also, of course, featuring the still-compelling sideshow of old friend Rex.
Face it, the guy may prompt more rolling of the eyes than a James Patterson plot twist, but there’s a part of every Patriots fan that has the ultimate respect for Ryan, not only because he’s managed to give the division’s dominant presence some level of competition (five of the last six matches between Ryan and Patriots head coach Bill Belichick have been decided by three or fewer points), but also because he’s the antithesis of most everything preached at One Patriot Place.
“I can’t wait to see what our fans are going to be like when you have the hated Patriots,’’ Ryan said on Monday in a typically-boisterous manner of endearing himself to the hometown fans at Ralph Wilson Stadium. “I mean, this kind of rival coming into our stadium. I don’t think our fans need any more prompting.’’
Despite the recent competitive streak, Ryan went just 4-8 against Belichick while with the Jets, including a shocking, 28-21 win over New England in the 2010 NFL playoffs. It was in that game, of course, when former Pats receiver Wes Welker rode the pine for the beginning of the game for mocking the New York coach with an otherwise ingenious speech about Ryan’s obsession with his wife’s feet.
That’s the sort of “my way or the highway’’ gospel that Belichick has preached over his 15 years with the Patriots, a franchise-wide attitude that has only resulted in four Super Bowl titles, and has spread overwhelming fear and paranoia throughout the rest of the NFL.
Except, it seems, wherever Ryan goes.
Whether it’s genuine or not, the Ryan persona is one that ultimately pays a level of respect by constantly needling his opponent. While Ryan’s Jets administration may have unknowingly sparked the saga of Deflategate by allegedly insisting on the inflation levels of Patriots quarterback Tom Brady’s footballs during an Oct. 16 game last season in Foxborough, Ryan hasn’t been one to normally hint at the shady ways of the Patriots unlike contemporaries in Baltimore and Pittsburgh, electing instead to play the “aw, shucks’’ card when the topic of being in Belichick’s presence is brought up, and he makes no apologies about being the hunter in the relationship.
“I don’t know if a whole lot has changed,’’ Ryan said. “The fact that they’re kind of the hunted in my eyes, because they’re the world champions. So they obviously won our division every single year that I’ve been here. So obviously they’re the ones that you want to knock off. That probably hasn’t changed a whole lot.’’
Forgetting Patriots running back Dion Lewis’ name, as Ryan seemed to do on Monday, is part of the schtick, the mirrored message Ryan delivers every time the Pats and his team tangle. He’s not here to kiss Belichick’s rings, nor is he here to render them tainted, for Ryan clearly has an admiration for the Patriots’ historic run over the last two decades.
And even he has to know it is one in which he would simply never fit.
Ryan’s enthusiasm may be palpable, but there’s question, again, if it can be sustainable. He’s inherited one of the best defenses in the league up in Buffalo, and Bills fans are already envisioning a repeat of what their coach accomplished during his first two seasons with the Jets — a trip to the AFC Championship game. The Bills haven’t been in the conference title game since the 1993 season. They haven’t been to the playoffs since The Music City Miracle in 2000.
Belichick’s Patriots, meanwhile, have won the division six straight seasons and 11 out of the last 12, as if you don’t recall, with Ryan’s grins and expletives replaced by snorts and grunts in Foxborough. The pair couldn’t be more different apart from the mutual respect, something that may have even grown in Belichick’s mind now that Ryan is free of being the HC of the NYJ.
Oh, Belichick has his quips too (suggesting a bake sale to raise money for the NFL’s implementation of cameras on the end zone remains a favorite), but Ryan has made his availabilities sure to keep focus on the coach, and take pressure off the players.
Postseason or not, Ryan will be an instant celebrity in upstate New York, a landscape starved for someone of his character. Then, much like it did in the Meadowlands, his star will grow dimmer the longer his teams don’t produce. Or, maybe this Bills team has the talent and discipline — a combination too often overlooked — to unseat the Patriots in the AFC East.
Doubt that, but it will be fun watching Ryan try. It always is.
Old Patriots in new NFL uniforms
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