Surviving Barstool S4 Ep. 12 | Pretenders and Contenders Are DecidedWATCH NOW

Advertisement

The Jets Have Interviewed Rex Ryan and He's Already Talking About Putting an End to the 'Country Club' That Let's Aaron Rodgers Skip Minicamps

Jeff Zelevansky. Getty Images.

I don't have to tell you what they say about things that sound too good to be true. But when I first heard about the vague possibility of a reunion between Rex Ryan and the New York Jets, I assumed it had to be just that. Just more insanity from the peak of NFL Rumor Season. 

And when I came upon this just now, I almost skipped right by it as just another troll post. Something from @AdamSchafter with 10 followers hoping to catch some poor, naive, distracted football blogger in a snare trap. But nope. It's really real:

Confirmed by the source itself:

And for his part, Sexy Rexy seems back to his old self. Supremely confident as before. Like it's 2010 all over again. Only this time, not about being the best damned coach in the league and not about to go kissing Bill Belichick's rings. But sounding like he believes to a moral certainty this job will be his once again. And when he takes over again, these days are over:

Source - Former New York Jets coach Rex Ryan, who interviewed Tuesday for the team's head coaching vacancy, is convinced he will land the job.

If it happens, he says he will put an end to the Aaron Rodgers "country club."

Ryan, appearing Monday morning on ESPN New York radio, ripped the future Hall of Famer for skipping the team's mandatory minicamp last June to take a vacation to Egypt. He also criticized the organization's "abysmal" leadership for condoning it.

"Clearly, when you have a guy that doesn't show up for mandatory minicamp -- and, by the way, he's your quarterback, coming off an injury -- I think that's an absolutely ridiculous message you send to the team," Ryan said during a spot on the "DiPietro & Rothenberg Show."

"If he comes back, things would be different. If he's back, it ain't gonna be the country club, show up whenever the hell you want to show up. That ain't gonna happen. I'll just leave it at that," Ryan said. …

The ever-confident Ryan, now an ESPN analyst, expects to land the position.

"Oh, 100 percent, absolutely, I do," he said. "The reason I think I'm going to get it is because I'm the best guy for it. …

"It's not just the X's and O's and all that. This Ben Johnson, I love him, I absolutely love him, but I'm a better candidate for this job than he would be."

It goes without saying I'm involved with a different AFC East team, that is having too many issues at the moment to be worrying about somebody else's relationship problems. But still. I can't just ignore this. I want it to happen too much to pretend it's not happening.

Can this existence really be so beautiful a place that this could come to fruition? Can I wish this into reality? To pull back the grey rain curtain of this world and find that all is silver glass? A dream world? A fantasy realm in which Shrex and the Jets are reunited once more? It can't possibly be true. And yet here it is. Almost within our grasp. 

Advertisement

Think of it. The blogs that will once again write themselves. The boastful pronouncements. The Wednesday press conferences where the Rex Quote Factory is operating at full capacity. The demonstrative body language and fits of rage on the sideline as the TV cameras cut to him every minute and a half. Maybe, if dreams really do come true, even this:

This guy is to blog-worthy content what the sun is to heat and light. A constant source of energy. With occasional solar storms that burn all the brighter. 

Plus he'd be coming to a Jets team that's in constant disarray. Not just the Egyptologist problem. But the owner's family talking shit about the players right in the locker room:

Pro Bowlers taking to the internet to unrecruit top free agents:

And now he's picking fights with the Hall of Fame quarterback who has been running the Jets operation since they traded for him a year and a half ago. All before he's been offered the job. 

Advertisement

I don't ask for a lot from the universe. But please, if it's at all possible, give me and all Patriots fan this tremendous gift. After the past six seasons, we deserve something.