NFL

Do Rex Ryan and Channing Crowder Need to Get a Room?

Posted Jun 10, 2009 3:52PM By Dan Graziano (RSS feed)

Filed Under: Dolphins, Jets, Patriots, AFC East, NFL Training Camp

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Jets coach Rex Ryan is spicing up the off-season with a verbal sparring match with Dolphins LB Channing Crowder.FLORHAM PARK, N.J. -- Look, the NFL offseason is freaking boring. I know, I know, if you're reading this, you're a die-hard and you can't get enough NFL news, even in June. But the fact is there's little-to-nothing going on this time of year. Which is why you've got to love Jets coach Rex Ryan and Dolphins linebacker Channing Crowder for spicing things up the way they have the past couple of days.

Ryan and Crowder have been hooked up in a little war of words for the past week. And their dispute, rooted in Ryan's tough talk about not being intimidated by anybody else in the AFC East and Crowder's hurt feelings on behalf of a division-champion team that he feels isn't being given enough credit for its 2008 accomplishment, continued today.

Ryan opened his news conference in the middle of the Jets' mandatory minicamp by saying, "First of all, Channing Crowder had a rebuttal."

This drew laughter, and Ryan went on, trying to keep a straight face.

"I love it," he said. "The only thing I'm going to say is -- and let's see if he can top this -- I've walked over tougher guys going to a fight than Channing Crowder."

This brought perceptibly more laughter, and Ryan joined in.

"It's funny," he said. "This dude is going to kill me. But it'll be good. We'll make that trade. Throw us both out; we'll make that trade. I don't think it'd hurt that much anyway. You can't hit what you can't see."

The rebuttal to which Ryan referred came in this morning's Miami Herald, and seemed to focus on Ryan's comment from Tuesday that he didn't know who Crowder was:
"Oh, Lord have mercy," Crowder said Tuesday. "What's wrong with him? Now he's talking about preparation? We play them twice this year. If he wants to be prepared, shouldn't he know the starting middle linebackers of his division rival?'"

As for the notion that Ryan would "handle him myself" if he was "younger," Crowder begs to differ.

"He says he'd take care of me if he was younger?" Crowder said. "I'd have beat the hell out of that big old joker. Or if he really wants to get retro, my daddy or my uncle could have handled him. Don't get big. Win with preparation? Start watching some tape and learn who your rival is. Come on now."
Ryan made it clear today that he did know who Crowder was, and that he wasn't any more concerned about the prospect of an intra-generational scrap than with a cross-generational one.

"Trust me, he could send himself and his father after me," Ryan said. "I don't think I've ever lost a fight. So we'll see. I'm just happy it's not that big left tackle they've got. Then I might really be nervous."

Aha! So it turns out that it's not Crowder or Bill Belichick but apparently Jake Long who actually intimidates the Jets' new coach. You learn something new every day.

By the way, Belichick addressed the issue of Ryan today as well. In response to Ryan's quote last week about not kissing Belichick's Super Bowl rings, the Patriots' coach was predictably low-key. According to the great Bob Glauber of Newsday:
"I have a lot of respect for Rex and what he did in Baltimore, the defense his teams played. We've always had great battles with the Jets, so I'm sure that will continue. It's a good rivalry."

Tags: bill+belichick, BillBelichick, channing+crowder, ChanningCrowder, jake+long, JakeLong, miami+dolphins, MiamiDolphins, new+york+jets, NewYorkJets, rex+ryan, RexRyan

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