You know Rex doesn’t care!! You thought he’d get mad?! Nope.
New York Jets coach Rex Ryan laughed off a leaguewide player survey that named him the most overrated coach in the NFL, saying he was just happy to finish ahead of nemesis Bill Belichick.
“My first thought was, I looked at it and I saw who was second,” Ryan said Wednesday, alluding to the New England Patriots’ coach. “I was like, Hey, I finally beat Belichick in something.’ I knew it would take time, but I finally got him.”
The Sporting News conducted an anonymous midseason poll of 103 players from 27 teams. Ryan finished first by a landslide, collecting 35 votes. Belichick was second with 16 votes.
Ryan created a personal rivalry with Belichick, declaring soon after he was hired in 2009 that he didn’t take the Jets’ job to kiss Belichick’s Super Bowl rings. Since then, the Jets have finished second to the Patriots every season in the AFC East.
Turning serious, Ryan said he didn’t mind the “overrated” label.
“I wasn’t offended by it,” he said.
Revealing some of his trademark bravado, Ryan claimed he’d finish near the top of any survey in which players voted for the coach they’d most want to play for. In fact, he has placed highly in that category in past polls.
“Poll the same players about who they’d want to play for, and I’ll probably end up where I always do — right at the top with (Mike) Tomlin,” he said, referring to the Pittsburgh Steelers’ coach. “(It would be) either me or Mike Tomlin, one of two. We’re the guys they want to play for.
“I don’t think that would change. I don’t care. As long as they want to come here and play, if I’m overrated, that’s fine.”
WRITTEN BY Rich Cimini | ESPNNewYork.com & FULL STORY HERE
