Post by thebigragu on Feb 2, 2015 20:23:52 GMT -5
Screenshot made with Grabilla
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.—Despite middling results with the New York Jets, Rex Ryan became one of the most beloved coaches in the National Football League, winning followers with his sincerity, salty mouth and unapologetic bravado.
Jets players and fans adored him. He returned the sentiment, most indelibly by getting a tattoo on his upper right arm that depicted his wife, Michelle, as a pinup model wearing nothing but a Jets jersey.
In December, the Jets fired Mr. Ryan after six seasons and a 4-12 record in 2014. The Buffalo Bills hired him as their new head coach two weeks later. That left him with a question: What should he do with the tattoo?
He came up with the $80 answer on Friday. Mr. Ryan went to an Arizona tattoo parlor, where an artist darkened the jersey’s color from Jets green to Bills blue.
“I mean, you’ve got to turn the page,” he said.
The coach also rid himself of almost all his Jets apparel. That included the black sweater vests he superstitiously wore almost every game, pieces of Jets lore that each could be worth as much as $1,000, according to collectibles-dealer Heritage Auctions.
Unclear is the current whereabouts of the sweater vests. Mr. Ryan said his wife donated all his Jets gear to the Salvation Army in suburban New Jersey, where thrift-store shoppers might have unknowingly bought clothes once worn by the popular coach.
This time of year, NFL coaches play a game of musical chairs. After the regular season’s end in December, team owners fired head coaches who didn’t meet expectations. The new ones they hire are usually either former head coaches or up-and-coming assistant coaches from teams in the playoffs, which culminated Sunday with the Super Bowl.
Given the competitiveness of the NFL, the hiring season usually ends in February and a new coach immediately relocates to begin working for his new team, where he becomes the franchise’s public face. So the coach has little time to figure out what to do with all the stuff from his old team.
Gus Bradley, who in 2013 left his job as the Seattle Seahawks defensive coordinator to become the Jacksonville Jaguars head coach, said he gave his Seattle gear to friends who were Seahawks fans. Tennessee Titans head coach Ken Whisenhunt did the same after the Arizona Cardinals fired him as head coach after the 2012 season, but only to a degree. “I still have some of it, especially Super Bowl stuff,” said Mr. Whisenhunt, whose Cardinals team was the NFL runner-up of the 2008 season.
Mr. Ryan, who is 52 years old, said he never considered holding on to Jets keepsakes or even leaving the tattoo green to remind of him of that period in life. He said his style was to immerse himself in the present.
“I’m all in,” he said.
The Jets gave Mr. Ryan his first head-coaching job in 2009, when he proclaimed at his introductory news conference that he’d take the team to the White House after winning a Super Bowl. A year later, he charmed football fans nationwide with his profanity-aided exuberance on the HBO documentary show “Hard Knocks.”
Mr. Ryan flew to the Phoenix area last week for media appearances during Super Bowl week. On Thursday, he called a Scottsdale, Ariz., tattoo parlor called Old Town Ink, said Ben Verhoek, an artist there. Mr. Verhoek said Mr. Ryan explained his dilemma like this: “It’s like a girl in a jersey and I wanted to change the colors of it.”
Mr. Verhoek realized who the customer was only when the coach, clad in a Buffalo Bills tracksuit, and his wife showed up at the shop Friday afternoon. The artist looked at the tattoo and then at Mrs. Ryan.
“Is that supposed to be you?” he asked.
She said yes.
“I see the resemblance,” Mr. Verhoek said.
He took 20 minutes to shade green into blue, while Mr. Ryan and all the tattooists made small talk and watched the documentary series “The First 48” on TV. Mr. Verhoek said he charged the minimum rate, $80, and Mr. Ryan tipped on top of that.
www.wsj.com/articles/after-being-fired-by-new-york-jets-coach-rex-ryan-changes-tattoo-1422921707
