Dont Turn To Rex For Player Mistakes

First it was HBO’s “Hard Nocks”, and then a Mexican female reporter, now Braylon Edwards has put the spotlight on the New York Jets.  Who is responsible for this out of control team?  Rex Ryan of course.  I just don’t see it that way.  The buzz in N.Y. is how Ryan’s passive attitude with his team has created a fraternity atmosphere with the players.  So let me get this straight, the actions of grown men fall back on a guy that does the X’s and O’s.  People need someone to blame and reporters here and around the nation have turned to Ryan. 

            Rex is their NFL coach; he’s not there High School coach mentoring teens on the sport and good morals.  These are grown men making grown decisions.  Don’t tear down the organization for a few mistakes on good social standards.  The fact that Ryan had to apologize and get fined for a finger gesture in Florida still boggles me.  This man got spit on and barraged with slurs that would make Andrew Dice Clay blush, and he flipped the “bird” to the guy, as the panel from ESPN “Countdown” would say, “Come on Man!”  The fact is, Rex has one of the best personalities in football.  Tom Coughlin rules with an iron fist, that didn’t stop Plaxico Burress from a decision that cost him a great career.  In interviews with Plax after the incident, he didn’t pick up the phone and call Coughlin or the GM Reese, he called his High school coach and confided in him.  What ever happened to the guy who mad poor judgment along side Burress, Antonio pierce?  He played another season of sleep walking through the middle of the Giants defense and damns Edward for his decision while commentating on ESPN.  These are isolated incidents and those coaches aren’t at fault.  Rex created this loose atmosphere where players don’t care, WHAT?  Rex isn’t a bad guy, because he swears and believes his team is good and super bowl worthy.  Good for him for having the confidence and not bowing down to other “human” coaches like Belichick and Dungy.

            Belichick is an admitted cheater and he is still regarded as a saint of the NFL.  You can’t talk bad about Dungy, that’s like slandering the pope.  Dungy is a holy man who coached with love, and didn’t have to yell at players and curse.  Just because Ryan isn’t bible thumping his way onto Oprah and NBC football Night in America doesn’t make him the anti-Christ.  I knew of a Colt named Marvin Harrison being linked with a shooting in Philadelphia. That’s not Dungy’s fault.  He made a grown up decision to hang out with old friends who influenced him. 

            The point is, just because players ate burgers on the sideline in training camp, used construction men antics in the locker room and got a DWI; don’t go to the coach and say, what the hell?  These are grown men making grown decision, and a lot of readers out there have made the same “choice” as Edward, by drinking and thinking you were o.k. to drive.  Don’t start judging someone on a mistake.  He will learn from it, and if he doesn’t, don’t ring Rex’s phone and say, what the hell?