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Rex Ryan Buries Game Ball, Vows To Change His Ways
By
Ben Yakas
Published Dec 8, 2010
Modified Dec 8, 2010
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By
Ben Yakas
Published Dec 8, 2010
Modified Dec 8, 2010
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Rex Ryan and the Jets are living in the shadow of Monday night's turd of a loss against the New England Patriots. After a long season of hard knocks, great expectations, and huge talk, the Jets were knocked down a peg in the 45-3 route. Today, Ryan tried to motivate the team to move past the loss with a funeral of sorts: “This morning (Ryan) made us get out of a team meeting and he buried a football in the ground along the sideline on the field and said, ‘Just forget about it, forget about this game.’ It was actually a game ball from Monday night,’’ Darrelle Revis said.
Perhaps for the first time this season, Ryan seemed slightly humbled after the embarrassing play on Monday. For a man whose decisions have all been rooted in a deep well of machismo, it means something that he's now reconsidering some of his decisions, including his obdurate belief in his defense. Today at a press conference, he said that he would stop deferring on the coin toss, since the Jets haven't scored a touchdown in the first quarter in eight consecutive games: "I give. If we win the toss we will take the ball. That's a definite. There's some truth to that, about starting fast. Maybe I'm sending the wrong message by not taking the ball."
Well, while you're thinking about changing stuff up, Rex, we have some more suggestions: How about not trying a 53-yard field goal in windy weather in the first quarter? And how about you don't look for a booth review on the third-down quarterback sneak when you're going to go for it on the fourth down anyway?
Tagged
football
hubris
humbleness
jets
nfl
patriots
Rex Ryan
Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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