Rex Ryan signs with ESPN for a Super Bowl Sunday show
Well, it's about time.
Rex Ryan was fired as coach of the Buffalo Bills on Dec. 27 and, finally, he has gotten what everyone has suspected: a TV gig. He had plenty of options, with CBS, Fox, the NFL Network and ESPN reaching out, according to Sports Business Journal's John Ourand, but has settled on ESPN - for one day only.
That could change, Ourand reported. But for now, Ryan will appear only on "NFL Sunday Countdown" from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. CT on Super Bowl Sunday.
"Rex is a great personality and has a unique perspective," Seth Markman, ESPN's senior coordinating producer, told Ourand. "He knows the Patriots really well. He's raring to go."
Ryan, a grad of Stevenson High School, is the son of late Bears defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan. Rob Ryan, Rex's twin, an assistant head coach at Buffalo, also was fired by the Bills in December.
Rex Ryan certainly knows the Patriots. His Bills handed New England one of its two losses this season, while Tom Brady was serving his suspension, but his relationship with the Patriots and Bill Belichick goes back further, to his days with the Jets. In both places, Ryan did his best to poke the bear that rules the AFC East - and has a 5-12 record against Belichick to show for it.
"I never came here to kiss Bill Belichick's, you know, rings," Ryan famously said when he was hired by the Jets. "I came to win. Let's just put it that way. So we'll see what happens. I'm certainly not intimidated by New England or anybody else."
Ryan's comments have been tinged with self-awareness. After a 45-10 loss to the Patriots, he said of Belichick, "I came in here to kick his butt and he kicked mine."
And he once pretended to be a reporter on a conference call with Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman.
It hasn't been all yuks, though.
"I think my admiration is really for Belichick more than anything," Ryan said last September. "As a coach, that's the guy. He'll go down as probably the best in the history of the game. I like poking fun at him and all that stuff, but there's no coach I respect more than him."