Let's get one thing straight. I'm no fan of Mike Lupica. He is by all accounts unbearably smug. The Donald is somewhere right now complaining about the smugness of Lupica. The head shot Lupica rolls with at the top of his column -- the one with the look of barely restrained disgust -- leaves no room for doubt. He is smarter than you, and he wants, nay needs, you to know it. If you don't believe me, just watch any episode of Sports Reporters that he ever appeared on. Ever. (Incidentally, I am 100% confident that he takes credit for the success of PTI, Rome Is Burning (why is Rome so good on radio and so terrible on television?), Around the Horn (I want to punch that host in the face), and every other sports television show featuring sports writers.) And whoever at the Daily News let Mark Cuban's dwarf brother start writing political op-eds needs to die a horrible, horrible death. All of that said, Lupica's column yesterday about Jets HC Rex Ryan caught my interest -- not so much for what it says, but for what it portends.
The gist is that Lupica's sick of Rex Ryan boasting about everything without delivering a championship. Fuck you, Lupica. Wait, that's supposed to be the end of the column. Anyway, his daily dose of sanctimonious drivel was notable to me because I'm a Jets fan. Have been my whole life. (Yes, I have seen that draft video on YouTube. I also watched my team in the AFC championship game the last two years, jagoff.) But here's the point: I admit that Rexy got a bit of a pass his first year as Jets HC. At the end of the day, he didn't need it, but whether or not the Jetsies made the AFC Championship game, he was going to finish the year on the media's good side simply because he was not Eric Mangini. (Full disclosure: I was FULLY on board with hiring Mangini at the time -- what a mess.) And maybe he did get a pass on the whole foot fetish saga, though it wasn't exactly a Marv Albert scenario. But it's clear the tide is turning.
With the new found competency of the Mets front office and the Yankees looking playoff bound as always, the sports writers need themselves a target. And let's face it, another hit piece on Tom Coughlin isn't selling any papers. So that puts Rexy in the cross-hairs. But here's the problem with that: in two years, the guy has twice managed to plow through loaded AFC playoff fields to get to the conference championship game with the 'Chize (ed. note: Jets QB1 Mark Sanchez) at the helm. So everybody calm down. The guy has gotten my team to perform at a higher level than any Jets HC in my lifetime (including Parcells - my fingers just burst into flames). As far as I'm concerned, he can say whatever the hell he wants. Also, and I'm not saying it's necessarily intentional, but I see some genius in Rexy's approach. Think about it. Is there any coach of the league (with the possible exception of that chicken-shit turncoat in New England (ed. note: Patriots coach Bill Belichick)) who actually gives the media less meaningful information than Rexy? He talks and talks and talks, but what insights can you really draw from a guy that says nothing but good things about every player on his roster and constantly predicts victory. None. So if Lupica and his hair hat really want to bitch about something, maybe they should bitch about what Rexy ISN'T saying.
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