Not everyone is a fan of Rex Ryan’s brash behavior. In fact, most non-Jet fans are tired of his act and probably wish he’d shut up already.
As Gary Myers of the New York Daily News writes, this includes Pat Hanlon, the Giants vice president of communications.
Rex Ryan was relentless on two points on the book tour that just wouldn’t end: The Jets are going to win the Super Bowl; and that he basically considers the Giants and their three Super Bowl championships – the last one just three years ago – a whole bunch of yesterday’s news. Pat Hanlon, the Giants vice president of communications, took several shots at Ryan on Twitter, including, “Tom Coughlin wrote a book, too. It was about a team and an HC that won a Super Bowl.”
I don’t mind Rex Ryan in the least. I understand why people are tired of hearing about him and I don’t bemoan anyone for taking on the opinion that he should shut his mouth until he’s won something. But while I don’t know him personally, I get why he says the things that he does. It’s not so much that he’s intentionally trying to piss everyone off; I think he’s an intelligent person and all of his moves are calculated.
That’s not to suggest that he doesn’t believe in what he says. On the contrary: I think he very much believes that the Jets are going to win the Super Bowl every year under his command. And you know what? You need to have that fire and attitude in sports. Nice guys don’t always finish last (look at the Spurs’ dynasty in the NBA over the past decade). But at some point teams need to have that killer instinct and swagger if they’re ever going to raise their game to another level. Ryan’s teams do that thanks in large part to how he treats his players and how he instills confidence in them with what he says.
Granted, Hanlon’s response to Ryan’s book was excellent. The Giants don’t have to take a backseat to anything that Ryan says: They won a Super Bowl in the past five years while the Jets have come up short the past two seasons. Gang Green has had some success under Ryan but Coughlin and Co. has the hardware (which does all of their talking for them).
At some point Ryan needs to win a Super Bowl so his words don’t become just a bunch of hot air (if they haven’t already). But in the meantime, his brash bravado is still intriguing.
