Report: Rob Ryan’s Saints contract limits his contact with the media

Posted by Michael David Smith on February 10, 2013, 11:35 AM EST
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New Saints defensive coordinator Rob Ryan has been known to run his mouth from time to time. The Saints reportedly want to limit how much Ryan can run his mouth to the media.

Andy Fenelon, a senior editor at NFL.com, wrote on Twitter that Ryan’s contract with the Saints says Ryan can’t talk to the press unless he gets approval from Saints Vice President of Communications Greg Bensel.

Bart Hubbuch of the New York Post saw that report and responded that it would be a violation of the NFL media policy, which requires assistant coaches to be available to the media at certain designated times.

Something doesn’t add up here. The NFL wouldn’t approve a contract that contained terms violating the NFL’s own rules, so if Ryan’s contract violates the NFL’s media policies, then the league office is going to have something to say about it. I have requested a comment from Bensel about whether he really does have to give prior approval before Ryan can talk to the media.

UPDATE 12:55 p.m. ET: Bensel says the report is 100 percent false.

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13 responses to “Report: Rob Ryan’s Saints contract limits his contact with the media”

  2. The contract probably says something to the effect, “Ryan must get prior approval to talk to the media from Greg Bensel, except during per-arranged times when assistant coaches must be available for media contact as required by the NFL media policy.”

    No “interviews” at 3AM on Bourbon Street, etc…

    I am just interested to see if the 2013 Saints Defense can be a top 20-25 Defense. That is all they really need, a Defense that is average to bad, just not godawful putrid. If Rob Ryan can do that, the Saints can make another Super Bowl run in 2013.

  7. League approves contracts that violate league rules all the time, like the ones for Haynesworth and Hall to the Skins in the capped uncapped year, its just that its not a violation until after its inconvenient for the League.

  8. They can’t be any worse than last year and they ended up 7-9.

    I challenge any poster on here to make the claim that their team could do better than 7-9 after having to deal with everything the Saints went through last year.

  9. Wish I could get a job where i was PAID not to talk LOL That’s worse than another team paying 1/2 a player’s salary to play somewhere else against them.

  11. Everyone thought that Al Davis was a crazy control freak when he restricted Rob Ryan from any media contact. Al had Rob wrapped so tight that he could not even talk to the fans.

  12. Translation: “We really didn’t want to hire you, but we didn’t see any better options- so please just quietly do your job and don’t embarrass us on a weekly basis by opening your mouth. Thanks.”

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