Chargers Hired Norv Turner over Rex Ryan

Jets' Ryan would like to thank Chargers -- by beating them

Rex Ryan isn't interested in losing out to Norv Turner. Once was enough.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, you forgot what happened the last time the San Diego Chargers were looking for a head coach. It was February 2007. General manager A.J. Smith interviewed six candidates to succeed Marty Schottenheimer.

Ryan was one of them. Turner was another. And it was Turner who got the job.

Smith won't talk about it, but the feeling within the building then was that Ryan finished second; that he impressed Smith with his knowledge, his confidence and his approach to football and, in some ways, reminded Smith of his friend and former defensive coordinator, Wade Phillips -- who probably would've have gotten the job if he hadn't left for Dallas.

Nevertheless, Smith chose Turner, the Bolts offensive coordinator in 2001, and Ryan went home. Now that he's back, he's not interested in losing to Norv Turner again, and who can blame him?

But before I go further, let me make something clear: I'm talking about Rex Ryan wanting to win this game. He has nothing against Smith or the Chargers organization. In fact, he is grateful to both. He knows that by interviewing him, they brought him to the attention of others, like the New York Jets, and that without Smith and the Chargers he might not be coaching in San Diego on Sunday.

"They made a great hire in Norv Turner, obviously," Ryan said. "[But] I was so excited to get an opportunity to be interviewed. I don't think I was seen in that light as a head-coaching candidate until San Diego put me on the map. A.J. Smith, all those guys. ... What an opportunity for me. I really thank A.J. because he really put me on the map out there. People started to think of me differently than they had in the past."

Ryan has made an immediate impact as a head coach, taking the Jets to the playoffs just as Eric Mangini did in his rookie year. Only he is the anti-Mangini. He is relaxed. He is enormously popular. He pokes fun at himself. He pokes fun at his players. He even pokes fun at New England and head coach Bill Belichick.

Now Ryan is in the headlines again. After saying his team should be favored to win the Super Bowl, he handed out itineraries that included a Super Bowl parade -- a move that caused some nonbelievers to howl in protest and criticize Ryan for providing the enemy with bulletin-board material.

Lighten up, people. While Ryan is a good head coach, he's an even better entertainer, and he understands that the two can be compatible. So he has fun with the media, takes a couple of light-hearted stabs at Miami's Channing Crowder, pumps cornerback Darrelle Revis for Defensive Player of the Year and pushes his club as a Super Bowl favorite.

You have a problem with that? I don't, and the Chargers must not have, either.

They weren't afraid to take a long, hard look at Ryan before turning to Turner. There were others in the mix, guys like Mike Singletary, Gary Gibbs, Mike Zimmer and Ron Rivera, but it was Turner and Ryan who led the field ... and it is Turner and Ryan who lead the field again today.

Turner's Chargers have won their past 11 and Ryan's Jets won six of their past seven. Something has to give Sunday, and let's hope it's not the personality that Ryan brings to the game.

"I'm going to be the same person I've always been, and somebody who has a great belief," he said this week. "I believe in myself, and I believe in this organization from top to bottom, and I've said that from Day 1. I'm not going to apologize for anything I say. I don't think I need to. If a team wants to use it as motivation that I really believe in our football team then that's fine."

The San Diego Chargers don't need motivation. They need two more victories to go to the Super Bowl for the second time in franchise history. They will do it with Norv Turner. They could've done it with Rex Ryan.

But if they had ... if they had made another decision three years ago ... Sunday's game wouldn't be taking place. Moreover, I don't know that Turner would be a head coach anywhere, and I don't know that Ryan would be a head coach anywhere, and that would be more than a loss. It would be a mistake.


http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/story/12792449/jets-ryan-would-like-to-thank-chargers-by-beating-them



There is a GOD!!!

 

I wonder how much Rex's weight had anything to do with him being rejected by teams he applied for