Rex Ryan says the Jets didn’t want to fire him

Jan 14, 2015; Orchard Park, NY, USA; Buffalo Bills head coach Rex Ryan speaks during a press conference at ADPRO Sports Training Center. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Hoffman-USA TODAY Sports
Jan 14, 2015; Orchard Park, NY, USA; Buffalo Bills head coach Rex Ryan speaks during a press conference at ADPRO Sports Training Center. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Hoffman-USA TODAY Sports /
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The New York Jets are in turmoil yet again, but this time Rex Ryan has nothing to do with it — even if he thinks management would want it otherwise. 

Rex Ryan was the perfect head coach for the New York Jets. He was the guy that team deserved, as he was as loud, brash an unapologetic as the fan base is.

He was a mirror image of the people who buy Jets tickets year in and year out — he was one of them.

But he’s not anymore, and Rex Ryan is trying to tell us that it wasn’t his choice to leave New York and it wasn’t that of owner Woody Johnson either. In a tease for the upcoming episode of Real Sports on HBO, Ryan tells Andrea Kramer that Johnson didn’t want to fire him last season but had to with the regime change.

Rex Ryan has always been outspoken, but he’s also never been a guy who hasn’t shot completely straight. When the Jets were bad, he openly criticized his own team and himself and it’s helped us believe everything he’s ever said.

That probably won’t change here, as there is evidence to back up Rex’s claim that the Jets didn’t want to fire him. There was that extension he got in the most os distain past that seemed to give him some security and indicate the Jets were sticking with him. He could have easily been fired — and likely would have under different management — before 2014 but he was kept around New York for another year.

Of course, nothing lasts forever and the Jets were bound to move on at some point. But it sounds like Rex is giving off the impression that they still haven’t done that and after the way things have gone, who can blame them?

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