Elvis has re-entered the picture.
Rex Ryan interviewed Tuesday in West Palm Beach, Fla., for the Jets head coaching job.
A little more than 10 years ago, the Jets announced his firing via Twitter, ending a six-year stretch that included two AFC Championship game appearances, the first four seasons of the franchise’s current 14-year playoff drought, and more New York Post front and back pages than all of the other coaches in New York football history combined.
Ryan’s repertoire ranged from a foot fetish to a racy tattoo, from a shaggy wig to a goddamn snack, from a flipped bird to running with the bulls, and much more.
Let’s take a look back at the first act of the most colorful Jets figure since Joe Namath.
Green and White (House)
Moments after being introduced as the Jets coach on Jan. 21, 2009, Ryan already was talking about winning championships, as his father Buddy did as an assistant coach for the Jets in Super Bowl III.
“With all the cameras and all that, I was looking for our new president [Barack Obama] back there,” Ryan said. “You know, I think we’ll get to meet him in the next couple years anyway.”
Ring ding
Before coaching his first game as a Jet, Ryan made it clear he knew who the biggest enemy was.
“I never came here to kiss Bill Belichick’s, you know, rings,” Ryan said in a June 3, 2009 interview with WFAN’s Mike Francesa. “I came to win. … I’m certainly not intimidated by New England or anybody else.”
Asked if the Jets needed to send the Patriots a message, Ryan responded: “I think we already have sent a message to them. So they can read between the lines …They can figure it out. And when they come here that second week of the season, we’ll see.” The Jets defeated the Patriots 16-9 in Ryan’s first home game, but Belichick, who already had three Patriots rings, would go on to win three more.
Life after death
Ryan mistakenly said the Jets were eliminated from the playoffs after a 10-7 loss to the Falcons on Dec. 9, 2009 dropped them to 7-7.
“We’re obviously out of the playoffs and that’s unfortunate,” he said.
But the math said otherwise. The Jets finished with wins over the Colts and Bengals and then beat the Bengals again and the Chargers in the playoffs before losing to the Peyton Manning-led Colts in the AFC Championship.
Expensive bird
Six days after losing to the Colts, Ryan attended an MMA event in Sunrise, Fla., and was photographed giving the finger to Dolphins fans. He was fined $50,000 by the Jets.
Talking snack
In what stands as probably the most memorable clip in the history of HBO’s “Hard Knocks” series, Ryan is shown lambasting his players after a sloppy practice, punctuating his tirade with, “Let’s go eat a goddamn snack!”
“The best place to be is when expectations are high.”
A classic moment from Rex Ryan’s time as head coach of the New York Jets. pic.twitter.com/XsX3b9353e
— New York Post Sports (@nypostsports) January 7, 2025
Wigging out
Ahead of a matchup against his brother Rob, who then was the Browns’ defensive coordinator, Ryan attended his daily press conference wearing a shaggy wig, a Browns cap and a t-shirt with a pillow stuffed under it. He said, “I think Rex is a great coach, a great person. He’s very handsome.”
‘Foot’ ball
On Dec. 21, 2010, four videos went viral on the internet, including one featuring a woman who looked like Ryan’s wife, Michelle, displaying her feet for a cameraman, who sounded like Rex. The next day, Ryan refused to answer questions about the video, calling it a personal matter, but did not deny he and Michelle were the people in the videos.
The foot fetish issue has been revisited over the years.
In 2015 as Bills coach, Ryan was posing for a photo in his office and on his desk there was a picture of what appeared to be his wife’s feet in a digital frame.
In 2017, a woman at a bachelorette party at a Nashville bar claimed she met Ryan and that he was flirty and “told me I had nice feet.”
And in 2023 on ESPN, speaking of the Chiefs’ Kadarius Toney’s foot being offside at a key moment in a playoff game, Ryan said, “You know I like toes. I don’t like this toe.”
He’s no Namath
After leading the Jets to two AFC title game appearances, Ryan said in the offseason ahead of the 2011 season: “I believe this is the year we’re going to win the Super Bowl. I thought we’d win it the first two years, but I guarantee you we’ll win it this year.” Not only did that not happen, the Jets have not made the playoffs since this comment was made.
‘Shut up, fat boy!’
The biggest reason the Jets failed to make the playoffs in 2011 was their 29-14 loss to the Giants on Christmas Eve. That was the game that saved the Giants’ season on the way to their Super Bowl championship, and afterward, Giants running back Brandon Jacobs went up to Ryan and reportedly told him, “It’s time to shut up, fat boy.” Jacobs would later tell reporters: “Rex Ryan is a disrespectful bastard. The Jets have a big mouth, big belly coach that talks too much.”
Huge loss
The following summer, Ryan revealed he’d undergone lap band surgery to help him go from 348 pounds in 2009 to 242 in July of 2012.
Tattoo you
Ryan’s wife, Michelle, became part of the story again in January of 2013. The coach was photographed on the beach in the Bahamas sporting a tattoo on his right arm picturing a blonde woman wearing nothing except a Jets No. 6 Mark Sanchez jersey. Ryan eventually replaced that image with Bills-themed ink.
Raging bulls
On July 3, 2013, a video popped up on the internet that showed Ryan running with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain. Ryan is seen clinging to a barricade, trying to hop a wall, and yelling “hold on!” as a bull passes by.
More fine messes
Ryan’s toll for off-the-field profanities during his time with the Jets amounted to $225,000 — including the flipped bird at the MMA match, $75,000 for telling a heckler who said Belichick was better than him to “shut the f–k up” in 2011, and $100,000 for cursing at a fan as he walked off the field after a 2014 win in Pittsburgh.
On behalf of all of the Post’s headline writers, welcome back, Rex — even if it’s only for one day.
