RUSH: Rex Ryan, the coach of the New York Jets — (interruption) No, not out yet. The media’s trying. The media’s trying to get Rex fired. There’s no question about it. They love Rex one day. They hate him today. But Friday and Saturday in the NFL were important days. By Saturday at six p.m., every NFL team had to get their roster down to 53 players. In many cases, teams had to cut as many as 20 players by six p.m. Saturday.
Well, old Rex left town on Saturday. Rex has a son named Seth who’s a walk-on freshman at Clemson. And old Rex, he hung around for the decision-making process on Friday night as the Jets decided which players on their roster they were gonna cut, and then Saturday he hightailed it down to Clemson, South Carolina, to watch his son play, although his son didn’t play. The son didn’t play, he’s a walk-on freshman. Meaning, he doesn’t have a scholarship. He walked on, made the team.
The media is beside itself! The media is demanding that Rex Ryan defend himself taking time off to attend the Clemson game where his son might have played. I read this and I said, “Now, wait a second. If Rex’s wife were giving birth and Rex punted and went to the hospital, they’d be praising Rex. Family values and all that.” I mean, in the NFL, if you’re a player, if you’re a coach, and your wife is having a baby, you better get the hell to the hospital or they’re gonna destroy you. If it means missing a game on Sunday, you better get to the hospital for the birth. If it means missing a practice, you better get to the hospital. Right? That’s where we are. Your wife has a baby. You’re in the NFL. You go to the hospital and you be there for the birth.
Okay. So Rex says that he got together with the other trust of the Jets. They made their roster decisions Friday night. Rex hightailed it down to see his son. Family values. Why is that bad? Why is that not allowed? They’re saying that Rex obviously doesn’t care. They’re saying that Rex obviously doesn’t run the team anymore. They’re saying that Rex obviously doesn’t care, doesn’t run the team. He’s a lame duck. He didn’t even care enough to hang around on roster cut day. Rex says (paraphrasing), “I was here. We made the decisions on Friday night,” and the media, “Yeah, but Rex, you weren’t around on Saturday to tell the players they’d been cut. Coaches always do that.” And Rex said, “No, sometimes the general manager does it.” Which is true, but anyway, not a big deal. But to me it’s a little bit of hypocrisy.
Now, let me ask this. Let’s say Rex’s daughter was on the Clemson field hockey team, and Rex had left the Jets on Saturday to go watch his daughter, would they be okay with it? No, no. I’m asking this seriously. My staff is laughing on the other side of the glass here. Well, no, no, no. Look, I don’t know Rex Ryan. I have no brief for Rex Ryan. He may as well be Bashar Assad as far as I’m concerned. It’s not the point. My point is, an NFL person leaves the team to be there when his baby is born, and they orgasm. It’s wonderful. It’s so great. It’s the greatest thing. It’s real family values. I always thought staying and earning a paycheck and providing for the family was the family value contribution of the man, but, you know, that’s 1700s kind of stuff, apparently.
What’s the difference in Rex? It’s cut-down Saturday. There’s not even a practice. There’s not even a game. So Rex goes to see his son, and the media is making a big, “Well, his son wasn’t even gonna play.” Oh, I left something out. Rex tailgated. Rex put on a Clemson T-shirt and was tailgating with fans. He was partying, in other words. Rex was partying while 20 players on his roster were having their lives ruined. He was partying with his son. Well, his son was in the locker room. But he was partying with fans in a tailgate while 20 of his players are being cut, maybe never, ever again to earn money in the NFL. What a heartless, cold SOB Rex Ryan is.
I don’t understand the difference. Would somebody explain to me the difference? Who gave these 20 guys their shot? Well, Rex was part of the decision that gave ’em their shot, yeah. I don’t understand the complaint, either. There’s not a woman involved here, so maybe that’s the answer.
He’s supposed… It’s cut down-day when you make that final cut. Maybe I didn’t make this clear. The final cut is a big decision. You pare the roster down, ’cause most teams are cutting 15 to 20 players. But it’s not like the first or second cut-down day where you go from 90 to 85 or 90 to 80. This is the final roster. This is where you’re telling twenty guys or 15 guys, “Sayonara.”
And it is said by people in the media that for pro personnel management people in the corporate structure of an NFL team, next to the draft, this is the biggest day of the year, and Rex wasn’t there. Rex punted to go down and tailgate at a college football game. But he didn’t. He went down there to see his son’s first game in uniform for Clemson. He’s a walk-on freshman. He didn’t play.
The odds were that he wasn’t gonna play. But how often do we hear, “You know, parents just don’t have time for their kids anymore. They don’t go to their Little League games. They don’t go to the soccer game because they’re just too busy”? Remember the soccer mom phenomenon? Mom picked up the slack ’cause dad was a reprobate predator. Dad didn’t have time for his kids.
Dad was just getting drunk or whatever. He was hitting on other women while poor mom was picking up all the kids and taking ’em to soccer practice after picking ’em up after school, after fixing ’em lunch and breakfast. And after doing this, and after getting ’em their condoms and their cigarettes for sex that night, then she took ’em to the soccer game.
And dad’s out doing whatever he’s doing with the guys. So here’s Rex, doing his family values thing, getting creamed for it in the New York media. If you can get praised for leaving the team to go to the hospital while your wife is giving birth, why do you get savaged for leaving the team to go watch your son play his first college football game? He didn’t play, but you never know. He might have.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Now, let me add something else to this Rex Ryan. Apparently it’s okay for Obama to go play Spades with Reggie Love while we’re taking out bin Laden. Oh, yeah! Anything he needs to do to keep his mind sharp. It’s a lot of stress being president. Obama can go play golf any time. He can say, “To hell with the red line! I’m gonna make sure that the Congress authorizes the use of force to take out Assad,” and then he goes and plays golf.
“Anything he can do, Mr. Limbaugh, to take the pressure of the job off of his mind so that his mind stays sharp, that’s just fine with us.” Right. So the president can play Spades, can go play golf, can do whatever he wants to do. But Rex Ryan goes down to Clemson on cut-down day? “He ought to be fired, ’cause he doesn’t care, ’cause he’s a lame duck. He’s not running the show and this proves it.” I guess Rex isn’t allowed to be a father on cut-down day.
He could be a father if his wife were giving birth, but you can’t be a father on cut-down day. You know, if I were the media, I’d be thinking it’s time to applaud Rex. There are 20 players he just saved from Alzheimer’s, ALS, concussions, and life-altering injuries, which is what they say the NFL’s about now. So here’s 20 guys saved, ’cause Rex Ryan was involved in the process of cutting ’em.
Here are 20 guys who will not get concussions, who will not get ALS, who will not get Parkinson’s, who won’t become demented, and who will live after the age of 44. Well, I’m sorry, but that’s what they say the NFL does to people now.