Someone (not me) asked Phil Simms and Jim Nantz on a conference call today whether Rex Ryan's loose approach to media relations might spread to other NFL teams, a hope I raised in my Tuesday newspaper column.

Both agreed that it could help Ryan's twin brother, Rob, get a head coaching job, as well as perhaps other less-than-uptight men.

Said Nantz: "He's taken fear out of the equation. He really doesn't care what he says . . . It's going to be interesting to see if this does create a new atmosphere."

Said Simms: "I think it helps his brother and I hope it does open up the eyes of other coaches."

Nantz said Simms asked Ryan last week whether there ever is a situation in which he tells his players to be careful what they say to reporters.

"Never," he said.

Elsewhere in J-E-T-S news, the Jets-Chargers game attracted an average of 28.4 percent of homes in the New York area, and 44 percent of the TVs actually in use.

Simms was asked on the CBS conference call about giving the Manning family advice about Bill Parcells when the Jets had the No. 1 overall pick in 1997 and Peyton was considering leaving school a year early.

"I just remember telling them it'll be terrific," he said. "I gave them nothing but thumbs up and go do it."

Peyton eventually decided to stay at Tennessee for his senior season.

"It would have been a match made in heaven, there’s no doubt about it, Parcells and Peyton Manning," Simms said. "Wow, of course that would have changed history in a lot of ways if he would have went with the Jets and Bill Parcells was coaching him."

Photo: AP

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