9/11 will tone down Ryan trash talking
File photos showing New York Jets head coach Rex Ryan, left, and Cleveland Browns defensive coordinator Rob Ryan, right. Credit: AP
Rex Ryan is scheduled to face his brother Rob, the defensive coordinator of the Cowboys, in the first game of the season. That should give them, what, a little less than five months of trash talking?
Not so fast. That game will be played on Sept. 11 – the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington – and Rex said that the somber mood of remembrance that day will certainly tone down a lot of the chatter.
“It’s going to be a little different,” Rex Ryan said in a conference call on Tuesday night. “The fact that the game is the 10-year anniversary of 9/11 will put a little damper on (the trash talking). I certainly don’t want to do something that would take away from that. This game certainly won’t be about my brother and I. I think there probably won’t be as much trash talking as what’s gone on in the past.”
Still, on the very next question, he couldn’t resist. Asked how difficult it’s been for Rob to try to install a new defense in Dallas with all of the players locked out, Rex Ryan said:
“I hope it’s real tough.”
A few other notes:
Ryan was predictably pleased with the Jets getting five prime time games. “I think that really speaks volumes about our team, where our franchise is at, and how the league and everybody else in the league basically sees us the same way,” he said in a statement. “They know we're an elite team and I think that's why we have five primetime games.”
Ryan said it’s “business as usual” at the Jets’ complex, even without the players around. “We’re really dialed in on the draft,” he said.
On the stretch of three road games the Jets play early in the season (at Oakland on Sept. 25, at Baltimore on Oct. 2, and at New England on Oct. 9), Ryan conceded it’s a “difficult” stretch. “But they’re looking at it too like ‘Oh man, we have to play the Jets.’ It goes both ways.”
As for whether the Jets or any NFL team will actually get to play the schedule that’s been released, Ryan was optimistic. “I’m confident we’ll have a season,” he said. “We’re going to be ready to play whenever they say we’re going back to work and playing. We’ll be ready. Whatever schedule it is, we’ll be ready for it.”
