The only person who might be happier tonight than Gawker Media owner Nick Denton might be Brad Benson — his next advertisement practically writes itself. If the Brett Favre penis pics are the Moby Dick of highly-trafficked sports blog scoops, Deadspin’s Tuesday coverage of the unmistakable resemblance between Rex Ryan’s wife, Michelle, and a woman who appeared in a series of foot fetish videos some years ago might be considered Barry Petchesky’s Orca. That a near-breathless cameraman in one of the clips sounds an awful lot like the Jersey Jets’ (current) head coach is almost as remarkable as the Jets issuing what sounds like a pretty resigned “no comment” earlier this evening.
I think it is fair to say we’re about to enter unexplored terrain for the NFL and professional sports in general. While this could be one of the more unusual teaching moments in recent memory — the Ryans’ alleged fetish is completely harmless and far less worthy of ridicule than the behavior of some J-E-R-K-S fans — it remains very unclear how tolerant the football fans of NY/NJ will be towards a coach whose swagger might be slightly diminished starting this weekend. An updated version of Petchesky’s Deadspin post includes a screengrab of a dating profile for the swinging couple who may-or-may-not be Rex and Michelle ; for “sexual orientation”, they’re described as “straight / bi-curious”. Again, harmless stuff, and I’m in no way opposed to an even bigger teaching moment ; if we’re really living in an America free of hate, surely Wednesday morning would be an opportune time for Joe Benigno (or Fireman Ed) to declare they’d openly embrace a bi-curious head coach.
