Rex Ryan makes my job easy

Here is Newsday's thorough coverage of the Jets' regular-season finale, including my latest pro-Rex Ryan column. It's fun annyoing his detractors!

Obviously, Rex now has to put up or shut up - perish the thought! - by cruising through an easy path to the Super Bowl: Colts, Patriots, Steelers.

Piece of cake.

Ryan was in fine form after the rout of the Bills at NMS, which was why every columnist in attendance could not resist writing about him.

There was plenty of great material in Rex's news conference, but I thought this line was telling, because on one hand it's true and perceptive, and on the other hand it shows Ryan thinks about stuff - i.e. how another team's postseason status might affect media attention - that would not even occur to Tom Coughlin, or Bill Belichick:

"We'll see if the Giants make the playoffs or not, but we know that there will be more media [this week], but we're ready to handle it."