New York Jets coach Rex Ryan said Monday that the idea that the Jets were a "circus" is one the team can and will use as motivation this season. And after sunday's 48-28 victory over the Buffalo Bills the Jets certainly have the upperhand on the doubters.
↵Here are excerpts from Ryan's appearance on the Michael Kay Show on ESPN Radio New York, provided by Sports Radio Interviews.
↵↵It seems, talking to players, that you were chapped about the team being labeled a circus. Is that true?:
↵"I was a little bit, because I think our team deserves a lot better than that kind of comment. We are a team. We feel great about each other. We know the kind of work that all these guys are putting in — these assistant coaches and all our players are doing a phenomenal job and working extremely hard. I don’t think that’s really fair. Judge us for who we are right now. We think we’re a good football team and this season, we get to prove it."
↵Did you use that as motivation?:
↵"I don’t know about motivation. I think I did tell them that I thought we had the league right where we wanted them. A lot of people weren’t giving us a whole lot of respect because of the fact we struggled scoring in the preseason and things like that. Again, there’s a lot of teams that maybe will show more of their hand, but being a brand-new staff, coming here, we felt confident that, ‘Let’s just show some base things and then unleash everything that opening week.’ That’s basically what we tried to do."
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