USA TODAY Sports
Buddy Ryan was an innovator, a motivator, an incinerator.
He ripped anyone and everyone. He refused to call players by their actual names. If you were in his circle of trust, you were given a nickname. Otherwise, you were just a number to him.
He was a football original, among the last of the dinosaurs.
Ryan died Tuesday at the age of 85, after cutting a large swath across the NFL. He was a linebackers coach for the Super Bowl champion Jets in 1968, helping Joe Namath make good on his guarantee.