Rex Ryan defends decision to skip Jets’ cuts to attend son’s game
By Mike Dyce
Saturday was the NFL deadline for cuts, but as the New York Jets were making cuts, head coach Rex Ryan was tailgating before the Clemson and LSU game. Pictures of Ryan at tailgates and after the game began popping up on Twitter.
Ryan was at Clemson to watch his son’s team take on Georgia in the premiere game of the opening weekend of college football. Clemson (#8) beat Georgia (#5).
“It’s not like I’m going to be able to go to another game,” Ryan said, per the New York Daily News. “It just so happened that I could make that one: It was a night game. So that’s really what I did. I took advantage of it. It was great. I just played dad there for a day and it was a lot of fun.”
With the proper planning and decision making ahead of time he certainly could have freed up his schedule ahead of time. Ryan did speak with “most of our guys” who were released. It reinforces the notion that general manager John Idzik is running the show and taking away some of Rex’s power.
There were contradicting reports of how it went down.
New York Daily News’ Manish Mehta was told by a team spokesman that Idzik was in “constant communication” with Ryan throughout the day via phone and text.
An unnamed source close to the situation told Mehta that Ryan (has), “got zero influence. (He) doesn’t care and he is letting everyone know. He just shows up for his check… It’s a big F.U. to all the players.”
Antonio Cromartie didn’t see it that way.
“I would take advantage of the opportunity if my son was dressing in his first game,” Cromartie said. “I’m going, too. Family comes first. This is a big family (with the Jets), but we have people in this office and this organization that can handle those things when Rex is not here.”