Rex Ryan Declared He's Looking Forward to Kicking Mike Vrabel's Ass Twice a Year. But Tragically, as He's Out of the Jets Job.

Alex Goodlett. Getty Images.

There was once a dream that was Rex Ryan coming back to coach the Jets:

You could only whisper it. Anything more than a whisper and it would vanish, it was so fragile. 

That non-stop content machine was so close to returning to the biggest media market in the world. An NFL city desperate for relevance. It was hard not to get caught up in the fantasy of him returning to the Jets sideline once again. And the podium. With his patented brand of overconfidence. The braggadocio that he perfected all those years ago. The blogs that practically write themselves. Hell, just yesterday he was already at it, talking shit about what he planned to do to Mike Vrabel:

Despite the rather inconvenient fact Vrabel had his signature on a contract and he didn't. The dream of these two locked in mortal combat in the AFC East for as long as it would take for Ryan to get fired again was so real I could taste it.

But to go back to what I was doing a couple of paragraphs ago, which is paraphrasing Marcus Aurelius in Gladiator, I feared that dream would not survive the winter. And it would seem it hasn't:

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I must admit, this is a crushing defeat. But I have only myself to blame. I allowed myself to get my hopes up about a possibility that was always too good to be true. I should've known better. 

So instead of getting the most compelling, hilarious (intentionally and unintentionally) and blogworthy Jets head coach of the 21st century, we're going to have to settle for one of the usual suspects. Some retread like Ron Rivera or possibly Mike McCarthy. A new guy who's only been a coordinator before like Aaron Glenn. A college guy like Maryland's Mike Locksley. Or any of the half dozen they've requested interviews with, including Brian Flores, Arthur Smith and Van Joseph. All probably deserving candidates. In that they deserve better than to be the next coach who has his career derailed by taking a job at Woody Johnson's Dysfunction Factory. But not one with anything near the star power that Sexy Rexy possesses before he's even gotten out of bed in the morning. 

And those of us who make our livings focusing on the AFC East are all poorer because of it. This NFL blogging world was never meant for one as beautiful as Rex Ryan.