At a time when many think Bills coach Rex Ryan is obsessed with the Patriots, maybe the Patriots are equally obsessed with Ryan.
Patriots quarterback Tom Brady called out “Rex Ryan!” before a first-quarter play. After the game, Brady acted like it was no big deal.
“Yeah, we have a lot of things that are kind of in the playbook, so that’s one of them,” Brady told reporters.
Was the goal to distract Ryan or to send any type of message to him?
“No, just communication on offense,” Brady said. “We use a lot of terms. . . . We’ve used a lot of things in the past. We have a lot of unusual terms. I think we run the gamut. So we’ve got to get creative and think of different things, so that one is pretty unique.”
Coach Bill Belichick wasn’t asked about the call after the game; it’s possible he didn’t even know it was part of the audible package.
For his part, Ryan took it all in stride.
“He was calling what – my name? . . . . He likes me, I know that. I was calling him Brady, too,” Ryan said.
Given the broad range of words and phrases that teams could use -- and in light of the disdain many teams have for the presence of microphones during games -- it seems like only a matter of time before a quarterback exercises his creative discretion to use a nasty, inappropriate, and/or profane phrase or term at the line of scrimmage. And I kind of can’t wait.