By Jason Klein
Originally Written For The Official Steiner Sports Blog – 3/25/10
Move over Orphan Annie, Rex Ryan just registered for summer classes at the school of Hard Knocks.
This August, the New York Jets will be the latest team featured on HBO’s Hard Knocks, a documentary series produced in conjunction with NFL Films. The novel reality show takes football fans behind closed doors inside an NFL locker room, giving them access to internal coaches meetings, practices, and players’ personal lives away from the field.
This summer, Rex Ryan’s players won’t be the only ones hanging on his every word.
The Jets will be the seventh team featured on the show that first featured aBaltimore Ravensteam, in 2001, with a feisty, loud defensive coach named…Rex Ryan.
This time, Ryan is running the show in New York. He will most likely run the show on HBO too. His Big Apple-sized personality is the perfect fit for reality television. His bluster and quick-witted comments will keep viewers on their toes, plus, his recent lap-band surgery, and the eating challenges that lie ahead, adds a human element sidebar that should add to the intrigue.
Throw in a marketable, second-year franchise QB (Mark Sanchez), a trash-talking veteran linebacker (Bart Scott), arguably the best defensive player in the league – barring an extended holdout, (Darrelle Revis), a young stud running back (Shonn Greene), and a newly acquired, future first-ballot Hall of Famer (Ladainian Tomlinson), and the Jets should be must-see-TV this summer.
In addition, coming off a surprisingly successful run through the AFC Playoffs in 2009, the Jets will have a “Super Bowl or Bust” mentality this season as they leave their old home behind and prepare to open up a new, state-of-the-art Stadium in the Meadowlands. It remains to be seen whether their inclusion on the show will distract them on the way to reaching their lofty goals.
It will certainly be a learning experience…
From the school of Hard Knocks.
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