Rex Ryan Is a Media Fairy Tale

It has been a strange offseason on the coaching carousel. Black Monday went more or less as expected, although this year there has been a lot less "firing" and a lot more "parting ways." But it's now been almost three weeks since the vacancies began announcing themselves, and hot commodities like Mike Shanahan and Detroit defensive coordinator Teryl Austin are still waiting to hear back. They had to wait their turn behind the market's number one coaching commodity, the first man given a job: Rex Ryan.

How did Ryan become the leader in this field? His firing at the end of the regular season had been a certainty for weeks; a high probability for months, and a rumor for years, going back, perhaps, as far as the end of the 2012 season.

As far as the numbers go, it's hard to describe Ryan as anything but a middling head coach. His career record is 46-50, he managed double-digit wins in one of his team's six seasons (11-5 in 2010) and made the playoffs twice, both times as a wild card. In terms of yardage, the Ryan Jets were a top-10 defense five times in six years; and they were a bottom-10 offense five times in six years. His teams won no Super Bowls, no Conference Championships, no Division Championships. In Jets history, Ryan's career winning percentage of .479 ranks just below Herm Edwards' .488.

But Rex Ryan has rarely been judged by numbers, or even by on-field success. Rex Ryan is a walking metaphor, like Moby Dick, or the Captain from Cool Hand Luke. Rex Ryan is a state of mind. His brazen self-involvement, his disarming vulnerability and candor, his clownish antics: these are the qualities he is measured by. None of these traits is especially valuable in a leader of men, but Ryan has consistently deployed them to charm his players, and most especially the media.

In 2014, as the Jets' losses accumulated, the drumbeat in Ryan's favor only seemed to get louder. The Fire John Idzik PAC was formed, presumably on the premise that Ryan would win with better players, which Idzik the GM could not conjure up. He was called a "damn good coach" in the spiteful Boston media after almost beating (i.e., losing to) the Patriots. After Ryan's firing became a reality, Grantland's Matt Taibbi offered some particularly creative words of praise, calling Ryan a "genius underdog coach," (a phrase that presumably means something like "smart guy who loses") and praising his two AFC Championship game appearances as "rank[ing] with the greatest stretches of coaching in the history of the league," which seems like a pretty creative collaging of the facts. Maybe the success of those two years is rivaled by Marvin Lewis' six one-and-done playoff appearances, or Norv Turner's three straight playoff appearances without making the Super Bowl.

Perhaps it is these sorts of columns that put Ryan at the top of the coaching ladder. His failures on offense are well known and well documented, even by his supporters, but there are some other black marks on Ryan's resume that, somehow, have seemed to vanish from the discussion of who he is. Sure, Mark Sanchez has proven inadequate as a passer (though decidedly better at USC and with the Eagles), but nobody seems to remember that Ryan, whose initiative was part of the reason the Jets traded up for him in the first place, was largely responsible for the preseason injury that derailed Sanchize's career for 12 months. Or, they just choose not to mind.

Nor do they seem to mind that this seems to be a pattern for Ryan--first coveting an offensive player, then winding up in some sort of absurd, drawn-out standoff with him .Isn't this what happened with Santonio Holmes? With Tim Tebow? With Plaxico Burress and Braylon Edwards? Could any of these mishaps be related to the Jets' problems on offense?

Under Ryan, the Jets were a brash, uninhibited bunch. Their attitude brought some swagger to the field--and to the press room. But it also led to "toxic" locker rooms and sometimes public trouble. His players repeatedly stated that they wanted to play for him, but were unable to translate that feeling into consistent winning football.

Good coaches are often seen as father figures, but Rex Ryan is more like an older brother. Leave him in charge for the weekend, and he'll make things fun. Order a pizza and beers, have some girls over. But put him in charge indefinitely, and it's a different story. The house is going to be a disaster, and someone may have to call the cops.

Ryan will bring some charisma and defensive acumen to the Bills, no question. They'll show some spirit and get some headlines. But is that enough to get to win? The facts, for whatever they might be worth, suggest otherwise.