Rex Ryan heard a little more today about the Baltimore Ravens remarks he made Monday, about being passed over for the Ravens head coaching job last year and about his feelings on the Ravens handing out uniform No. 99, Michael McCrary's old number, to rookie LB Paul Kruger.
And one or two columnists probed the Jets head coach on if he'll be moderating his free-wheeling remarks once the buzzsaw of the regular season begins.
"I probably won't call out Channing Crowder again," he said. "That really got blown up. I'll pick on a kicker or something."
And on the jersey number, Rex replied, "I just knew what Michael McCrary meant to the organization and to me. I shouldn't speak about somebody else's team. It's not my organization but it was my player. That's kind of why I said what I said."
"I'm going to be myself. I'm going to be true to myself," Ryan said. "I'm not trying to be disrespectful. When I said what I said about Bill Belichick, I was just letting him know we're in same position. He happens to have a lot of Super Bowl trophies and I don't have a win yet — I appreciate you point that out. But you don't just tiptoe through this thing.
"We're going to be ourselves and I'm going to be myself and that's just the way it is."
The Jets coach also said he had his reasons for stirring the crabpot with the Ravens.
"I really do want them at their best," he explained. "I want to judge our team against a great team. I guess you can make arguments that they were the third-best, fourth-best team, but they were a play or two away from maybe being a Super Bowl champion last year. That's what you want to measure yourself up against. I know it's still a preseason game, but you're still competing against Ray Lewis, Ed Reed, Joe Flacco over there. I'm excited about that."
Rex's bottom line: "We're going to be ourselves and I'm going to be myself and that's just the way it is."
