Stop Your Cryin’ Ryan!

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Scott Cordischi, GoLocalProv Sports Editor

With a picture of a dejected Rex Ryan on the cover, the headline in Monday’s New York Post read, “No Supe For You!” That’s a pretty good headline and a humorous one for all of you Seinfeld fans out there. What the headline should have said was, “Stop Your Whining Rex!”

Minutes after Ryan’s Jets lost the AFC Championship game in Pittsburgh Sunday, the Jets head coach bemoaned the fact that his team came up short of its goal of reaching the Super Bowl for a second straight season. But he also had something to say to those, like many here in New England, who took pleasure in their defeat. “If you really want to criticize us, go ahead. But you really got no right to,” he said.

You see, Ryan is well aware that his team’s cocky and outspoken approach is pretty much a turnoff to everyone not named Fireman Ed. So he knows deep down that the way that he and his team shoot their mouths off each week wins them no support outside of Jet Nation. He knows that he and his players irritate opposing fans and takes great pleasure in it. Yet, he also doesn’t think that they have the “right” to criticize his team. Sorry, Rex! That’s not the way it works.

You and you cocky band of crows were riding high for the past two weeks after predicting and delivering wins in Indianapolis and New England. You talked the talk, walked the walk and enjoyed the spoils that go along with that. Now you need to experience the flip side of that – the loser’s side. And you had better learn how to deal with it.

You say that we shouldn’t criticize you? Why not? After all it was you who told us that your Jets were going to win the AFC Championship. Last time I checked, the Pittsburgh Steelers are scheduled to play Green Bay in Dallas in a couple of weeks. When you say you’re going to do something and don’t deliver on that promise, that’s worthy of criticism.

You told us that you would be shaking the President’s hand before you even coached one game in New York and that was two years ago. Maybe your best chance at shaking Barack Obama’s hand is by sitting in the pew behind him at mass on Sunday.

You told your players last week that, after they won in Pittsburgh Sunday, that they would come back to New York to get fitted for their AFC Championship rings. Will you and your players now be getting fitted for your AFC Championship runner-up rings? Just curious.

Most people would look at what you have done in taking the Jets to back to back conference championship games in your first two seasons and call it a great job of coaching. I agree. But those accolades may come your way far less frequently because of your brash approach. In fact, your decision to be the only coach to boldly predict that your team will win it all each year will cause many to look at you with a more critical eye.

Going back to your days as defensive coordinator in Baltimore, that’s now three straight losses in the AFC Championship game for your teams. Ever think to take a look in the mirror and ask the question, “am I the problem?”

Maybe if you and your team didn’t spend so much time and energy treating last week’s divisional game in New England like your Super Bowl, you would have had more energy to play a better first half in Pittsburgh Sunday instead of playing like an overmatched Pop Warner team.

I could go on and on but it all comes down to this. When you talk the talk, you put yourself in a position where you have no choice but to walk the walk. And when you don’t back up your tough words, you are going to get criticized. So deal with it! You’re a big boy.

If you don’t want the criticism, then maybe you ought to try a more humble approach next time. Then the casual fan might be more inclined to give you a break. But that’s not who you are, which is okay. Just accept that who you are and how you and your team acts isn’t for everybody.

Oh yeah, one last thing. I think that I speak for all of New England when I say, "ha, ha, ha, ha, freaking ha! Better luck next year!"