Head coach Rex Ryan and legendary Super Bowl-winning quarterback Joe Namath are, probably, the two biggest personalities in the history of the New York Jets franchise. Can it really come as a shock that the two of them are now sniping at each other?
Broadway Joe went on the Michael Kay Show on ESPN Radio New York Monday and fired a shot across Ryan's bow in the wake of the Jets' 34-24 loss to the Oakland Raiders on Sunday.
"I think these guys might be believing that they're better than they are," opined the 68-year-old Hall of Famer. "Rex has been the only coach that we know, in maybe the history of the game that I'm familiar with, that keeps continually telling his guys how good they are. And they have been pretty good - pretty good - but they haven't won a championship yet," Namath told Kay.
"There's one thing about the athlete. You keep telling him how good he is, he's going to start believing it to the point that he may not be preparing quite the way he should. He may be losing some respect for the other team."
Ryan, typically, fired right back.
"I’m not going to change who I am because Joe Namath said something," Ryan said. "He doesn’t know our team. He’s on the outside. He’s not in these meetings. I think if he was, he’d be shocked with the preparation."
Namath, these days, is really a glorified Jets fan with a variety of radio and Internet forums and a huge following because of his name. He probably isn't the only Jets fan who wishes Ryan wouldn't talk so much. Ryan, of course, is a bombastic personality who is full of bravado and doesn't seem to take kindly to criticism.
You had to figure that sooner or later these two big egos would collide.