You're New York Jets coach Rex Ryan, and you lead with your chin. You are constantly daring, almost begging, someone to take a literal or figurative poke at you.
You're Rex Ryan, and you curse, even when you know very well that microphones and cameras are around to capture your every word and movement.
You're Rex Ryan, and you boast about the greatness of your defense -- the side of the ball upon which you have built your career -- and how your team should live up to all of that preseason hype of making a serious Super Bowl run.
You're Rex Ryan, and it seems that whenever you clear your throat, you ratchet up the already overwhelming amount of pressure on your team. Pressure built from last season's unlikely appearance in the AFC Championship Game. Pressure built from adding big-name players such as LaDainian Tomlinson, Jason Taylor, Antonio Cromartie, and Santonio Holmes. Pressure built from having a second-year quarterback, Mark Sanchez, whose preseason struggles haven't exactly provided encouragement that he'll improve much from his rookie season. Pressure built from playing in the media capital of the world, New York.
You're Rex Ryan, and in the end, you simply don't care. You truly have no interest in what anyone else thinks about what you say or what you do. You'll just keep talking the talk while fully expecting your team to walk the walk. You've never seen the season as a 16-game march. To you, it is a swagger, which has always been your preferred gait.
Not surprisingly, this approach to football and life has its share of detractors. Former NFL coach Tony Dungy called out Ryan for the abundance of salty language he used during the HBO series "Hard Knocks," which has provided a behind-the-scenes look at the Jets (and mostly Ryan) during training camp and the preseason. New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady didn't mention Ryan specifically, but when asked if he had seen the show he cited his hatred for the Jets -- something that Ryan's brashness certainly does nothing to soften -- as the reason he refuses to watch the show.
But there are those around the NFL -- many, in fact -- who appreciate what Ryan brings to a league often accused of taking itself a bit too seriously. They actually think the Jets can benefit from having a coach who just loves to turn up the heat on them.
"It's a good thing, it's motivating," former Buffalo Bills special-teams ace and current CBS game analyst Steve Tasker said. "Pressure is what you make it. At the professional level, for the most part, guys rise up for the pressure, particularly self-inflicted pressure. The way players feel -- the way I've always felt about it -- when the coach turns the pressure up, it's because you believe he has faith in you. You never have a coach turn up the pressure saying he doesn't think you can do it. He says, 'It's all on you; I know you can.' That's a huge motivator."
Former Pittsburgh Steelers coach Bill Cowher has no problem with Ryan's personality being every bit as large as his physique. As someone who led with one of the most prominent chins the football world has ever seen and whose coaching career was also defined by a fiery approach, Cowher can identify with being an even bigger focal point than is typical for a head coach.
Ryan's boisterousness is OK with Cowher because he "doesn't disrespect the game." He likes Ryan's style, because "Rex is being Rex" and because it's a "refreshing" departure from the norm.
"We don't need to have clones," Cowher said. "We don't need to have everyone being the same way."
Ryan stands out because most coaches are ultra-careful about everything that passes through their lips in public. They constantly worry about saying something that can and will be used against them by an opponent -- by the media, by the fans, even by the person signing their paychecks.
Ryan? He seemingly goes out of his way to write checks with his mouth that his team has to cash. For instance, he recently told reporters that he expected the Jets' defense to still "play great," even though cornerback Darrelle Revis was holding out at the time (he struck a new deal Sunday night) and outside linebacker Calvin Pace is expected to miss six weeks with a broken foot.
Yet, that doesn't seem to be a problem with his players, who consistently show strong support for their coach. Former New York Giants quarterback Phil Simms goes as far as to say that Ryan's popularity extends well beyond the Jets.
"If you took a poll and asked players who they want to play for in the NFL, Rex would win (in a landslide)," Simms said. "I don't even know who would get voted second. I've had coaches and people from other organizations tell me that they look at what Rex does and say, 'Wow, we hate to admit it, but we know it works.' Why? Because it gives a franchise energy, and the players buy into it. And the players get this attitude about them.
"Watch the Jets when they come on the field. They don't come out there single-file like the Army. They come out there, (as if they're saying) 'Yeah, here we are!'"
Said Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Fouts: "What Rex did right away, by being that way, is he took the pressure off of the players and put it on himself. Everyone knows, if he doesn't succeed, he's going to get fired. The players are still going to be there, or at least most of them will. There's got to be one guy that is the face of the franchise, and Rex has done a great job, I think, of making things easier for his team. He demands a lot of them, but he also takes the heat."
To many league observers, the Jets are talented enough to be a dominant team. Their defensive muscle and playmaking should allow them to have a chance to win every game. With second-year back Shonn Greene and Tomlinson, their running game still looks strong, despite the absence of 2009 rushing leader Thomas Jones, who is now with the Kansas City Chiefs. And the expectation for Sanchez is that he will show improvement (preseason funk notwithstanding).
"It's proven you can win Super Bowls playing lights-out defense, not turning the football over, not doing anything crazy," former NFL tight end Shannon Sharpe said. "But in order for them to be successful, Sanchez is going to have to take that next step. You can't shut everybody out. At some point in time, your offense is going to have to score some points. No matter what you thought about our 2000 Ravens offense, we did score a point or two here and there (on the way to winning Super Bowl XXXV)."
Yet, as loaded as they might be on both sides of the ball, the Jets also look as if they're built to be classic front-runners. They can roll if all is going well, but with so much high-profile talent and so many big egos, they seem to have the potential to unravel if they encounter adversity -- especially if that adversity comes at the very beginning of the season.
"That's the question. How do they handle those high expectations if they stumble?" Tasker said. "And they're going to stumble. Sanchez is going to stumble; he's a young quarterback. It's not going to be as easy for him this year, not that it was easy for him last year."
The Jets' first taste of trouble last year came in the first half of the season, when they followed a 3-0 start with a 0-3 stretch. If they encounter similar turbulence this season, it will be up to Ryan to again find a way to pull them out of it.
That figures to be tougher than it was in 2009 because of the higher degree of scrutiny generated by the notable newcomers.
"Then, all of a sudden," former NFL quarterback Rich Gannon said, "it's, 'LT's not playing like we thought ... Jason Taylor's not the same player ... the Antonio Cromartie trade didn't turn out to be such a good deal ... Santonio Holmes (didn't work out).' Those are a lot of the things that they're going to have to manage and juggle, but I think (Ryan) has the personality and the mindset and the demeanor to be able to handle it."
Tasker remembers how, in 1989, considerable in-fighting earned his former team the nickname the "Bickering Bills" and contributed to their failure to reach the Super Bowl. Beginning with the 1990 season, the Bills would go on to play in four consecutive Super Bowls.
However, Tasker still laments about what might have been had they been able to maintain greater unity in '89.
"If the Jets' locker room stays together, their talent will show through," Tasker said. "They've got great players. Once they win games, then everything's going to go away. But if their locker room loses cohesiveness, they're done."
