Finally New York Jets’ Rex Ryan goes through a change in tone -Part 2
After being eliminated from the playoffs, little change seemed to have taken place in Ryan’s rhetoric. He still insisted that his team could rebound from the loss this season to move on to winning the Super Bowl the next year.
Ryan did not seem to care about any change in the team as well. He was still consistent with his support for Sanchez and Schottenheimer saying he still had confidence in both of his men. In fact he announced his confidence in all of his coaches.
There were calls to fire Schottenheimer and many questioned the capability of Sanchez to lead the team apart from terming Sanchez as not being the long term answer to the team’s problems.
Ryan, though did not seem to mind the loads of criticism that was falling on both these men and he was little worried when players took to hitting out on his quarterback.
Some anonymous players talking to the Daily News had recorded their reservations regarding Sanchez and one player even termed him as being “lazy” and “content”.
That though did not seem to appeal to Ryan, who was quite content with having Sanchez in the team.
The owner of the team, Woody Johnson and general manager, Mike Tannenbaum, along with three other players, guard Matt Slauson, Tight end Dustin Keller and centre Nick Mangold, all came forward to express their support for the quarterback.
While Tannenbaum maintained that the newly hired offensive coordinator, Tony Sparano, would help Sanchez get back on the track, Johnson pointed out that Sanchez was hard working and the first to enter the building and last to leave as well.
Ryan on the other hand, was the staunchest supporter of them all.
He hit out on the anonymous players for their gesture which turned out to be not so bold as they had chosen to keep their names hidden. Ryan said that an “anonymous source” did not speak on behalf of the whole team.
“We do have an open-door policy and we encourage our players to express themselves. 'Saying things and not putting your name on it? That's not being a Jet. So, that's going to change without question'', Ryan said.
However, at this stage Ryan did admit his mistake for not keeping a close eye on the team apart from being just present on the field. That was clearly in reference to the locker room environment.
Tensions have seemingly remained high during this season with the feud between Sanchez and Holmes coming out in the public towards the end of the season.
Backup quarterback, Greg McElroy, had also spoken of the presence of “selfish” people in the locker room and pointed out that the room had a “corrupt mindset”.
Ryan said that he would set things straight in the team and pointed out that the problems of the team were on account of the team not being close together as a group as they have been in the past.
He also agreed that he had not handled the locker room episode well and showed his readiness to make amends by getting more involved in the affairs of the team.
There was some change in his tone as he took responsibility for having misjudged his team this year.
"I got away from that, thinking a head coach is supposed to act a little differently, and it hurt me. I misjudged it, and I've taken full responsibility, and it will not happen in 2012", Ryan said.
That meant that though Ryan was willing to take responsibility over the team’s failure, yet his ambitions had not been curtailed and appeared intent on making way with it.
To be continued...
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