Rex Ryan and Rob Ryan in the mold of their cantankerous father, Buddy Ryan
September 24, 2009
Buddy Ryan’s twin sons, just out of college, had been ball boys and ballplayers. They had worked as hot-tar roofers and loaded planes at Philadelphia International Airport. They had sowed wild oats. They wanted to be football coaches.
Ryan decided that if Rex and Rob were going to follow his career path, it was time to teach them his famed 46 defense. Ryan rented a hotel room in his native Oklahoma and brought in an easel. The three men hunkered down there for two days.
A big moment for Rex and Rob?
“I think it was a big moment for Dad,” Rex said. “I think he realized these guys have a little more aptitude for football than he thought. He taught us the 46 Single, now the Cover Seven, then 46-3 Z, right down the list. We’d get back up there and regurgitate everything we learned. I think he realized, ‘Oh, man, these guys have been paying attention.’”
Once the twins got started, working as entry-level college coaches, Ryan came to trust their judgment on ballplayers, treating them like scouts without portfolios. He said that in 1991, on Rob’s advice, he had been ready to draft an offensive lineman who could have changed the history of the NFC East, if only the Eagles hadn’t fired Ryan.
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