Maybe Rex Ryan is actually Dick Vermeil’s son, after all.
Ryan, the first-year coach of the Jets who won his first NFL game on Sunday, became choked up after the victory.
As Rich Cimini of the New York Daily News points out, the 24-7 thumping of the Texans came in the same city where Ryan’s father, Buddy, once thumped co-worker Kevin Gilbride upside the head. (As Cimini also points out, Rex Ryan recently joked that, when he saw the incident on television, he assumed that he’d be doomed to a career coaching college football at the Division I-AA level. He’s not the only one who made that assumption.)
“It meant a lot to him,” Jets guard Brandon Moore said. “He had to work his way up to get his chance and he wins his first game. A lot of coaches don’t get that opportunity.”
“It feels great,” Ryan said. “You know, shoot, I’m glad we’re 1-0. That’s where we expected to be.”
But it’s also where the Texans expected to be, along with Houston fans and media who previously expected the team to go to the playoffs for the first time in the franchise’s eight-season history and who now expect them to go 0-16 after losing to a non-playoff team with a rookie head coach, a rookie starting quarterback, and an embattled G.M. who finds himself dealing with an injury-reporting mess created by a former head coach with a bad habit of saying too little and a former starting quarterback with a bad habit of saying too much.
For now, though, the Jets have the aura of a team destined to play in the middle of January, and the Texans have the stink of a squad doomed for the basement of the ultra-competitive AFC South.
And while we’ve got no beef with Rex Ryan shedding a few tears, we’re still bracing for the torrent of expletives that will fly after he endures one of the inevitable defeats that are coming, possibly as soon as next week against New England.
We’ll have more details about the Week One game between the Jets and the Texans in a One-Liners entry. Hopefully without a torrent of expletives.