For six tumultuous New York Jets seasons, J-E-T-S was spelled R-E-X. Those are still the glory days for fans of a certain age, but they were also the source of both incredible entertainment and tear-your-hair-out frustration.
Nostalgia can be a dirty liar, but one thing it doesn’t whitewash is Rex Ryan‘s unparalleled style and hilarious quotes. The Jets head coach was bombastic, colorful, foul-mouthed, and rib-achingly funny.
Former Jets general manager Mike Tannenbaum for four of those years before the scourge of John Idzik made his way to New York. He was the architect of those 2009-10 teams and drafted much of the key talent, including Nick Mangold, D’Brickashaw Ferguson, Darrelle Revis, David Harris, Mark Sanchez, Shonn Greene, and Brad Smith.