Much has stayed the same and a lot has changed since Rex Ryan was the head coach of the New York Jets.
Ryan, 59, is still into feet. The difference is now he’s willing to joke about what he called a “personal matter” in 2010.
After Aaron Rodgers quipped that Ryan probably enjoyed a video of his injured toe last month, the coach-turned-analyst poked fun at himself while talking about the Green Bay Packers quarterback’s performance against the Chicago Bears on Sunday Night Football.
Reacting to Rodgers saying that his injured toe had gotten worse during Green Bay’s beatdown of the Bears on national television, Ryan told the Get Up! crew he was a “toe expert” and that there was nothing wrong with the Packers QB. Ryan’s remark prompted Mike Greenberg and Dan Orlovsky to crack up and Ryan Clark to walk off the set of ESPN’s morning show. Orlovsky later responded to a clip of the moment on Twitter with the laughing-crying emojis and “Rex.”
“To be honest, and I get it, I know you need to ask and all that stuff,” Ryan told reporters when asked about his liking for feet when he was coaching the Jets. “But it’s a personal matter and I’m really not going to discuss it, OK?”
In a related story, Sunday Night Football analyst Cris Collinsworth praised Rodgers for his honesty during NBC’s broadcast of the Bears-Packers game despite the quarterback blatantly misleading the public about his vaccination status against COVID-19 by saying he was “immunized.”
“He doesn’t care. Have you seen a guy, and in particular this year, be more honest about everything?” Collinsworth said. “You may not agree with everything he says, but we have heard from the beginning of this entire season exactly what he thinks about everything.”
Confusing at best, Collinsworth’s commentary was obviously meant to be complimentary to Rodgers and may have at least partially been referencing the 38-year-old sticking by telling Chicago fans “I own you” earlier in the season.
“I don’t know if you can question a whole lot of what I said,” Rodgers said last week, via Ryan Wood of the Green Bay Press-Gazette. “We’ve had a good record over the years against them and won a lot of games.”
Rodgers and the Packers beat the Bears again on Sunday and if Collinsworth wants to compliment that, have at it. But to praise Rodgers for his honesty is, truthfully, just plain dumb.
Maybe he should talk to Ryan about putting his foot in his mouth.
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