Rex Ryan's devastation has got me thinking about the enormity of this game. Not the game last night, but the game of football as a whole. The simplistic test of strength and toughness is what makes losing in this league so bitter to swallow. In basketball, golf, and even in hockey, players have off-nights and days when nothing seems to go right. But rarely do bad days just happen in football. In football, bad days are almost always microcosms of a larger narrative being played out over a vast span of time. Prior to the game last night, analysts were running wild with the theory that New England's dynasty was finally over, using the words "Patriots" and "done" in the same sentence -- with extra emphasis on the latter. And now, today, all of a sudden, those same people are saying that you can't ever count-out a team with Brady and Belichick at the helm. Funny how quickly they flip.
A lot of what you hear is nonsense. The best way to know what's happening is to watch the games and take "the eye test," and then match it up to the larger narrative you've been following over the last few years. The narrative I've been following is New England's journey to get back to where they were -- but with different guys. People often refer to this Patriots team as the "dynasty team," which is what prompts so many reporters and columnists and analysts to say their dynasty bended fifteen days ago against the Steelers and broke last week against the Giants.
But is that true? No, of course it isn't. Our dynasty ended in 2008. It's 2011 now, and it seems like it's only the Patriots fans that got the message. For others to call this a "dynasty team" is pretty misleading, considering that most players on our current squad weren't on the roster during the three Super Bowl victories. Analysts and Patriots-haters tend to lump New England fans with Yankees fans and Tiger fans and Federer fans; there's a feeling of slight disgust involved. But the cold hard truth is that Patriots fans have been blue for a while now, and we haven't been bragging nearly as much as others would lead the casual passerby to believe. In fact, Patriots fans spend hours a day on the radio, calling in with ideas on how to improve and win games. We've been working overtime to help our guys climb to the top of that mountain again. The only people who seem to be aware that we haven't gotten there in quite some time is...us.
When it comes to spreading the myth of the Patriots, Rex Ryan is Public Enemy #1. He is, without a doubt, the most hated man amongst Patriots Nation. Tom Coughlin and Eli Manning don't even rank 2nd or 3rd on the list; Rex is large enough to fill up the top three spaces. The reason? He's exploitative. For the last two-and-a-half years, Rex Ryan has used the image of the Patriots as a punching bag for his guys. He's used our past success as a weight with which to build-up the muscles of his players, and to mentally dupe his team into an invisible grudge with us. He has both created and spread the notion that New England is all that stands between the Jets and a Super Bowl ring. And yet, in 2009, it was actually the Indianapolis Colts that stood in their way. And last season, it was the Pittsburgh Steelers. In the total duration of Rex Ryan's time as head coach of the New York Jets, the Patriots have never once competed in the AFC Championship, nor have the Patriots ever been the cause of ending Rex's season. And yet Rex continues to flap his mouth, using New England's prior success and imaginary evil-empire-mystique as a means of venting his frustration with losing and keeping the Jets firmly-rooted in their gritty underdog status.
But what Rex Ryan fails to understand is that the underdog is -- and has been for some time now -- the New England Patriots. The Jets have competed in the last two consecutive conference title games, and they've gotten better with each passing season since Rex arrived. The Patriots, on the other hand, haven't won a playoff game in three years; they've had problems on-top of problems that have stunted the growth of the team and saddened fans to no end, and they're almost entirely composed of new players that are still learning Bill's system. We haven't won a Super Bowl since I was in college. Brady won rings in the first half of his career, but we're now fully-planted in the second-half of his career and ringless. But none of that matters to Rex, because he's more than willing to use a hypothetical and non-existant Patriots team as a means to galvanize his team and feed off a pretend sense of hate for sustenance. It's insulting and misguided, and the tactics with which he's used to march the Jets into an unprecedented sense of entitlement is the true mark of a man with absolutely no class whatsoever.
His obsession with Bill Belichick borders on madness, and his preoccupation with Tom Brady is nothing short of disturbing. His comments over the last twenty-six months have been outrageous, irrational, and totally lacking in dignity or tact. If he wasn't the coach of one of the most unproductive teams in NFL history, he'd be an outcast. Fortunately for him, he's in charge of the Mets of football, so he's got a free pass to say any clumsy thing that pops into his mind. New York would never stand for this sort of thing from Tom Coughlin, and they'd never stand for anything less than perfection from an icon of poise and sportsmanship like Derek Jeter. And yet, an exception is made for Rex Ryan and Mark Sanchez; they're allowed to act like clowns because the Jets are a clown team. They're a team of make-believe, built-on the shoulders of a ghost. The only thing greater than their ability to entertain is their ability to make you go out and buy a Giants cap.
The sad part is that they've got some good guys on the Jets -- some of whom I actually like. Darrelle Revis is one of the five best players in the National Football League, and he's a pretty respectable guy with a lot of class. LT is a terrific player. And Plaxico has actually made some personality and lifestyle improvements -- not to mention the fact that his talent is undeniable. The Jets are not a scumbag team. But there's a lingering scent that Ryan and Sanchez put on this organization, like a crusty residue that sticks like glue between your thumb and forefinger. They're the two most unlikable guys in the league. It's Rex Ryan's fault that I got so much joy out of last night's win. Ordinarily, a win would just be one more step towards an efficient Patriots team with a shot at a title. But last night was made so much sweeter by the psycho at the helm of the New York Jets.
Sweeping the season series against the Jets was great, but it's not my concept of winning, and it's not what we came for. The Patriots did so many things correctly last night, this is a terrific opportunity for them to grow and become the thing we've all been dreaming about for years. Unlike the Jets, the Patriots' quest for greatness has nothing to do with anybody else. There are no scores to settle or back-alley fights or drag races we have to be at. Our quarterback is a little too grown-up for that, and our coach has a little too much class for getting detention over a fight with the school bully and the class clown.
