Building Tough Teams with Rex Ryan - [Glue Guys, Ep. 66]

I've never lost a fight in my life. Not because I'm a badass, but because I have a twin brother. There's no. There's no fucking way Mike Tyson would get his ass kicked by the Ryan brothers. And that's. That's a fact. That is a fact.

All right, fellas. Today's guest is, simply put, one of the greatest defensive coaches in NFL history. He comes from NFL royalty, from a family perspective, and for so long, I only knew him as. As an opponent. This is a man who has changed modern defenses. His impact can still be felt today. From Mike McDonald in the super bowl to Jesse Minter getting hired at Baltimore, Anthony Weaver. His. His tree is extensive. You guys know how I felt. I've talked at length about my experience of playing for offensive head coaches and defensive head coaches and how much I prefer to play for an offensive head coach. And now I get to work and be teammates with Rex Ryan, and he's a guy that makes me question that belief that I would really have loved to play for him. I wonder what that would have been like, because he is an amazing person. He has amazing energy and truly was born to be a coach. And last note for everybody listening, Rex keeps it incredibly real. And with that note, there are a fair amount of F bombs in this episode. So fair warning, if you have the kids, just know what's ahead. Rex, I already did a nice, embarrassing intro for you, so we're. You'll. We'll just save that. You just have to hear. Hear it when.

Yes, I'm a father of. Of twins, and so I love that you and you have a twin brother. And, you know, you got to tell me how to make sure that they stay lifelong best friends. You know, that'll be a big topic for us.

I can say this to you that I've never lost a fight in my life. Not because I'm a badass, but because I have a twin brother. There's no. There's no way Mike Tyson would get his ass kicked by the Ryan brothers. And that's. That's a fact. That is a fact.

I mean, you guys. You guys are a little intimidating. Like, you know, that helps.

We've had a couple of. A couple of run ins in our days.

Wasn't. Wasn't that part of the football game rules growing up?

Oh, yeah.

If you had. If you had a shot, I read somewhere, if you had a shot, you had to take it. If you didn't, you were left out of. Left out of dinner. Is that true?

How about the preparation by this. By. By Shane is like. It's amazing, but it's like you guys are kicking ass. But, yeah, no, it's true. You had to. You had to deliver a cheap shot or I don't know what the hell you're doing out there. That was. And only every Thanksgiving we would play with our older brother. And then only one time we hit somebody into a moving car. So that was. We had to slow it down a little after that.

How often do you and Robbo still talk today, Rex?

Oh, probably five, three, six time, you know, I mean, damn near every day. Almost every day. Yeah. Yeah.

It's incredible.

Yeah.

I haven't played. I played for Robbo, fellas.

You did?

Yeah. Awesome, stud.

What do you like better?

Oh, he likes Rob way better than me.

Well, I never.

I work.

I only work with Rex in this in a very different capacity, you know, diplomatic.

Okay. All right. You didn't answer the question. All right, no problem.

Yeah, no, me and Alex go at it all the time. No, we see the same way, though. It's crazy. You know, it's like we've been around the game all our lives or something, you know? I don't know.

I just noticed Rex's T shirt. Have you guys seen Rex's T shirt?

Sorry about that. I was just working out. But, yeah, the known fact.

You're right at home here, Rex. Don't worry about that.

This is a known fact.

I pee in showers. That's my thing.

There you go. There you go.

Never, never trust. Never trust anybody who won't pee in a shower. Okay, that. That was. That was. That was an old Rick Majera saying, but I think it's true. I think it's.

Hey, Shane. The only thing is just don't do it in the locker room shower, because then that's a fight. I've seen that happen before, like, so bad. What the Are you doing.

In the locker room? I think, you know, that's a whole different episode. Nasty guys of the locker room.

Yeah. Oh, man.

Speaking of nasty guys, I read an amazing story about you coaching hall of Famer T sizzle Terrell Suggs. You know, for our listeners, one of the baddest dudes ever, ever to play football. And when he was a rookie and you were. You were coaching the D. The D line with. With the Ravens, you had concerns that he wasn't tough enough. Was that right? And he was more of a finesse rusher.

And.

And you sent him to spend time. Big uglies, the big nasties. And he became, you know, A. One of the most fearsome pass rushers, football players on the planet, hanging out with the, with the big nasties in the, in the defensive line room. Is that, is that true?

Well, Shane, here, here's what the deal is. When he came out, out in the draft, Ozzy would, every now and then would have me look at certain players, regardless of position, okay? And I might look at a tackle, I might look at, you know, anybody. Not a receiver, but anything else. And I remember telling him, I said, this guy will be the first guy taken. He's at Arizona State. He was a fricking stud. And they're like, no, no, no. It's going to be this quarterback from usc, all right? Just Carson Palmer. And either way, I'm like, well, I'll take him second. I love this kid. He came back, he goes, rex, he ran a shitty 40. He ran like a 4, 8 or something. I'm like, I don't care. I don't know what he's running the quarterback, but it was like 28 times or something his senior year, you know, or his junior year. And either way, he was a stud. But Ozzy, that. We had him in the, in the linebacker room and Ozzy said, and Brian Billick was the coach, head coach, and he goes, well, you're the champion of this guy. They thought he was a bust. This is. I mean, I don't know if Ozzy did, but. But I think Brian did. I go, are you fucking out of your mind? I go, I go first off, you know, because they're like, rex, I want him. I want you to coach him. I'm like, yeah, whatever. Because I know all the linebacker drops. I knew all that stuff. And I'm like, yeah, it easy. I'll put him in here. And I remember bringing him into that, off that defensive line room and I said, look, guys, we're going to have the rookie of the year in our room, all right? And that's an honest to God true fact. And then we just put him through all kind of D line drills. We made him a defensive lineman damn near. And then we'd work some, occasionally with drops, but very rarely. And, you know, I mean, it wasn't because of me, but that sucker was the baddest dude. And I think the first six games, he might have had a sack in every game. You know, he was rookie of the year. Made all pro as a rookie. And I was sitting back going, yeah, that's right, Ozzy. And Ozzy knew. Ozzy knew he was a freaking stud. But I don't think Brian did. I remember Brian had a meeting and said in front of the whole team, we're not getting our money's worth. I'm like, shit, I'm like, let me coach that mother. But he was, I mean, and just as good a dude as you've ever seen. And I could tell you another story about t sizzle. He would, he would work his basketball moves, but he would try him against one on one on the pass rush. He goes, you know what, I'm gonna, I'm gonna cross them, you know, cross him over or something like that. And he would work, shit like that. He was, you know, he wasn't just a speed power guy, even though that was his bread and butter. But man, he had, he'd work on head fake crossover. He'd do that shit working one on one. So that was when I realized, like, you know, let guys be athletes. Let them have fun and always encourage guys to be creative. And that dude was. He was awesome. Once in a lifetime guy. So proud that I was able to coach him.

How old were you? Do you think when you knew you wanted, when you were done playing that you wanted to coach?

At what age? Well, I was pretty much done playing Alex when I knew like, you know, one worth of shit. But no, it was, it was funny because I might have been better baseball player than. Than football, but I knew I wanted to. To coach football. So I went and played college football and you know, I played at Oklahoma, right? Southwest Oklahoma, as you said, a double directional school. A lot of guys missed on me. I'm telling you that right, right now. A lot of guys missed and. But either way, I went there and just to learn the game more. And I knew, but even in high school I knew, you know, I used to, My brother and I used to talk shit. You know, we would draw defenses all the time. Never worried about offensive plays. Draw defenses up. And, and I remember showing it to my dad and he liked it and he called it the 46. But you're not buying that.

By the way, we got a Chicago in here.

Hey, listen, I'm happy with that, Rex. I'm from Chicago. We appreciate your dad.

And obviously defense, the Fearsome 46, we now know the origin of that. Is that true?

Right? It's not true, but it sounds good though, you know, it sounds good.

I believe it. I believe you.

Don't let the facts get in the way of a good story. That's what that brother Badier always tells us.

You know, were you, were you always. Were you always able to command a room like this. All right? You know, people talk about your ability to get, you know, a bunch of millionaires to run through walls. You know, Alex, before you got here, said, you know, you're the one defensive minded coach that he would play for, which is a huge compliment because he usually trashes defensive coordinators.

I know he does.

And the defensive guys. On that note, Shane, and for our listeners, like, if you were to go into the defensive meeting, the personalities, the alphas, right, like that are over there, it is so different than the offensive side, like, to command that room takes. Takes something special, to be honest.

Yeah.

And so, yeah.

And you know what, what's funny, Alex? I guess that, you know, you got to have a little lead in your pencil when you're a defensive player or something. And really any offensive player too, like, you got to be a badass to play in that league. There's no question about it. But for me, I don't know what it is, you know, and maybe it's like, I'm dyslexic. And so I think growing up that way, one or two things, like you were going to take all the time or you were going to do something about it. And I was the guy that did something about it, you know, so it was like. And I tell the story. Dan Campbell had me talk to the team with the, with the Lions. They were.091. I'm like, just when you want to talk to a fucking team, you know, I mean, I'm like, holy shit. I thought they were. People were talking about running Dan Campbell out of town in Detroit after one year. And either way, I'm talking to him. And, and I said, the first thing, I go, I go, guys, show of hands. How many guys in this room had a learning disability? Besides, like, every single one of us, right? I, so, so mine was, I'm dyslexic. And what that means is, like, you can't spell. You had a tough time reading and all that. And when you're in like grade school, remember they had they, you know, you had to read out loud. Well, you guys had no problem doing that. Me, oh, it's a disaster. All right. So guys would laugh and shit like that. And I finally just said, I, you know, I never wanted to go to school. Like, I couldn't stand going to school because I never want to get made fun of. And then finally I said, you know what? Fucking recess is coming. And so, sure shit, that day, reading out loud, this guy's laughing. This guy, this guy. So the first Guy, I went. I saw him. I went, chokeslam this. And I'm like, is it funny now, motherfucker? That's what I said, all right? And then I did it to a second guy and a third guy, and guess what happened? Nobody fucking laughed after that. And I think part of that. My story is this. How much shit are you gonna fucking take until you do something about it? And I think part of that mentality is inside of me that I wasn't good enough to play in a national football league, you know? Oh, you're there because of nepotism. No, I'm there because I'm the baddest motherfucker there is. And that's kind of the mentality that I have. And growing up maybe with a twin brother, an older brother that played actually for Herb Brooks as a hockey player at University of Minnesota, like, that mentality, like, I don't know what it is, but they know that I'm genuine, and they know that they, you know, they can trust me and that people say they don't, they don't. They don't care what you know until they know you care. I care about these guys, and I'm just like them, without the athletic ability. You know, I have the same heart. I have the same mentality. I just don't have the damn, you know, the great athleticism of these cats.

The crazy thing about the learning disability point, Rex, when you talk about it, is, like, you know, it's hard. You got to be really smart to play in the NFL, right? Think about how much stuff you actually have to keep track of on offense and defense. It's, like, crazy, right? And so the idea that people, like you said, like, folks are overcoming that to begin with, like, Alex has told me, like, the level of intellect you need in order to play in the NFL is extremely high relative to what people probably expect in, like, the, you know, casual fandom. And so it's actually interesting that people don't. You think?

Yeah, 100%. And it's funny, when I got tested, I never found out I was dyslexic until I was, you know, coaching with the Ravens or something. And. And they had a test. My son thought he had adhd, and they wanted to test the family or whatever, and they said I was, you know, that I'm dyslexic. And at the same time, I also had the highest score ever in problem solving and creativity. So they have some, you know, there's some strengths that you have and some weaknesses. My mother was a Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Chicago, she was the first woman vice president at New Brunswick University in Canada. So there's something in there. It just. It just came out differently.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's interesting. It's, like, interesting to think about. You got to make sure you don't label kids in a certain way without actually realizing that, hey, it's just a different portfolio of skills. You know what I'm saying?

Yeah, I think that's for everyone.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Super interesting.

And, you know, it's funny because, you know, like, I've had players where I literally would have to come up and just say, okay, let's just throw a name out. Rod. We have Rod rules. Rod. You line up right, and that's it. Like, somebody's gonna take somebody and, you know, hell, we're gonna put him here. And every call I had, Rod was going straight ahead. No fair dodging from the right end, you know, whatever it was, I'd adjust the whole game plan to everybody else to keep. To get this cat on the field. That's what you have to do. But you know what? He could. He could wreck, you know, he could wreck, you know, or raise havoc on people. He just. He just wasn't the sharpest tack, but, you know, he was certainly skillful as a pass rusher. So you find ways to. To use your whole lineup. And I used to say this, you know, I said, I just need two guys that are really fucking smart, and the rest of them could be hired fucking killers. And that's what we had. You know, we'd have Jim Leonard. It's ironic. A couple of my guys are now coaching, you know, so Jim Leonard just got the coordinating job with Buffalo. Anthony Weaver played for me. He's the D coordinator now with Baltimore. And, you know, it's funny to see, you know, guys, obviously, that coach with me have gone on the coaching, but a lot of my players, too, and it's kind of cool to watch that.

How'd you come up with that equation? That's a fascinating concept to. To have two smart guys and a bunch of dogs around them. Were you ever around teams that had too many smart guys? Were you around teams that had too many dogs? And, you know, how'd you come up with two?

No, I mean, because one guy controls the back and the other one controls the linebackers, and a D lineman is just mean motherfuckers. It's great if you're smart, too, but they're. You know, we can line them dudes up and let them go, raise hell. You know, a linebacker can tap him over if he's in the wrong spot. But. But I will say this. I had a kid named Michael Bankston that played for me with the Cardinals, and I had another player that wasn't quite as sharp. Either way, if that player lined up wrong or did a wrong assignment, I would give Michael Bankston a minus. Oh, he fucked up. I never up. This guy fucked. Hey, you're responsible for. The other kid was a great player. So I was like, you know. But, yeah, you were probably like the.

Michael Jackson, you know.

Coach K did the same thing to it. To us. So when I was a junior, senior captain, you know, if. If the freshman, you know, Jason Williams or Carlos Boozer was late for. For weights, it was my. It was my ass. It wasn't their ass. I'm the one who had to run. And so I. It became very clear that if I didn't want to run, I was calling J. Will. I was calling Booze. Yo, you guys up? No, you guys up. You guys better be there. Which is brilliant.

That's a.

That's a brilliant way to, to. To treat. Treat your guys well.

It's also the milk drinkers and the Jack Daniels drinkers, you know, same thing that. Super similar to this thing.

Have too many milk drinkers. Coach.

Yeah.

Hey, I got one story I tell. Because this is. This is so true. And, and you have. And Alex and all of us have been around him. You'll have that one dude that is bipolar or whatever, like, holy. Like, almost unlikable, right? Like, he's a fucking asshole. All right? I call those players roaches, all right? And every team can have one or two roaches. You just can't have any more than that. And you know, like, the difference is the, like, guys like Alex, Shane guy, you know, we are ants. The whole team's like ants. And you got a roach or two, but a whole team of ants can carry a roach or two. They just can't carry more than that. And the difference is when you have a roach like you, oh, you turn the lights up, you turn them back on. Those fuckers are going every, every direction, their own direction. You grab a bunch of ants, you shake them up, you throw them down, they get right back in line. And so that's something that I've always learned too. Just because, you know, I can't stand this. This guy can't play for anybody else, but he can play for me because I'm gonna have enough ants around them that we can carry that roacher to.

Ants like glue, guys. It's not a bad. It's not a bad link.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Rex, we talk a ton about, like, our father's effect on us. We talk a lot about fatherhood with our kids. Right? Like, we have young kids. And this whole experience, I had no idea, actually. And I've never talked to you about this. I didn't know you coached with your dad.

Yeah, absolutely.

Can you, like, what was that experience like? Like, obviously, you know, again, from, you know, obviously growing up, he's, you know, this hall of Fame defensive coach, and then to get the chance to actually coach with him and work with him.

Well, number one, it's the best thing that ever happened to me because I thought I was. Had all the answers as a great coach until I coached with my dad. Then I realized he had all the answers. I. I didn't, you know, but I never had that experience and all that, but it's clearly the greatest. And I've been around good coaches, man. Really good coaches. Nobody like him. Nobody close, you know, as far as the way he attacked people and all that. He'd break down protections, we'd run automatic coverages, all kind of stuff. Had, you know, we. We just. We had a call. AFC automatic front coverage, BTF blitz, the formation we use, a billion years ahead of his time. Now, some of these guys are, oh, hey, how about we do this? It all stemmed from him doing that. And so I learned a ton from it. And I also learned enough to be my own man, that, you know what? This was the way my dad did it, and I'm going to learn everything I can from him. But for me to be successful, I got to be myself, and that's exactly what I did. That.

That is so cool, Rex. That is so cool. It reminds me so much of, like, you know, relationship I have with my dad, you know, which is that I. He gets smarter and smarter the older I get. You know what I'm saying?

And absolutely.

You know, then you. Same thing, though, is that you see how he does it. You try to emulate it, but then you realize you have to do it your own way, you know, and that's the thing that he wants, too, right? He wants you to do it your own way. And so.

Absolutely. By the way, I gotta say this, your dad was way smarter than my dad, though. We know your dad.

Is that.

You know what's funny? I tell you what was great, though, is people always say, well, what's the difference between your dad and you? I go, I'm not as tough as My dad. And they what? I go, fuck, no. My dad was a master sergeant in the Korean War. At 18 years old. 18. He's leading men in the battle. Like, yeah, if I grew up that way, I'd be a hell of a lot tougher too. But that, that was him, man. And so you learn so much about it and how your word means something. And I think that's some of the things too. Like, I never lied to a fucking player. You know what I mean? I've never lied to a player. I tell them the truth and sometimes they don't want to hear the truth. I say, don't ask me because I'm going to tell you the truth of what I believe to be the truth. It may not be right, but it's what I believe to be the truth. So don't really ask me. Like, if you're wanting to, hey, I'm coming in to see you for a pat on the fucking back. You may get that, but you may also get fucking blunt force trauma. That no, you, you know, you're not physical enough. You're not whatever. And I'd be, I'd be dead ass, you know, honest with all those kids. And I think that's why I really never had a problem with a player. You know, I mean, I had some run ins, I had some issues. Me and San Antonio home, me and whoever, we have some fucking run ins. But I've never had like real problems with guys because I love every one of these kids I coach. It's never personal. It's. But we got to fix something. And whatever that was, we need to do. And I would address it.

How do you know when to put an arm around a guy? And how do you know when a guy needs some direct feedback, right? Like, you know, and, and the difference of the personalities, right? The guys are all different where they're at. I mean, is that something you think you've always been, you know, just kind of innate?

Alex, I think the, a great point you're bringing up that I think so many people miss is I try to have a personal relationship with every single player I coach. Every single one of them, every guy I coach with, whatever. And like, I'll give you an example of how I, I would do that. All right, let's say I'm sitting here and Alex Smith. Why do I have in common with Alex Smith? He's a great quarterback. He's, you know, all this. Well, in stretch line, I might just go over there and like stand like this. Oh, coach, you know, Rex, you Played baseball. Fuck yeah, did I play baseball. Why, did you? Yeah, I played. What position? I was a pitcher. Ouch. Pitcher. They don't have a fucking park big enough to hold this fucking thing in there. If you're throwing that shit to me. Come on, Alex, throw that shit in here and see where it goes. The. It's funny because I would do stuff like this, and when I see a player like this, I remember Kelly Clements, this quarterback we had, and literally I did this. To this day, guess what we talk about first time when we see each other. Hey, how about the Dodgers? How about this? How about that? Find ways to connect with your players, then it's much easier. And look, here's the great thing about coaching. I want every single player to be successful. Every single one of these dudes, I want them to be successful. And that. Make as much money as you can get on the field. Be the best damn player you can. But. And the thing that people miss, especially, I think, in today's game, you know, even these college kids, it's all about social media. It's all about how many. This is so many distractions. I make it to where the most damn important thing that they have is the team and the unit success. Build that in the pride. Players love that. That's what they want. But so many people miss it. So many. You have a. You have a personal connection, but you drive the same message, which is our success, you know, our team success, our unit success. And they fucking love it, you know? I was fortunate to coach the greatest linebacker in the history of football, Ray Lewis. All right? He coached me. No, but really, I coached him. Two things I could tell you about Ray. Number one, we never had a bad practice, because if it was Dragon, I'd go to Ray and be like, is this good enough? Is this what you think's good enough for us? And because I would rip their ass a couple times a year, whatever. All right? But Ray, he'd walk in that huddle, boom, everything was corrected. I mean, the mentality switched over. It was a hell of a lot better than me, you know, ripping their ass, which occasionally would happen. But no, we got. Our message was. Was clear. We wanted to be the best unit in the history of this game. And on the practice field, we never lost. I don't give a. And. And that was the mentality. We had to be at our best every day for us to. To play the way we wanted to play on. On Sundays. All right? But. And there's. There's so many damn stories. But that's that's something. And I got to give you one more Ray. Ray Lewis story because of how leadership, what. What a true leader is, and how I would kind of try to take the. The player, the individual player for the unit success. So there'd be times, believe me, to start the game. First 15 plays, I tried to funnel every ball into Ray Lewis. I wanted him to knock the living shit out of somebody, set a tone, blitz the quarterback, you know, disrupt the. You know, drill their damn receiver. Whatever it was. I'm trying to funnel it into Raid and let him set the tone for the game. So I would do that all the time, but I would also do this. I would say, all right, Ray, I'm going to send you in this gap right here, want you to blitz the B gap, spin back in to the center, all right? So I want you to eat up two. That's going to free up the 11th player on our defense, okay? That's going to free up Jarrett Johnson, a possible hit on the quarterback coming from the outside. He couldn't wait for that call. Obviously, Jarrett couldn't either, but Ray couldn't wait for that call. Hey, we going to call it? It's not. It's not the time. It's not the time. Then we put it in there. You see Ray getting the shit knocked out of him. Take it up, too. And here comes Jared hitting the quarterback. So that's something that, you know, you. You try to. That's how you build that. That chemistry, and that's how you build that team and that kind of morale and things like that. And. And. And using a Hall of Fame player to benefit the last guy on your defense. And. And that was. Ray Lewis had no problem doing it. He was that kind of guy.

He's a superstar and a glue guy, you know what I'm saying? Like, that's so crazy.

When your best players. How many times we heard it. When your best players are your best guys, you're going to be successful. You will be fucking successful. There's no doubt.

Well, so the question. Actually, I had. When you were talking like, we want to be the best defense of all time, right? All of a sudden you're not playing against, like, an opponent. You're playing against the standard, right? You're playing against, you know, some impossible standard, better than everything. How do you. How do you manage against that? How do you get people to play towards that when you. You're going to win the game, you're going to shut people down? How do you get them to aspire for Something bigger like that, man.

It's just what we do. I think any great competitor wants to be challenged, you know, and especially as a unit, you know, because now it's us. It's not just that. The individual. Yes, we want every. We want every single individual to play at their very best. But when you do it collectively, shit, that's fun. That's fun. And that's. That. That's what I would always inspire, too, as a coach. I think that's coaching. You know, anybody can coach a great player. Sick them. Go, you know, whatever. Go get him. Go get him. Fucking T sizzle. Go get him. But. But it's also like, no. What I think if I had anything special, it was that even a superstar would. Would, you know, it was about our success way more than it was about my success. And I think that that's the thing that you try to do as a coach.

I remember on Hard Knocks when you were with the jets, you did this session where you would show everyone about the goals for each unit, and it always ended with the same thing, which is lead the league and wins. It wasn't lead the league in yards. It wasn't lead the league in interceptions. Each one, like, this big punchline was like, you know, what the goal is for this? Lead the league and wins. And it was. It was cool. It was like, obviously it wasn't about, you know, one specific thing. It was about the team.

Yeah. And that was when I became a head coach, you know, because the other part was, you know, when I was a defensive coordinator, it was all about the unit, that success, and that's going to lead to wins. Okay, but when you're a head coach, that was why I tried to send a message to the whole football team that way, but absolutely, you would do. And that's. That's the cool part about being a head coach. You got to coach everybody. Like, I love that, you know, like, I miss that part of it. And because you have. It's not just half the roster. You have the whole roster. And that was. That was the coolest part about it, but. Yeah, exactly. That was our. Our mission. Obviously, we didn't do it well enough, you know, sometimes, but. But it was never. Because our fucking effort was missing, you know, that was never the issue. Might have. Might have been a fucking, you know, bad break here, there, whatever. And give them credit. Tom Brady, I hate that. But, you know, we were gonna bring him up. He loved that dude. But we played him. Him and Peyton Manning. When you look at my record as a head Coach, if you eliminated those two, I'd be really good. You know, I'd be one of the highest damn win percentage guys of all time. And, you know, it's funny because Bill Belichick, who has the most, you know, wins against Bill Belichick or some like that, it was like, yeah, I do. But I also got the most losses, and there's a hell of a lot more of those than there were wins.

Rex. I don't know if I told you guys this. Shane. So Rex's son Seth is now coaching. He coaches for Detroit Lions, and he's on the right side of the ball, actually, which is obviously interesting for the Ryan family.

But I can't believe you're saying that. Like, Shane doesn't know.

He knows, by the way, Shane's from Detroit. Rex. Shane's from Detroit.

So.

But also just. I was just saying it for our listeners, you know. Yeah, yeah, but dude, how, how. Okay, then going back to this, like, how did your experience, obviously, with your dad, how has that shaped the same kind of deal as Seth's trying to. He's trying to find his own way, create his own right identity as a coach. Right. And obviously, again, he's got, you know, Rex Ryan as his dad. Like, how did your experience being the son now affect your role as a father?

Well, you know what's funny? It was just, you know, the difference was this. My. My dad discouraged my twin brother Rob and I from coaching. He never wanted us to get into coaching because, you know, we had business opportunities out of college that made good money and all that stuff. And we're like, nah, no, I. He never realized that the desire we had, you know, he just thought that all we saw were the Super Bowls or this or that. And that wasn't the case. Like, we love the game. And so I realized with. With Seth, my youngest, I knew like this. This kid absolutely loves football. Loves it. Loves, you know, breathes it, you know, all of it. And, you know, he's clearly out of the willies. And they have offensive coach like, that kid ain't getting a dime from me no way. All right? But I don't know what his fucking problem is. And the funny thing is, honest to God, I've tried to get him over there because I'm like, look, there's not a bigger name in coaching football on the defensive side of the ball than Ryan. There really isn't. When you got Buddy Ryan, Rex Ryan, Rob Ryan. And it would. He'd be a head coach within three years if he was on the Defensive side, I'll guarantee it. Because I've seen guys, guys that, that have run like similar system, they're getting head jobs all over this league. You know, you look at Jesse Menner, I coach for Rick Minner, his dad, all right, went through the Baltimore system. This kid at Seattle's done a hell of a job there through that Baltimore system, which we know whose system that really is, all right? And I know that, that, that would make it now. He's struggling. He's out of this room, that room, this room. But he doesn't want to change. He wants to make his own mark. And I love it. Okay? I love it. I think it's great. You know, I think. I think he may end up going to. With the jets as a passing game coordinator or something. We'll see what happens there. Or either stay in Detroit. He loves to fucking Detroit. But it's going to be interesting to find, you know, he. But he's all about doing it his way. And the only thing I told him, I told Seth the exact same thing my dad told me. All I want is for you to be a little bit better than me. And that's what I tell Seth. And you be a little bit better than me, you'll be pretty fucking good.

Knowing what you know now about your coaching career, what would you do differently, if anything?

Well, I think I'm so fortunate and so blessed, you know, to get the opportunities that I had, you know, would I, when I do everything the same? Maybe not, you know, but like what? But I guess I never really played the game as much. Like, you know, I thought my merits would. Would take care of things more. I never really would go buddy up with other coaches or anything like that. And I probably. I never really played the game that way where maybe that's more important, you know, when you, when you see these guys are, oh, they're coming from McVeigh. If, you know fucking Sean McVay, you're a head coach. If you're, you know, if I would have done that, maybe I would have gone to meet this guy. You know, I. I'm not sure. But to me, I was just like, I was just, you know, I love my team. Whichever team I was on, I love that team. And the other teams were enemies to me, you know what I mean? I respected everybody I've ever coached against as a coach, a player, I respected them all. But I would never trade any of my team. I would go into every game thinking we were going to win. I don't give a fuck. Like no shit, no. My guys are going to fucking kick ass. That's kind of the mentality I had. It maybe never served me as well. You know, is. Is, you know, if I would have played the game a little differently.

But from Rex, from my perspective, just so you know, I think, you know, certainly I get the whole like, you know, networking, politicking thing and how that may or may not have played out or worked out, but, but your confidence in your players, right? Like, I feel it. I feel it even as your teammate at ESPN on the Sunday Countdown. And that's actually one of my biggest things that I think, you know, you get to the NFL, like, everybody's freaking good, right? Like, it's a humbling game sometimes, right? Like every player, every coach, like, it's the best of the best. And so sometimes it can lead to more doubt, right? Because you're like, God, that guy, right?

Everybody's good.

But I think that one of the things that's so unique about you in, I've told these guys this, like, overwhelmingly in the NFL, you get a lot of negative coaches. You get a lot of coaches that like, hey, we can't do this, we can't do that, don't do this, don't do that. And it's so rare to have a coach that's like, no, we're going to kick ass, right? Like, we're going to, we're going to get Alex.

I feel that on our podcast right now. Like, I'm like, fired up as soon as you got on, like, let's kick some fucking ass. I mean, I'm jacked up and it's like, you care about making this one great, you know, like, just because we're a team right now.

Yeah, right.

It's really rare, Rex.

It's rare.

I want to tell you that.

Yeah, well, I appreciate that, Alex, but, and, and you know, and, and things. I don't want the offense or if I'm coaching defense or whatever. I don't want that other team to dictate the style of play. Yeah, I always wanted to dictate the style of play. Some of us say, oh, that's boring ass football. You. You did grounded pound. I had a fucking rookie quarterback. What did you want me to do? You think if, if I would have had Alex Smith in his prime, you think we would have run the ball every snap? No. All right. I had a young kid out of usc, like, what the was I supposed to do? I think we set a record at most rushing attempts, you know, I mean, it's Like, I dehydrated. Poor Thomas Jones, he had like 1400 yards rushing. We get to the playoffs, they can't even use me. Can't move. He's in a ice tube. All right, Sean Green, sure, it like, but you try to take what your team does best, but your style of play, man, that was it. I wanted to be a tough ass fucking team. When I went to the jets, people don't know it. Like, we inherited a. They were ranked 23rd in the league in defense. First thing I said in my press conference was, we're going to lead the league in defense and we're also going to lead the league in rushing because I knew I never had a quarterback, so it was like, you know. And then we had a draft one in Sanchez, which he was fine, but. So those are two things that we're going to do. And we're going to practice tough. We're going to do all this, but our defense is going to be set. We brought in three free agents, brought in Jim Leonard. Remember, smart guy playing safety. Not the biggest dude of all time, you know, probably the smallest safety in the league. Brought in Bart Scott, who was a killer. And then brought in a kid named Marquis Douglas, who was like a journeyman D lineman, but he's a lot better than he looked. He looked terrible.

I played with Marquis.

Yeah, bad body, right? Like ugly. You'd never think this an NFL player, but he played 10 years, all right? And I'm proud of that kid. Not one of those kids were drafted. So I brought him into the jets for a reason, all right? Because they had it. They found a way. I don't give it. Oh, you got. I remember telling Marquis Douglas, you have this much chance of making this football team. You can't have any friend. I never even like the. All right? But I was like, look, you're gonna have to piss off every. Every guy in on this team. You can't have any friends. You're gonna have to go 100 all the time, okay? And he's like, I'm gonna make it. I'll show you. They never even like me. We get down to the final cut and we're sitting in a. In a staff meeting, you know, and they're going, we got one spot left. Who's he going to go to? Well, I think you should go to this guard or this wide out to this, whatever. I'm like, look, I didn't like this, but if there's anybody that deserves to be on this team more than Marquis Douglas, I'll kiss Your ass. Because this guy, he deserves to be on this damn team. And Ozzy Newsom looks at me and he goes, you're right. That's what I love about Ozzy. Boom. He goes, you're right. He earned it. He played over 10 years in this league and ended up being one of my favorite players. He was, you know, such a great. He ended up being a great. A great guy. You know, at first we had issues, but he ended up being a great. And. But it was funny. He earned it, you know, But. But those are the three guys I brought in there. And we ended up going from 23rd to league to number one. Number one in the league. And that was. Yeah, I knew, I knew our coaching would make a difference, but I also knew it was the mentality that was going to carry the day of those players, and they were going to care about each other and that unit, pride and all that type of stuff. And it wasn't even close. We, we. We ran roughshod through the league. And, oh, by the way, we had a decent corner.

What's his name? What's his name?

He was just. Just a guy.

How did you. How do you. How did you know you had, like, a truly tough team or unit? Or just some guys that, like, thought they were tough?

Right?

Like, how. What, like what, separated, you know?

Yeah, I, I think the big thing is, like, the genuine toughness, like when it, when it gets, like, it's easy to be a badass when things are going well, right. Until you get hit in the face, you know, I'm wearing this dude that all of a sudden, boom, they hit back. Well, when other teams hit back, my teams continue to hit. That's when I knew we had a tough team. That I think when those, when those situations happen, that's when you find out about your football team, you know, where it's like, you know, I remember our first year. We win the first three games. So I'm the man in New York, dude. Me, Walt Frazier, Willis Reed, Tom Sieber. Like, I was the, you know, Bill Parcells kissed my ass. I was the man in New York. Then we go on to lose like seven or eight games or whatever the it was then I wasn't so smart. But the guy stayed the course. Like, we played. And, man, I remember we had to win our last three to get in the playoffs. And, you know, and I remember purposely telling him that, ah, it's too bad that we're out of the playoffs, because I really thought we had something special. I knew goddamn well we had A chance to make the playoffs, right? But the reporters took the bait. No, you still actually had one. He said this because I wanted my guys, they don't know, knew I really wouldn't lie, kind of fibbed on that one. And then I showed him the fucking, hey, here's how we're going to do it. We went in and wax fuckers the last three weeks, right? Get in the playoffs. And I'm like, I'm showing, I'm showing the guys, all right, here's the schedule. I let them figure it out themselves. So Alex said, you know, guys, I'm sitting back going, all right, here it is. So week one, we're playing on a Saturday. The next we weren't on play, on Sunday, we're going to play probably this team and then we're going to go here. And then we got in between the championship game and the Super Bowl. That's a two week deal. But we're going to practice, we're going to give you a day off, but then you're practicing. So I had all the schedule. These guys started looking around like this, thinks we're going to win the whole goddamn thing. It's exactly the, exactly the way I wanted it. And then we went, you know, to a championship game and we it up, we were up 16 over Indy. Lose two corners and a starting back. And it was like I couldn't overcome it. That Peyton Manning nightmares of that bastard.

The name of the podcast is Glue Guys, right? Like again, there you go.

Ants.

The guys, the people, right? Like that make great teams. Go right, hold them together in your life. Like who, who, who's been, who are the glue people in your life, man?

I mean, you know, really, you know, obviously my dad, you know, was, that was the main, you know, was the main guy. You know, it's funny, like, I miss him, You know, he's been long gone, but he used the guy. Use the guy.

No, we appreciate that, Rex.

You know, I gotta bring my wife in because she's sitting over here, but she's not, you know, she's meaner. My dad was so. But obviously, you know, but family. My dad though, was the guy. Absolutely.

We love it. We, we have all shed tears about our pops on the show.

Yes.

Welcome to Glue Guys, man.

Welcome to Glue Guys. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I appreciate you guys bringing that up. So. I'd cry. Alex knows me, Sam.