Rex Ryan Explains Why He's 'Obsessed' With The Patriots
By Michael Hurley, CBS Boston
BOSTON (CBS) -- Somehow, no matter what the current topic of conversation may be, Rex Ryan typically has a way of steering it back to Bill Belichick, Tom Brady and the New England Patriots.
Going all the way back to his first days as head coach of the New York Jets, he stated he "never came here to kiss Bill Belichick's rings" and that he's "not intimidated by New England." From that point on, the names Brady and Belichick were never far from Ryan's lips, a tradition that continues now in his first year at the helm of the Buffalo Bills franchise.
In many ways, it's a natural part of being in the same division with a team that's on a 15-year stretch of unparalleled success. Any coach worth his salt would dedicate as much time and effort as possible toward defeating that league juggernaut that shows up on the schedule twice every year.
But with Rex, it does seem that his fixation on the Patriots may sometimes leak over into other parts of his life, or in his preparation for games against other teams. It was, after all, just last week when he had a big game against his former team but stated that he only circles Patriots games on his calendar.
So on Thursday, the simple question was posed to Rex: Why are you so obsessed with the Patriots?
"It's no different than any other week. That's the honest to goodness truth," Ryan said. "Now the reason they say obsessed, I want what they have. They've won some rings or whatever. I ain't kissing them, but I respect them. I admire the fact that they've been that successful through the years. But that's what I'm chasing. I want to win, man. I mean that's as simple as that and to do it ... if you really want to be the very best then you gotta go ahead and beat this team. You got to find ways to beat them and that's what drives me. I don't want to just beat some, you know, some whoever. You know some local school. West Seneca High School. "
Ryan, who is 4-10 against Belichick in his career as a head coach, seemingly admitted that he spends more time than he'd like when talking about New England's coach.
"You guys know how I feel about him," Ryan said Thursday. "But I'm tired of saying, 'Hey, he's the best.' Yeah, no kidding, and anybody who says he's not is full of whatever. So with that being said, I'm gonna say he's not very good. "
But through it all, knowing that New England is 9-0 and already own a 40-32 victory over his Bills this year, Ryan said (in his perpetually sarcastic tone) that he'd rather not be facing the Patriots this week.
"Well," he said, "I'd much rather play somebody else. But this is the team that's on the schedule and here we come. They're gonna get our very best, they know that. Without question. New England knows we're gonna give everything we have."