Ex-Jets Coach Says the Patriots Had Their Playbook
MMQB – Mike Pettine certainly looks the part. He’s got the bald head, the goatee and the muscular build. He’s a defensive coach who used to go get (bleeping) snacks with Rex Ryan… Now Pettine is sitting in the same proverbial [Browns’ coaching] chair that Paul Brown, Blanton Collier, Marty Schottenheimer and Bill Belichick did… The [Brown’s] initial playbook itself is actually quite thin, and that’s by design. “I don’t put a lot of graduate-level information in it,” Pettine says. “We know in places like New England, it’s only a matter of time that they somehow mysteriously end up with our playbook.” Pettine told a story of how, at Wes Welker’s wedding, Tom Brady bragged a little bit to Jets outside linebackers coach Mike Smith, who was Welker’s college roommate, that the Patriots may or may not have had possession of a couple Jets defensive playbooks. “It didn’t shock me because Rex would give them out like candy anyway,” Pettine says. “He gave one out to [Alabama coach Nick] Saban and I was like, ‘Don’t you know Saban and Bill [Belichick] are pretty good friends? I have a feeling it’s going to end up in New England.’”
Rex Ryan. Rex goddamned Ryan. This is just example No. 75, 482 why I need him in my life. What’s that line from “Wedding Crashers”? “True love is the soul’s recognition of its counterpoint in another”? Well I love Rex Ryan. He’s my soul’s counterpoint. When he’s not making me respect him for scheming unbelievable gameplans like that masterpiece in the 2010 Divisional Playoff in Gillette, he’s got me double over laughing at the thought of him giving out his playbook like a Jehovah’s Witness handing out copies of “The Watchtower.” Hey, Nick Saban! Wanna see the defense my family’s been working on for two generations now? Nah, keep it, keep it! I got plenty of copies! Just don’t be showing it to your best friend who’s been kicking my ass all these years! I’m getting sick of kissing his rings! Well, bye now… I mean, there’s poor Mike Smith, just trying to have a good time at his old roommate’s wedding but has to be subjected to Brady throwing his coverages and pass rush schemes in his face. Just rubbing the fact that his coach is an attention-loving buffoon and Brady’s guards his system like it’s nuclear launch codes. Which is part of the reason one coach is always scrambling to save his job and the other already has a seat waiting for him on Football Coach Mt. Olympus. Like they say there’ll always be an England, I hope there’ll always be a Shrex running the Jets. As good as life is as a New England sports fan, he just always finds a way to make it better. @JerryThornton1