Rex Ryan Proves He Still Doesn’t Get It

Rex Ryan just can't help himself. Less than 48 hours removed from beating a depleted Indianapolis Colts team, Ryan set a new standard for braggadocio on Monday when he ranted against New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and head coach Bill Belichick.

The quotes have been played out across the nation, so there's no point in rehashing them in this space, but let's just say Ryan is more than confident his team will win Sunday and move on to a second consecutive AFC Championship Game. Moreover, he is convinced that the reason his team will move on is that he will win a mano-a-mano battle of wits with Belichick.

Now there are three key problems with Ryan's arguments:

The first issue with Ryan putting himself against Belichick is the sheer difference in accomplishment between the two men:

Belichick has 177 career wins. Ryan has 23.

Belichick has five Super Bowl rings, three as the head coach of the Patriots (2001, 2003, and 2004) and two as defensive coordinator for the New York Giants (1986, 1990). Ryan's lone ring came as the defensive line coach with the Baltimore Ravens in 2000.

Belichick is a future Hall of Famer and widely considered one of the top five head coaches in the history of the NFL. At this point, Ryan has more credentials to become a WWE announcer than an NFL Hall of Famer.

If I could somehow put all that in a single tweet, the hashtag #notevenclose would be a pretty good way to end it. It would be like some rookie hitter in baseball coming out and talking trash to Roy Halladay in the press because he got him for a double the last time they faced. For a guy who grew up around sports, Ryan sure seems to have missed the lesson about earning your respect before opening your mouth.

(And speaking of opening their mouth, why is it that the people who go around talking the most trash are the ones who complain the loudest when somebody talks trash back? Do Jets players not remember the taunting by Braylon Edwards in the Jets' Week 2 win? So how can they act all offended by the Patriots rubbing it in when New England won 45-3 Dec. 6? You can't have it both ways. If you're not going to show any class in victory, you can't expect any in return when you're getting your ass handed to you.)

The second issue with Ryan's smack talking is that it is so inconsistent with what we have seen and learned over the course of sports history.

Look at all the great coaches and managers in the history of American professional sports. Can you imagine Tom Landry ever calling out Fran Tarkenton for not studying like Johnny Unitas or Bobby Cox saying before the 1999 World Series that it was personal between him and Joe Torre because Torre's Yankees beat Cox's Braves in the 1996 Series?

Of course not. You can look up and down the list of great leaders in every sport, and nowhere will you find an all-time great going out of his way to regularly make himself the center of attention by denigrating his opponent as Ryan has repeatedly done in his short tenure with the Jets. There is absolutely no precedent for this kind of classless behavior being in any way helpful toward winning championships.

I'm not sure what Ryan's real goal is with all this talk. Maybe he thinks he's doing his team a favor by making it about him, but it's just as likely going to serve as a distraction than anything else. But the fact remains it will be the players who will step on the field Sunday in Foxboro, a place where the Patriots have outscored the Jets 76-17 during Ryan's tenure in New York. And though Ryan's antics will fill up the airwaves between now and then, they will mean exactly jack all come kick off.

He just better hope his brain is as big as his mouth.