Rex and Rob Ryan have been “relieved” of their coaching duties within the Buffalo Bills organization. Rex is no longer the head honcho, and his twin brother Rob is no longer the assistant head coach. I’m not totally sure they’re relieved about it, but I’m also not totally sure they could argue they didn’t see it coming: “Rex is totally on the hot seat, right?” was one of the most-asked questions of the 2016 season.
It’s been 18 years since there wasn’t a Ryan coaching in the NFL
The last year we were Ryan-less was 1998.
Photo by Michael Adamucci/Getty Images
Coaching professional football teams is a tradition in the Ryan family: Their dad Buddy bounced around the NFL like a piece of flubber for about 35 years. Being an average head football coach is also a Ryan family tradition. I’m talking astonishingly average, like, Jeff Fisher*-levels of average: Rex had a 15-16 record with the Bills after a little less than two seasons; Buddy went 43–38–1 in five seasons with the Eagles.
*Who got his first coaching job under ... wait for it ... BUDDY RYAN!!!
Today, it once again all comes full circle, because getting fired also — sadly — seems to run in the family, too. The Eagles sacked Buddy after his 1990 season, and Rex and Rob have both been fired by the Jets and the Saints, respectively.
HOWEVER: Once you have an NFL coaching job, it’s almost impossible not to get another one, no matter how many times you’ve been “relieved.” Fired coaches are like the Keith Richards of football — you could nuke the whole league and you’d still have someone, somewhere, offering these average guys contracts. Rex and Rob have seen enough success before that they’ll almost undoubtedly get other jobs, as their dad did when the Houston Oilers hired him as a defensive coordinator in 1993 (to be fair, Buddy was a good defensive coordinator. See: The Bears 1985 Super Bowl team).
In fact, the last time we had a Ryan-less NFL was in 1998. Buddy hired his two sons to work for the Arizona Cardinals when he headed there in 1994. The brothers then went back to coaching college ball for a while, until the Ravens hired Rex in 1999 and the Patriots hired Rob in 2000.
Here’s what was happening the last time we didn’t have a Ryan in the NFL.
- Bill Clinton won the United States’ presidential election (hahhhh).
- Pasta was still good for you, I think.
- “The Boy is Mine” by Brandy and Monica was a No. 1 hit.
- The Broncos won the Super Bowl. History repeats itself.
- My youth soccer team won our first game in 2 years.
- Michael Jordan was the MVP of the NBA rather than the MVP of memes on the internet.
- It was a banner year for movies: We got There’s Something about Mary, The Truman Show, The Big Lebowski, THE PARENT TRAP!!!, Armageddon ... I don’t want to say they don’t make ’em like that anymore, but, I mean ...
- Oh, also, Titanic became the first movie to gross $1 billion. That feels important.
- Twitter didn’t exist and Donald Trump was just a rich dude.
- All of the wonderful celebrities and artists who died this year weren’t dead yet.
Anyway, can’t wait to see where the Ryans end up. Wonder if they’re already hitting the links for a round of golf with Fisher.
Correction: A previous version of this post stated the last time the Ryans weren’t in the league was 1992.
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