Rex Ryan Spews A Bunch Of Nonsense About Brady-Belichick Debate
By Matthew Geagan, CBS Boston
BOSTON (CBS) -- In a time when the country is itching for some sports, ESPN continues to fail us. Rather than just replay amazing games from yesteryear, they're giving us Rex Ryan.
Rex Ryan sandwiched between Stephen A. Smith and Max Kellerman to boot. We all deserve better.
Following Tom Brady's fantastic interview with Howard Stern on Wednesday, the great debate of Brady Vs. Bill Belichick was back in the spotlight. With Brady signing with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers this offseason, the debate rages on over which figurehead of the New England Super Bowl factory had the greater impact on the team's success.
It's an argument Brady dismissed as being baloney, though he used a different word thanks to the freedoms one has on satellite radio. Enter Rex, who loves to roll around in ... baloney.
"It was definitely Tom Brady," Ryan said on Wednesday's First Take. "If I've got to take one I'm taking Brady."
Ryan had some decent battles against the Patriots during his days on the New York Jets sidelines, and even got the better of Brady and Belichick in a playoff game at Gillette. He took New York to back-to-back AFC title games with Mark Sanchez as his quarterback, but his only Lombardi Trophy is from his days as the defensive line coach of the Baltimore Ravens.
On Wednesday, Rex was adamant that things would have been a lot different if he had Brady as his quarterback, thus concluding that Brady was the most important piece to New England's 20-year run of success.
"I'd be sitting back here with [a bookshelf] full of Super Bowl trophies," he said, sitting in front of a bookshelf full of Super Bowl trophies that belong to his father and brother. "I truly believe that because I know I was a great coach. But nobody is going to give me credit.
"Give him Geno Smith ... and let's see how many Super Bowls he would have won."
— First Take (@FirstTake) April 8, 2020
Rex Ryan to people who say Belichick would have been just as successful without Tom Brady. pic.twitter.com/3LsYOQblIj
"You give me a quarterback, somebody like Tom Brady, and we'll see how many of those I would have won. Make no mistake, Belichick is the best of all time. I don't disagree.," he relented. "If you give him an excellent quarterback -- Philip Rivers may be a Hall of Fame quarterback. Let's give him somebody else, let's give him [former Jets quarterback] Geno Smith, let's give him whoever, and let's see how many Super Bowls he would have won.
"We saw the answer was zero in Cleveland," he continued. "He never won in Cleveland. Had a good football team but never won in Cleveland. These two needed each other to be historic, and that's exactly what they are."
Ryan said both Brady and Belichick would have still had Hall of Fame careers without each other, but they'll go down as their respective GOATs because they were together. So Brady and Belichick would have been great on their own, just not as great as they were together. It's like Ryan got halfway through his "victory lap" before realizing he was dispelling his own theory.
Sounds like another baloney sandwich served up by one Rex Ryan, one with a heft side of salt.