REX ASSAULTS SENSES
Ryan crossed line grabbing man who slugged Geno
REX RYAN is a brilliant defensive mind but he can be pretty offensive. He disrespected the Jets and the NFL by claiming linebacker IK Enemkpali off waivers one day after the Jets cut him for assaulting Geno Smith in the locker room. Smith had his jaw broken, required surgery and is out 6-10 weeks.
This is a cutthroat business, but Ryan should have stayed away from Enemkpali out of respect for the Jets by refusing to give a job to a player who’d just committed an unforgivable act of workplace violence and who will likely get suspended by Roger Goodell for violating the personal conduct policy.
Ryan couldn’t resist adding a marginal player to a defense he probably believes is already better than the ’85 Bears’. Even more important, Ryan couldn’t resist the opportunity to stick it to the Jets, who are still trying to cleanse themselves of the culture Ryan developed in his six years in Florham Park.
Too often common decency is a casualty when it comes to winning at all costs, and Ryan has crossed the line. Then again, is anybody surprised? He already signed Richie Incognito. He’s gone from New York to Buffalo and desperately doesn’t want to be forgotten.
Ryan is a showman and enjoys making himself a target. He can’t wait to talk about how the fans will boo him when he returns to MetLife Stadium when the Bills play the Jets on Nov. 12. There’s nothing that fires him up more than playing the part of the villain.
He can go on all he wants about how well he knows Enemkpali after the linebacker played for him as a rookie last year and that he’s a good teammate, but how can Ryan hire a guy one day after he beat up his former quarterback? Even if Smith owed Enemkpali $600, do you really want a guy on your team who only knows how to settle things with his fists?
The NFL is a league of second chances — Adrian Peterson, Greg Hardy, etc. — but that usually comes after they are forced to sit out. Enemkpali was unemployed for 24 hours. It’s not like it was Lawrence Taylor who just became available. It was a guy the average Jets fan had never heard of before he lost it with Smith.
Woody Johnson gave Ryan his first chance to be a head coach, and kept him around for six years when he didn’t have a winning record in any of the last four seasons after raising expectations with AFC title game appearances in his first two years.
The two biggest mistakes Johnson made with Ryan: He should have fired him after he fired GM Mike Tannenbaum following the 2012 season. Then, he stuck him with John Idzik as his general manager the last two years. After signing Enemkpali, in a typical self-serving comment, Ryan claimed he was going to be blamed for what happened because “I get blamed for everything that goes on there.”
Ryan may have also picked up Enemkpali to pick his brain about Todd Bowles’ defense and what’s going on with the Jets. That type of espionage is done all the time in the NFL. Bill Belichick and Ryan always seemed to be picking at each other’s leftovers in the weeks before the Jets play the Patriots.
BIG TOM
Tom Brady will take a fine but no suspension and wants to be absolved of any blame for how those footballs got deflated. The NFL, according to ESPN, wants him to accept the findings of the Wells Report before it negotiates a settlement of his four-game suspension. If he admits guilt, then he’s admitting he’s a cheater and a liar. He would sooner beg for a trade to the Jets before doing something like that. Brady must have become even more entrenched in his position when he listened to U.S. District Court Judge Richard Berman rip apart the Wells Report in court on Wednesday. The lawyers are back in Berman’s court this Wednesday but Brady and Goodell are not required to attend. Brady will be in West Virginia with the Patriots in a joint practice with the Saints.
NOT APPEALING
I asked a former player who was a key member of the NFLPA executive committee in 2011 whether the union blew it by not pressing to have Goodell removed as the hearing officer during the CBA talks that occurred as the lockout ate up the offseason. “Should we have risked losing a season for a couple guys?” he said. “It was for the greater good. Plus, the owners made it non-negotiable.”
There are just a handful of players each year who file appeals that Goodell actually hears. As the lockout dragged right to the start of training camp, the union was pressured to cut a deal so the players didn’t lose any regularseason paychecks. Another union source said as much as they wanted to remove Goodell from hearing appeals, the owners wanted to keep him there even more. One of the items the union received in return was the elimination of two-a-days in training camp. The issue with Goodell has become so big now because it affects Brady in a high-profile case.
ROAD WARRIOR
I had an interesting week travelling around: Tuesday: Chicago — NFL owners meetings in Schaumburg, a Chicago suburb.
After Smith got punched out, I staked out the hallways looking for Woody Johnson, but it turned out this was one of the few owner meetings he did not attend. Team president Neil Glat deferred to comments made by Todd Bowles.
I’ve known Goodell for more than 30 years and have always known him to give direct answers to tough questions. So I was really disappointed by his dancing when asked at his news conference about why the NFL never corrected the ESPN report in the initial days of DeflateGate that 11 of the 12 Patriots footballs tested at halftime of the AFC title game were two pounds under the 12.5 psi minimum. Goodell talked about deferring to Wells and took the next question.
Wednesday: New York — U.S. District Court in lower Manhattan.
I was sitting about five feet behind Brady but he never turned to his left, turned to his right or turned around. Brady had a ticked off look the entire time. NFLPA attorney Jeffrey Kessler is quite theatrical and put on a great show answering question from Berman. NFL attorney Daniel Nash seemed stunned that Berman came after the league so hard. The courtroom proceedings ended around 1 p.m. The parties then entered separate conference rooms and the media left the courthouse. We waited on Worth Street until Goodell and Brady left a few minutes apart around 5:30 p.m. without commenting. A few hours earlier, a man walked by a media contingent and told us to go cover real news. I turned to Judy Battista of the NFL Network and said, “He’s not wrong.” Thursday: Foxborough — Gillette Stadium
Brady was the surprise starter in the Pats’ preseason opener. He played two series, seven plays, less than three minutes of clock time. Why did Belichick play him? “We played a lot of players tonight,” he said with great insight, prompting a follow-up of whether it was a last-minute decision. “We played all the guys that could play,” he said. Oh. I looked for Jim McNally’s alleged DeflateGate bathroom, hoping to be led there by a trail of football inflation/deflation needles just like in the Hansel and Gretel fairy tale. No luck.
Brady was gone from the locker room before the media was allowed in. He has not spoken to the media since camp opened. Can’t remember that ever happening with a starting QB two weeks into camp, but this is an unusual situation: He’s suing the NFL, and lawyers have advised him not to talk until the case is resolved.
FORGOTTEN ISLAND
Darrelle Revis was a one-year hired gun for the Patriots and it paid off for both of them with a Super Bowl title. Revis is gone and pretty much forgotten in Foxborough. Former Eagles corner Bradley Fletcher is wearing Revis’ No. 24 and occupies his old locker. Super Bowl hero Malcolm Butler has emerged as New England’s best corner.