When Rex Ryan took over as head coach of the New York Jets, one of his first moves was to bring over some of his trusted players from Baltimore. He encouraged the team to sign linebacker Bart Scott and safety Jim Leonhard, and the moves paid off for the Jets.
While Rex brought in his own guys, he also had to figure out the role of some of the organization’s incumbents. One such player was safety Kerry Rhodes who generally has good numbers but ended up in Ryan’s doghouse. Ryan wasn’t fond of Rhodes’ playing style and even benched him during the ’09 season.
Rhodes signed a free agent deal with Arizona and recorded 90 tackles, four interceptions, and two fumbles returned for touchdowns last season. Though he’s been out of mind and out of sight for most Jets fans, Ryan has brought back some of those feelings when a quote from his new book Play Like You Mean it emerged.
According to Rich Cimini, Ryan said about Rhodes “He was a selfish-ass guy. He wouldn’t work and he was a Hollywood type.”
It’s well known that Ryan wasn’t fond of Rhodes, but that’s still a pretty harsh characterization of the player. Give Rhodes credit for the way he’s handled the attack. He called it classless and pretty much stayed quiet while letting his fans do his talking. In other words, he took the high road.
I could call Rex classless for saying that, but this is Rex Ryan. He always speaks his mind so who am I to reprimand him for what he said? Plus, he also called Vernon Gholston a “phony,” in his book but said he defended him after Gholston became one of his guys. This is all about Rex Ryan making headlines the best way he knows how — with his mouth — and while Rhodes is a good player, you can’t deny that Ryan knows how to build a good defense without him.
