Despite a 14-18 record and no playoff appearances over the last two seasons, can you believe there are some persons who’d deny Jets head coach Rex Ryan his props? Despite presiding over a club whose circus-like atmosphere sometimes causes protesters from PETA to mistakenly show up at practice, Ryan has endured no shortage of sneers the last couple of years, a situation he sounds entirely fed up with in a conversation with Newsday’s Kimberley A. Martin :
“I’m a hell of a lot better football coach than I’m given credit for,” Ryan said in a sit-down interview with Newsday, minutes after the team concluded its final mandatory minicamp practice Thursday afternoon.
“I don’t care,” he added with a smile. “I don’t need the credit. But I can tell you one thing, when it’s said and done, they’ll look back and say, ‘Oh man, this dude can coach his butt off.’ And you know what? It’s true. And I’ll let the people that know best talk on my behalf about the kind of coach I am.
“I don’t have to brag, even though statistically, I can brag about anything I’ve ever done defensively.”
He has no doubt Jets fans will look back fondly on the Rex Ryan Era when all is said and done.
“They’ll say, ‘He’s a hell of a football coach, and you know what? He had more passion than anybody who’s ever coached here before.’ Eventually that’s what’s going to be said about me,” Ryan said.