'Hard Knocks' premiere has Rex Ryan's spicy tongue
The Jets barreled onto the "Hard Knocks" stage last night as HBO had hoped, full of brash personalities and intrigue, and starring camera-ready coach Rex Ryan.
Among other things, the Court Jetster of Cortland took full advantage - early and often - of the network's liberal policy on the use of expletives.
Much of it can't be repeated here, of course, but let's just say the narration might have understated a bit when it described the coach as having "plenty of brio."
After telling players in the first team meeting of camp that the goal for the offense, defense and special teams simply was to win the most games in the NFL, he unleashed a colorful series of curse words to reinforce the point.
There were other interesting nuggets, such as Joe Namath suggesting to Mark Sanchez that the young quarterback change his hand position for receiving the center snap.
In addition to the usual "Hard Knocks" tales of veterans seeking redemption and youngsters looking to make a mark, the series has been presented with an ongoing news story: Darrelle Revis' holdout.
There have been holdout sagas on the show before, but the tone surrounding this one was particularly grim on the first episode. Revis and his agents did not make themselves available to "Hard Knocks" cameras, so all we got was the team's perspective.
Early in the episode, Ryan was seen good-naturedly joking about Revis' absence, and general manager Mike Tannenbaum shared some optimism with owner Woody Johnson after hanging up with one of Revis' representatives.
"That was the most non-negative conversation I think I've ever had with him," said Tannenbaum, who also agreed with the agent they would not say anything in the news media that would not help the cause of Revis getting re-signed.
By the time Tannenbaum was seen driving home from meeting Revis' people at the Roscoe Diner midway between Cortland and New York, he said this:
"They haven't said one thing that I agree with, at all. You know what's so funny? We're so freaking far apart that I feel like a failure. Six months later we haven't moved the needle.
"I just don't get it. I've tried everything."
Tannenbaum even muses about throwing in the towel, saying, "Why don't we just move on, and we'll try again next year."
Hmm. Tune in next week . . .