Another guest speaker for Jets? Ryan not sure

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. - Despite the emotional charge Dennis Byrd's pregame speech supplied in New England, Rex Ryan is unsure if he or someone else will address the team before Sunday's AFC Championship Game in Pittsburgh.

"Whatever I think is appropriate, but I don't believe so," Ryan said Friday.

Days later, though, Byrd's message still resonates with Ryan and his players.

"When he sent me that jersey, it blew me away, and that note," Ryan said. "I was like, 'Wow, this is incredible.' It's such an honor that he thought I was worthy enough to have that jersey, which I'm not even close to being.

"But he took me up on the invitation to come speak to our team, and I thought it was very powerful. The guys really appreciated it, that's for sure."

Ryan added that he's made an effort to link the present and the past by displaying photos of every previous team and listing the jersey numbers of former players on the wall outside the Jets' locker room.

"He made a statement that he'll always be a Jet, and that's true," Ryan said of Byrd. "He'll always be a Jet, just like all these former players here. I believe in history. Guys that went out there and laid it on the line and things like that for this organization. It means something to me . . . it might be a little college-y or whatever, but who cares? That's who I am. This is what we wanted to bring in and it's something I wanted to embrace. I wanted our former players and former coaches to be a part of our team's success."