NY Times: Ryan vs Ryan

[DieselPusher]

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November 8, 2010
Jets-Browns Is Next Battleground for Ryan vs. Ryan

By GREG BISHOP

The brothers Ryan remember only highlights from their infamous college fisticuffs at Southwestern Oklahoma State. The fight started in the dormitory and spilled outside, where two friends suffered broken noses attempting to make peace.
By brawl’s end, Rex Ryan’s shirt had been torn off. His twin brother, Rob, broke both an ankle and his nose. Yet almost instantly, all was forgiven. The Ryans went soon after to the Super Bowl, where their father, Buddy, served as defensive coordinator for the 1985 Chicago Bears.
There, the Ryans partied in New Orleans, walking everywhere to save on cab fare. Rob complained of foot pain — oh, shut up, his brothers told him — and later discovered the bottom of his cast had disappeared.
“They tried to tell our stepmother that Rob fell down a flight of stairs,” said Jim Ryan, their older brother, an attorney in St. Louis. “My dad was sitting there with a look on his face, like, yeah, right.”
The Ryan rivalry continues Sunday, when Rex and the Jets travel to Cleveland, where Rob serves as the Browns defensive coordinator. This being the Ryan brothers, the already record levels of trash talk amplified in recent weeks.
Rob, speaking from the Browns’ facility near Cleveland, pointed to early victories (Tennessee State over Morehead State) as a college assistant and noted he owned more Super Bowl rings (two to one). Rex said in a telephone interview that he triumphed the last three times they stood on opposing sidelines and never lost to Rob in the N.F.L.
The trash talk even extended into Wiffle Ball, a Ryan family pastime.
Rob: “I absolutely kill him. His bat’s tardy.”
Rex: “He’s delusional. I buckle him with the knuckle curve. He’s never been the same since I hit him in the head with a golf ball when we were 10.”
Growing up in Toronto, the Ryan brothers played backyard football, with Jim, older by 6 years, pitted against the twins. Their games had one rule: if you did not dispense cheap shots, you were penalized. In one contest, Rex or Rob, Jim cannot remember which, slid down a snow bank into a moving vehicle. In another, Rob celebrated before he reached the goal line, then turned smack into a tree.
After hundreds of such games, the twins reached high school, and days of Ryan versus Ryan and Ryan ended. In their final meeting, Jim said, “Rex dropped me and Rob kept laughing at me while stepping on my face.”
The Ryans played all sports with similar abandon, much like the defenses they coach, physical and tough. They played hockey (Rex as goalie, Rob on defense), basketball (camped underneath the basket and fouling on every play) and football, at least when they were allowed. They were booted from their youth football league in Canada for tackling too hard.
Over the years, according to Jim, Rob proved the more talented trash talker and the more accident prone twin, the kind of kid who once fell from a tree and broke his arm. Rex was the more politically savvy of the two, and, Jim confirmed, the Wiffle Ball King. Rob, Jim continued, is more like their father and more like a pirate because of his long hair.
Both brothers speak in expletives as much as English. Both possess matching, mountainous midsections. Both are considered brilliant defensive strategists, a notion sometimes overshadowed by their bluster and brutal honesty. Even their sentences sound the same.
Rob: “When Rex won the Super Bowl, I was jacked. I was talking so much mess. It was (expletive) awesome.”
Rex: “When Rob won the Super Bowl, I was surrounded by St. Louis fans, talking mess the whole game. When Brady led them down the field, it was (expletive) awesome.”
Buddy Ryan pushed his sons into anything but coaching. But it was clear, even in college, that the twins would follow him into the family business.
Even then they started at the bottom. Rex coached at Eastern Kentucky, New Mexico Highlands and Morehead State. Rob coached at Western Kentucky, Tennessee State and Hutchinson Community College. Sometimes, while at different schools, they helped each other in recruiting, sharing information, tips.
Eventually, Jim convinced Buddy to hire the twins in Arizona in 1994. But when the Cardinals tanked that following season, Buddy’s worst fears — accusations of N.F.L. nepotism — were realized.
The Jets assistant Jeff Weeks attended college with the Ryans, who he labeled the two most loyal people he ever met. In little league, Rex borrowed Rob’s contact lens and smacked a two-run homer. In football, they often double-teamed opponents instead of completing their respective assignments.
Rex estimated the brothers were in more than 100 fights. Only rarely did they square off against each other (like the epic battle, or once on Easter). As ballboys in Chicago, they nearly fought a Buffalo defensive back after one game.
“There’s probably a top 10 fight list out there that would blow your mind,” Weeks said. “I’ve never tried either of them. And I never will.”
Just like they helped each other recruit at different colleges, they share inside information in the pros. When the Jets played in the American Football Conference championship game last season, the twins and Weeks met nightly in Rex’s hotel room, where they studied film and exchanged ideas.
That loyalty is reciprocated by their players, who see real people in the Ryans, who held paper routes and tarred roofs and worked construction, who give honest assessments, who send defenses after quarterbacks like swarms of bees. Against New Orleans this season, Rob received a Gatorade shower from his players.
With Rex’s instant success last season, and with the Browns’ striking victories over the Saints and New England the last two weeks, Rob “will be shocked” if he does not join Rex as an N.F.L. head coach next year.
On Sunday, they will continue to take part in an interesting triangle, because Rob works under Coach Eric Mangini, who Rex replaced with the Jets when they fired Mangini following the 2008 season. Mangini is as reserved as the Ryans are outspoken, but he called Rob “a great counterbalance” and “the minister of trash talking.”
All three played down the potential awkwardness of the dynamic. Rob, in typical Ryan fashion, labeled Mangini “a special guy. I mean, he hires me as defensive coordinator, probably his most important hire.” And Rex, also in typical Ryan fashion, said Rob remains “loyal as hell to Eric. He would fight for him.”
Soon the latest installment of Ryan versus Ryan will commence. For all the talk, Weeks predicted the twins would embrace afterward, perhaps even shed a tear. Until then, they will continue talking.
Rob said: “I got a lot to look forward to. All I hear is this mess about how he kicks my butt all the time. We’re ready. We’re going to beat him.”
Rex said: “He’s drinking too many beers. I’m losing count of all my wins. I’ve always been able to whip him, and this year will be no different.”

[Vegasdogg]

Sound like cool dudes to have a beer with after we kick the Jets asses.

[TheBestPlayersPlay]

LOL Nice article, thanks.

[Enigmatic Evil]

I think they'll make a big deal about the brothers facing off, and if this story overshadows the Braylon/Browns confrontation I will gladly take it. I don't like Rex Ryan, he's loud mouthed, he's out there, I guess he's a perfect fit for New York but I do not like the guy's attitude. It's cool that they get to play out their sibling rivalry, so to speak, on a stage such as the NFL gridiron.

Interesting note, I had no idea they grew up in Toronto.

[Speed Dawg]

Good read. A lot of us grew up that way. Bleedin in the back yard. Oh.... the memories.

[BrownieBornAndRaised]

another article about the Ryan Bowl.

NFL.com news: When the Ryan twins meet, it's always a 'buddy' bowl

[plumcrazy73]

always wondered why rex never hired rob as his DC

[Sez.EJ]

Rex is a loudmouth blowhard.. and I'm starting to hate the Jets as much as I do the Steelers and Cowboys because of his arrogant big mouth.. I hope we jam them up good.

[Tobalaz]

Originally Posted by Enigmatic Evil

I think they'll make a big deal about the brothers facing off, and if this story overshadows the Braylon/Browns confrontation I will gladly take it.

Ditto.
Last thing I want to hear about is the trash coming back.

[Alo]