If you talk the talk, you got to walk the walk. This is why most people don't talk the talk. This is especially true in sports where people are afraid they may not be able to walk the walk, so they don't resort to any controversial trash talking. Athletes and coaches often display fake humility and false respect when they talk about the other team and try not to give them any bulletin-board material. Modern day sports is really soft and mellow when it comes to trash talking and hating the rival teams. Blame it on free agency, or the realities of the 24X7 media with a constant eye on everything or may be it's just a more evolved society we live in today. Whatever the reason is, teams don't hate and go after each other in the media like they used to. However, life, like fashion, always goes around in circles and this trend of decency and decorum between teams might be changing too.
At the forefront of this revolution, if you can call it that, are the New York Jets led by Rex Ryan. In 2 years, this guy has single handedly changed the landscape of the NFL. He is brash, loud and anything but shy. His team has taken his lead and they also say and do whatever they want. Antonio Cromartie shocked everybody when he dropped an A-expletive on Tom Brady of all people. Guys don't do that these days, especially with superstar QBs with a spotless image. Of course the Jets were perfectly at ease with such behavior while Bill Belichick, on the other hand, would still not bite. The entire Patriots contingent would not respond, including Brady. I was hoping Brady would take a shot or two, but he probably thought he would win the game and then drop some trash on the Jets. Dude never got a chance. Wes Welker was the only guy who would venture out into the wild, but he got benched by the Hoodie for the first possession of last weekend's game. I thought what Welker did was smart and hilarious. He dropped 11 feet or toe references during the course of a normal interview with an obvious eye on Rex Ryan's "foot porn".
All of this is great for the NFL. The league sure can use a little more character and edge in it'e personalities. People calling each other expletives is not great, but things like what Ryan and Welker did adds a lot of personality to these games and builds rivalries. There are not many quality rivalries right now, but seems like the Jets are building a whole bunch of them all by themselves. A few years back when the NFL re-aligned, they sent a survey to teams asking them to identify their biggest rival. All the teams in the then AFC West (except the Raiders) identified the Oakland Raiders as their primary rival. I think in a year or 2, the New York Jets might be voted as the hated rival by the entire league. Rex Ryan tried his best to piss off Peyton Manning and then Bill Belichick and Tom Brady. But the Jets backed it all up with victories against both the teams. For the second year in a row, they are going to the AFC championship game after 2 road playoff wins. Thats no fluke ladies and gentleman. This team is special and whatever they are doing is working. They can talk and then back it up on the football field.
The Jets win over the Patriots was especially impressive considering they just lost 45-3 at Foxboro few weeks back. Rex doesn't just talk, but also coaches. He came up with a brilliant game-plan to throttle MVP Brady and the Patriots offense and completely changed the game on the hoody. Win or lose, I don't remember hoody getting out-coached too many times, but he was against Ryan and the Jets. Sexy Rexy is brash, loud, funny and he seems to be beloved in his locker room. They want to play for him and win for him. Not sure if his style will work with a mediocre team or a losing team, but he is the king of NY right now as the Jets are a game away from the Super Bowl. They have a legitimate shot at making it to the Super Bowl, though they are unusually gracious and humble towards the Steelers. Not sure why the Steelers are treated so special, but I am sure there is some method to this madness. This seems to be Rex's chosen approach to the Steelers - quite different from his attitude towards the Colts or the Patriots. The Jets did beat the Steelers at the ketchup bottle in December. May be he is scared Polamalu, who missed that game, is going to whack them this time around, which is very likely.
In any case, Jets-Steelers will be a great game. To quote Bart Scott - "can't wait".
1 comment:
Its over now. He did not publicize his matchup with the Steelers and went down in a rather strange game. It was a tale of two halves. The first half dominated by the Steelers and the second half where the Jets had the upper hand. Now onto the Packers versus the Steelers. Its amazing that SI predicted this matchup at the beginning of the season. They changed it to Packers versus Patriots before the playoffs. They might be kicking themselves :)
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