by Rex Ryan
“Distracted” was just one of the many opinions about our team that spun from us doing the show. But I will tell you this right now: During those five weeks of filming, there was never a moment that this project became a distraction to me or to the players. Hard Knocks did such a good job of really being invisible. The producers had cameras all over the place. They also put these microphones the size of a pen cap all around the facility. I didn’t realize there was one on my desk for a while. The producers wanted to get a realistic perspective of us, and that was made very clear to the players. Before they started shooting footage they said, “If you act like an idiot or if you ham it up for the camera in any way, we will stop filming.” They were serious about that. The minute the players or staff stopped acting like themselves, the cameras stopped. Knowing this, it’s funny to listen to people say that Hard Knocks was a distraction for us. It wasn’t a distraction for us while the cameras were in our faces during games, so I have never understood why they think it would have been a distraction for us during the start of the season.
When we agreed to allow the public to see the ins and outs of this franchise, we knew exactly what was going to come our way. No one ever gets to see the way coaches interact with their players; whether it’s in practice, a pregame meeting, or training camp, most of those interactions are behind closed doors. Well, not with us; we opened the doors to them. In fact, we opened the doors and rolled out the carpet. I mean, why wouldn’t we? We have nothing to hide. No two coaches are going to lead their team the exact same way, so it’s expected that everyone is going to have a different opinion of what’s the right and wrong way to lead a team. With Hard Knocks filming every aspect of my leadership strategies, it was a given that my method was going to be criticized. Honestly, I didn’t care.
When Mr. Johnson hired me as the head coach of the Jets, he hired me knowing damn well the type of person I am, and he has never once asked me to be someone different. Mr. Johnson does this job for one reason: the fans. He has always wanted a way to reach the fans, but before hiring me he couldn’t reach them exactly the way he wanted to. When I came on board, it became easier to speak to the fans. I feel the same way as Mr. Johnson; both of us work every day for the fans and we know that the media is how we get to them. The media is our voice, and with me being as open as I am, Mr. Johnson knows that the fans are going to get a lot; they’re going to get the good, the bad, and the ugly.
When Hard Knocks aired, I knew that it would get some press. One of the things that people were the most critical about was my language. Right after that first episode aired, all hell broke loose. Aside from Roger Goodell and Woody Johnson, who have never said one word to me about it, I really don’t think anyone is in a position to tell me the way I should or should not be doing something. Yet for some reason other coaches and players, such as Tony Dungy, Tom Brady, and Terry Bradshaw, felt that they had a right to judge me based off something they saw on TV. People were so quick to judge me because I dropped an f-bomb here and there, yet they fail to take into account the context I said it in. In a team meeting, at a team function, that’s how I talk—but do I talk like that in interviews? I never curse when I’m speaking to the press, but when I am talking to my team I can’t help but get carried away. I feel passionate and intense about what I am trying to say and it honestly slips out without me even knowing it. I am not intentionally trying to offend anyone. That’s who I am, though, and that’s who I’ve always been. Whether it is the right way to coach is not for anyone to decide but me. A lot of people don’t stop to think about the fact that I allowed cameras to come in and film me in situations that are usually private. Apparently, people thought that because the cameras were there I was going to censor myself. I’m sorry for the misunderstanding, but that’s not how I operate. I don’t think it would be fair to have given you this false picture of myself, not on Hard Knocks and not now.
I was asked a lot during the filming if I regretted anything I said on camera, and my answer was always “Absolutely not.” I think everyone knows me well enough by now to know the answer to that. I sat down on Wednesday nights just like every other fan and flipped to HBO. I had no clue what was going to make it on the air and what was going to be left on the cutting-room floor. That’s a risk Mr. Johnson, the league, and I all took when we signed on to do it. I honestly didn’t care what people’s opinions were about me or my coaching style. I think I am a good coach and I think my players would agree. With the exception of my mom, I really couldn’t care less who is disappointed by my choice of language.
There were a couple things that were just expected by doing Hard Knocks. I mean, the feedback was given, the compliments were welcomed, and the criticisms (for the most part) were brushed off. Of everything that arose from Hard Knocks, the issue that grabbed the most media attention happened to be one that I just couldn’t seem to brush off. Of course, I’m talking about the comments made by Tony Dungy. I’m not going to lie—it really upset me. I was incredibly disappointed that he judged me the way he did. I just kept thinking to myself: I had never met Tony. He has built his reputation on being this honorable, Christian man, yet he was judging me without even knowing me? I didn’t understand it. I don’t judge him even though I know he’s not perfect—although he might be a lot closer to perfect than I will ever be. I was shocked by it. I really was, and I think the part that upset me the most was that he wasn’t just attacking me; he was attacking my father. To say comments like “He grew up with that” and “He gets it from his father”—well, you know what? You’re darn right I do, and I’m awful proud of that. I will follow my dad any day.
I thought for a long time about all this, and in the end I felt the right thing to do was to call him and talk it out with him. I called and left a message on his machine inviting him to come out to New Jersey. He was the one who had brought it all into the media, so I knew that he had to call me back eventually. I had nothing to hide, and I wanted him to know that. When someone wrongs you, the best solution is to open all your doors and invite them in, so I did just that. It was about a week before I got a call back from him. We talked man-to-man and basically just made it a point to make our positions clear to each other. He took me up on my offer and on Saturday, September 25, he came out to my office at the Jets’ facility.
Surprisingly, it was great. I think we both left with a very different understanding of each other. We sat down and talked, and he proceeded to tell me about some players he had coached who had also played for me. They told him that he didn’t know me and that he was dead wrong in his opinion of me. He went on to tell me that his whole issue with me on Hard Knocks was that he had a dear friend who wanted to watch the show with his son and had to turn it off because of my language. I understand that completely, and I made sure I told him that. On the other hand, it was important for me to let him know, too, that I am not a monster. I’m just a person who maybe doesn’t use appropriate language all the time, but I’m going to be who I am. I told our team to be true to themselves and I would do the same, cameras rolling or not. I wasn’t going to change anything about myself just because I was on Hard Knocks. I never felt it was my responsibility to clean up my language. It’s my responsibility to coach a football team and lead it any way that I choose to. Tony Dungy is not going to lead my team and he’s not going to lead me. Now, do I have things to work on? Absolutely. I have an enormous amount of respect for Tony Dungy. I’m just a different person than he is, a completely different person.
Aside from Tony, the rest of the feedback from Hard Knocks was humorous. Tom Brady spoke out and said he hated us as well as the show. Well, guess what? We hate the Patriots. What’s your point? It’s about competition. There is nothing better than to get the juices going. You want to hate an opponent. When you get fired up over one team, you go out there playing harder than you’ve ever played before because that hatred is inside you; it’s what’s driving you. I call your attention to our recent AFC Divisional Game against them … a real highlight
win for us. Do I really hate Tom Brady? I really don’t know Tom Brady, but who wouldn’t hate him? Look at his life. Actually, look at his wife. Every man in America hates Tom Brady, and he should be proud of that.
As I said earlier, I didn’t know what was going to air on Hard Knocks until Wednesday night at 10 P.M. I was just like any other fan. And while I think it did a great job of highlighting positive aspects of the franchise, there were a couple things that aired that really bothered me.
One philosophy we have is that we want it to be fun for the guys. We make no bones about saying that in the press. We want them to enjoy being here. We try to not take ourselves too seriously, but when it’s time to be professional we are going to play with everything we’ve got. We love to have fun and that’s our mentality, but I don’t necessarily think Hard Knocks showed enough of us working. This team works their asses off, but I felt like it didn’t portray them as these dedicated NFL players as much as it showed some of their other sides. There were situations when the show had the opportunity to go left and film them in one way, and it went right and made them look like this rowdy, undisciplined group of kids. That’s just not true, and that’s not the picture I wanted to paint to the public. For example, the episode with the whole cheeseburger incident was blown out of proportion. What really happened was that I moved the practice up 50 minutes early because we went to Long Island. There was a storm coming in, so I said let’s just move this thing up. The guys hadn’t had anything to eat on the bus trip and they saw a McDonald’s. It was literally their only option at the time. We were starting the practice off and they were bringing those orders in. It wasn’t like that happens all the time, but it just showed our guys in a bad light. Next thing I know, we are being referred to as the “Animal House” team and people are saying that I can’t control my team. What people forget, though, is that I chewed their asses for eating those cheeseburgers and Hard Knocks showed that, but people don’t remember the positives; they only remember the negatives. I know that, and I know that’s what makes good TV. I just don’t like seeing something panned out on TV that isn’t completely true or that just doesn’t need to be mentioned.
Antonio Cromartie is a good example; that is another situation that really bothered me. See, Hard Knocks producers would choose a couple guys from each practice and mic them up so viewers could listen to them during drills and stuff. Once the practices were over, they would interview them. A lot of times they would ask them personal questions, but mostly it was just about the practice, how camp was going, and so on. Anyway, I think it was the first or second episode they had a microphone on Cro and, during the interview portion, they asked him what the names of his kids are. I guess you would have to see the episode to know what I’m talking about, but I was not happy with how they filmed it. I was unhappy they even asked him that question and brought his personal situation into the show. Cro is an awesome guy and an unbelievable athlete. Unfortunately, he has had some personal struggles, but who hasn’t? Watching the show later on TV, I wanted to shout, “Everyone knows the story. Why do you have to set him up like that?” It wasn’t necessary. It had nothing to do with what we were trying to accomplish from Hard Knocks, nor did it have anything to do with who we are as a team. It was stuff like that I didn’t like. I think it placed negative ideas in some people’s heads about who we were before we played the first regular-season game.
Despite that, when I look back on the Hard Knocks experience I can honestly say that I am really glad we did it. We went into it with one goal, which was to show people who the Jets are and what we are all about, in the truest form. For the most part, I think we accomplished that. I think the show did a great job of highlighting all that we have to offer and the extent we will go to for each and every one of our players, how we will get them anything they need—whether it’s a masseuse, a chiropractor, or a yoga instructor, we will find a way to get it for them. It was really important to Mr. Johnson, Mike Tannenbaum, and me that people see how we take care of our players. We treat them like men, not children, and I personally make sure each of them is aware of how important their role is to making this team whole. We treat them right, and we take pride in that.
Aside from making sure the public saw the relationship between the franchise staff and the players, making sure they saw our facilities was just as important. We have the number-one facility in the league. Mr. Johnson is amazing at providing the absolute best for us in every situation. Hard Knocks did a great job of showing all of that. People were able to see where we held training camp; we were fortunate enough to spend two weeks at an unbelievable campus at SUNY Cortland in upstate New York. We had fields unlike any I have ever seen before, dorm rooms, meeting rooms, and a kick-ass cafeteria. As a player and as a coach, you literally could not ask for anything better. I mean, after seeing that on TV, who wouldn’t want to be a Jet? That’s exactly what we wanted to get out of Hard Knocks.
Not everyone was left with the same impression of us from Hard Knocks, but one thing’s for sure: We were entertaining as hell. Mr. Johnson says he knew people who would leave dinner parties early just to be home in time to watch it. I remember after watching the first episode that I thought it was great. I was entertained, and whether you know us or not, you can’t help but laugh. We have so many stories to tell, and Hard Knocks was kind of a five-hour preview into the environment that we play in. We hooked people just by being us; that’s the coolest thing in the world to me. I think everyone, whether they admit it or not, thought to themselves, “I bet it would be awesome to be a part of the Jets.”
We are building a reputation in the league that is making people want to play our way of football, and that feels so damn good. Thanks to Hard Knocks, people were able to see firsthand that “the same old Jets” are gone. It was a great experience and one that I am truly glad we were given the opportunity to do. Would I do it again? Well, I think it’s probably someone else’s turn.
19. Revis: The Art of the Deal
This is the story of how I got my autographed Satchel Paige baseball for free, sort of. Trust me, I would have rather just bought one.
Let me set the scene: It’s 2 A.M. on September 3, a Friday, and it’s time to get serious. I finally get home early in the morning after our last preseason game in Philadelphia, and I am hoping to get a couple of hours of sleep, but I can’t. The only thing on my mind is that we’re 10 days from opening the season and we’re pretty much screwed. Why? My best defensive player, cornerback Darrelle Revis, is still holding out.
The whole thing with Revis was driving me nuts. I couldn’t say much for most of training camp after we put the gag order on the whole thing, but this was getting ridiculous. Revis was probably on the back page of the New York tabloids more than any athlete in the city during training camp, and he wasn’t even doing anything. Distraction? What do you think?
By now, I’ve got the point he’s not showing up. I don’t think this is right. The kid had three years left on his contract. I know the negotiations hadn’t worked out, and I know he has hard feelings, but we’ve been talking about this deal all off-season. Literally, our first big meeting was way back in February at the scouting combine in Indianapolis. That went on forever. It was the first time I ever met Revis’s agents. They are these two guys from New York, Jonathan Feinsod and Neil Schwartz. Feinsod, it turns out, is a big Jets fan (not that it’s helping get the deal done), but he’s talking and talking about how much he loves the Jets. At one point, he says, “Rex, I’m really pulling for you, because Jets coaches just don’t last. I think Weeb Ewbank was the longest-tenured coach in Jets history.”
I know Weeb because of my dad, and of course this has me thinking, “How long was Weeb here?” I mean, how long do Jets coaches last, really? But the bottom line is that Weeb isn’t here—I am—and we have to work something out. The time for playing around is done. I’ve been pissed at Revis’s agents and I got upset with him, but that doesn’t mean anything anymore. The only thing that matters is that w
e’ve got to have Revis, because he’s special. He changes the game.
Trust me, I know. I was there in 2000 in Baltimore when we had a great defense and won the Super Bowl. Actually, it wasn’t just a great defense, it was a historic defense. You can put that group up against the 1985 Bears, the great defense my dad coordinated. There’s no question in my mind. I have total respect for the Bears, what those players did and what my dad did. The Bears changed the way people viewed defense with the 46. That changed everything. From Ray Lewis to Chris McAlister to Duane Starks to Peter Boulware to Rob Burnett to Mike McCrary, they were off the charts. The two guys who really set everything apart, though, were Sam Adams and Tony Siragusa, the two defensive tackles. Those were my guys. I was in charge of getting them to play hard, and that’s the hardest those sons of bitches ever played.
Those guys were rough and tough, not just on the field, but in everything they did. In the meeting room, at practice, during games, you had to handle those guys a certain way if you wanted to get them going. When I got to Baltimore in 1999, Goose was already there. We brought in Sam in 2000. Trust me when I say that those guys made the whole thing go, because both of them played the best they’d ever played that year. We’re talking about one of the best bull rushers in the history of the game with Siragusa, and Sam could do anything he wanted whenever he felt like it.
This is where I’m coming from with Revis. He’s not a defensive tackle, so people don’t really understand the comparison, but what Revis does is change the X’s and O’s for the opposing teams. He can play any system. You want to play man-to-man, up-in-your-face defense? He can do it. You want to play zone? He can do it. You want to put him on the other team’s best guy all the time? He can do it. You want to put him on a receiving tight end, the kind of player who normally overpowers a cornerback? Revis can do it. We did that in the playoffs against San Diego sometimes.
