Christensen: Ryan's Hope
FacebookBy Todd Christensen, The Mtn. Football Analyst
January 17, 2011
It's a confession I make here that along with millions of football fans throughout the United States I was rooting for the New England Patriots. Not only to whip the New York Jets, but to shut the mouth-at least for the 2010-11 football season-of Rex Ryan, the garrulous, "foot-fetished," egomaniac head coach of the Gotham gridders.
Ryan's comments were so annoying and self-serving that he made Bill Belichick seem likable - no mean feat! But with the Patriots at 14-2, the No. 1 seed, and having already whipped the Jets just a month ago 45-3, it appeared that the surest of things was a Patriot triumph along the road to their fifth Super Bowl in ten years.
Two days before the game, I received a phone call from one of the Jets beat writers. He asked me what I thought of Ryan. I told him that I thought he was a one-trick pony; he was bombastic and that the idea that he was taking pressures off of the players was now a canard just to give himself air-time.
The writer didn't disagree with me, but he added this caveat: "But regardless, the players absolutely love him." I have to concede that in my decades of football, there is nothing more galvanizing to a team than an "us against the world" mentality.
Very few outside the visitor's locker room at Gillette Stadium believed that the New York Jets would be on the long end of the score, but that's exactly what happened. They harassed Brady (5 sacks), didn't turn the ball over, and their young quarterback, Mark Sanchez, threw three touchdown passes. Collectively, they played with a fearlessness that indicated "we've got each other's backs," and in so doing pulled off arguably the biggest playoff upset of the decade.
Now the AFC Championship game is at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, a venue in which the Jets defeated the Steelers last month. Their confidence heading into the Steel City has to be at a peak. Were the Jets to win and the Packers defeat the Bears in the NFC title game, it would be the first time the Super Bowl featured the two lowest seeds.
Ryan's unorthodox approach to preparation and player motivation only serves to remind us that there is more than one way to skin a cat.
After all, that's why they play the games.
ALL TIMES MOUNTAIN
