SIDELINED JOB
Rex rallies at ESPN, but still pines to be NFL coach
Rex Ryan did not want to work for ESPN. He wanted to keep coaching, wants to keep coaching.
“I think it was a downer for me initially,” Ryan, 55, told The Post as he nears the end of his first season as an ESPN analyst.
“I never really thought about it until I didn’t have a team to coach. That felt really weird. You’ve done something all your life and now it’s, ‘Let’s go do this.’ I pretended that I was excited about it or whatever, but I really wasn’t. It took me a little while to where now I do enjoy it and I look forward to it.”
The disinterest showed in the beginning. Ryan admits he did little preparation and was widely panned as the analyst for the second game of ESPN’s Monday night Week 1 doubleheader.
“I got killed in that one,” Ryan said with a laugh. “That was a disaster or whatever. Obviously, I wasn’t trained to do that. I am sure if I get another shot I will be better, but hey it is what it is. I did the best I could.
“You get advice and people make the mistake of trying to show how smart they were. So, I did this the opposite. I was going to lay back and let everyone do their thing and I’ll chime in whenever. I think that’s the wrong approach. I’ve been in the game a long ass time, and I think I should have taken that perspective instead of trying not to talk over anybody.”
There were built-in broadcast- ing expectations for Ryan. When he became the Jets’ head coach in 2009, his press conferences were appointment viewing as he led the success-starved team to back-toback AFC Championship games. Even as his charisma dwindled with his victory total — first with the Jets then with the Bills — the thought around the industry was that his personality would make for an easy transition from the sideline to the booth or studio.
After Ryan parted ways with Buffalo at the end of last season, ESPN quickly added him for their Super Bowl coverage then as fulltime analyst in the offseason for the network’s new-look “Sunday Countdown” crew. After the rough start, Ryan said he believes he has grown more comfortable in his role thanks to a steady diet of game film and reading up on teams around the league.
“I enjoy preparing for these games now, where before it was like whatever,” Ryan said. “I am trying to get perspective to give a different side of it than what the viewers can understand. ‘This is how I am going to attack a team, this is how I am going to defend them.’ I think I am doing a better job of it now.”
His trademark bluster also has returned, creating the viral moments ESPN craves with a takedown of President Trump and a war of words with Geno Smith, his former quarterback with the Jets.
But it still isn’t home. Ryan grew up a football coach’s son then worked his way right into his father’s footsteps becoming one of the most feared defensive coordinators in the NFL for the Ravens before taking the Jets job in 2009. That’s where he still believes he belongs.
“Everything. I miss it all,” Ryan said about coaching. “It’s the competitor in me, there’s no scoreboard in this thing. I miss the preparation for game week and all the things. I miss the draft and getting prepared for that. I grew up in this business, that’s all I’ve ever known. Thirty years of coaching, being around my dad [Buddy Ryan] forever. That’s the part I miss, every damn thing.”
But Ryan said for now he will not leave ESPN for anything less than an NFL head-coaching job. He may need patience, as his name has yet to be mentioned as a candidate this offseason.
“I want to give this a shot [at ESPN],” Ryan said. “A lot of the guys don’t get the opportunity I have doing some of this. I want to give it a fair shake and if the right thing doesn’t come along in coaching then I am not taking it.”