Sure, there are teams I dislike more than others. Would I ever wear a Lakers hat? Of course not. Would I ever wear a Canadiens jersey? Of course not. But really, as long as the Celtics and the Bruins win against any team, I’m happy. Sometimes I’ll get a rush from watching Tom Brady beat Peyton Manning or Joe Flacco or Big Ben, but it’s only a fleeting moment of bliss and then I’m right back to focusing on the bigger picture. I’ve just never been a big rivalry guy.
But then Mark Sanchez waltzed into my life. Now I’m left here wondering how a quarterback who can barely complete a pass managed to become our Magic Johnson. Well, it all traces back to the guy who once said “As much as I respect and admire Bill Belichick, I came here to kick his ass.”
The Jets have competed in the last two AFC Championships while the Patriots followed a bludgeoning in Super Bowl XLII with three straight seasons without a playoff win. This isn’t exactly the recipe for a monumental rivalry. So why is Rex keeping this fire burning? Well, as Rex himself put it: “This is about Bill Belichick versus Rex Ryan. There’s no question, it’s personal.”
Rex’s least attractive quality is his psychotic obsession with the Patriots. He says he cares about winning, but it’s painfully obvious he cares more about beating Belichick. That’s not respect. Respect is the mutual admiration between great icons like Russell and Chamberlain or Federer and Nadal. To qualify for a rivalry with one of the best, you have to be one of the best. Did I sleep through the part where Rex Ryan became a great coach? Did I miss the wildly long string of achievements that placed him on Belichick’s level? When exactly did this become “personal?”
If Bill Belichick were to have one great rival, Rex Ryan wouldn’t be it. But Rex has gone ahead and crowned himself with that title anyway, and that’s why we hate him. He doesn’t deserve to have Belichick as a rival. Rex has one Super Bowl ring as defensive coordinator. Belichick has five Super Bowl rings, two as a defensive coordinator and three as a head coach. So until the day we rewrite the book on mathematics and 1 becomes greater than 5, this rivalry will continue to be nothing more than a ruse created by Rex Ryan to spread his own false legend. The distance between these two coaches is vast and shouldn’t be allowed to even-out because of an unfounded grudge fueled by media hype.
Without the press building them up as New England’s archenemy, the Jets would just be another squad of scrubs making people groan and change the channel on Sunday nights. Did I overlook the Jets dynasty that qualified them to enter this rivalry with the Patriots? By my calculations, Gang Green has one Super Bowl title. The year? 1969. If the Jets and the Patriots were boxers, they’d never be allowed to fight in the same weight class.
Just who entitles the Jets to share this spotlight with the Patriots? I don’t see Reggie Wayne or Dwight Freeney or Robert Mathis on this Jets team. I don’t see Mike Tomlin or Troy Polamalu or Hines Ward. I don’t see Ray Lewis or Ed Reed or Ray Rice. I see the great Darrelle Revis surrounded by a bunch of other guys pretending to play football. I’m offended that the Jets became a “somebody” in this league by attaching themselves to the Patriots like a virus.
They didn’t earn this conflict. Rex, especially, didn’t earn this. The Jets made their reputation by pretending to be the Habs to our B’s, and Rex made his name by masquerading as the mastermind who could outwit Bill Belichick. It’s demeaning, disrespectful, and sad.
And there’s another insulting element of Rex’s personality worth mentioning. It’s the way he prepares his guys to play so passionately against the Patriots and so poorly against every other team in the league. I have a similar gripe with Tom Coughlin and the G-Men.
When you watch the Jets and the Giants play, you notice a pattern. Week after week you see the flaws, you see the holes, you see the mental mistakes. And then, miraculously, the flaws and the holes and the mental mistakes vanish when they play against the Patriots. When a team only plays at an elite level against one specific opponent, it reflects the true colors of the players and of the coach.
Rivalries can make certain games pretty interesting to watch, but guys like Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady really don’t care who they play against. And they definitely don’t adjust the levels of their greatness to suit any specific opponent. Beating the Celtics in 2010 was probably sweet revenge for Kobe Bryant, but he didn’t seem to play with any less intensity when he brutally took down the Magic in 2009. Great players play great against everybody.
One of Rex’s greatest miscalculations is his belief that beating Belichick can only be accomplished on those rare days when the Jets and the Patriots clash. Rex treats every New England game like a playoff game, but Belichick treats every game like a playoff game. That means Rex gives himself 2 or 3 games a year to prove his worth, and Belichick gets close to 20.
Is it any wonder why one of these guys has 5 rings and the other doesn’t?
