Jets-Dolphins lovefest

During an MMA event last January, Jets coach Rex Ryan -- visiting South Florida for Super Bowl festivities -- directed a middle finger at a rowdy Dolphins fan who, along with others in the crowd, had engaged in some aggressive trash-talking with the ever garrulous Ryan.
The finger was caught on a cell-phone camera and the Jets fined Ryan $50,000 for the ``obscene gesture.'' The incident added more heat (and more fun) to an already hostile rivalry that was only getting hotter.
Key word: Was.
With three days remaining before Sunday night's showdown between Miami and New York, the Dolphins-Jets rivalry is more like a lovefest than an MMA cage match.
Forget about a war of words. The once-hot rivalry has turned into a marshmallow roast around a campfire.
Asked Wednesday whether he had a message for Dolphins fans about his one-finger salute in January, Ryan laughed and said, ``No, absolutely not.''
Instead, Ryan had another message for Dolphins fans. He said they should feel fortunate to have his friend, Mike Nolan, as their defensive coordinator.
``He's a great football coach and a great man,'' Ryan said. ``His wife is better than him. Kathy is outstanding, and she bakes the best cookies of all time.''
Hold on a second. It's Dolphins-Jets week, and we're talking about a (gosh darn) snack?
One day later, in another gesture of kindness, Dolphins coach Tony Sparano actually replied to Ryan's comments about Nolan with a compliment of his own.
MAKING NICE
``I heard that Rex said that we were really lucky to have Mike Nolan, and he's right,'' Sparano said. ``But Rex is lucky to have [Jets offensive coordinator] Brian Schottenheimer. This guy is a tremendous football coach.''
Hey, that's all good, of course. Sparano and Schottenheimer are ``good friends'' from their days with the Redskins, and Ryan and Nolan are tight from their time together in Baltimore. NFL connections aren't unusual, after all.
Perhaps it's fair to let both sides get away with the niceties this time.
With the rivalry growing a bit stale, however, maybe it needs a dose of Dolphins linebacker Channing Crowder, who has verbally sparred with Ryan in the past (although Ryan said Wednesday that was overblown) and who last season said he ``hates'' former Jets running back Leon Washington, who now plays for Seattle.
Because of his groin injury, Crowder hasn't been able to provide any new material this time. Good thing there's still linebacker Jason Taylor, who has always been a dependable critic of the Jets.
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Oh, wait. Taylor now plays for the Jets. About that:
``I would hope that Jason is received well down here,'' Sparano said. ``Jason has done an awful lot for this community. He's done an awful lot for this franchise. From that end, I think he deserves his due.''
Expecting Sparano to say anything bad about anyone -- especially someone he respects as much as Taylor -- is like expecting the Dolphins to throw the ball more than they run it.
The man is too kind for such trash talk.
And maybe when Ryan said Dolphins left tackle Jake Long reminds him of the great Jonathan Ogden (a ringer for the Hall of Fame, by the way), he was simply building up his opponent so he can later knock it down. Or maybe not.
Somewhere, though, the passion and the hate must still be lurking.
Perhaps it is churning inside their stomachs. Perhaps it is simply waiting until Sunday night to arrive.
After all, even if the usual shenanigans of Dolphins-Jets week are lacking, it isn't the trash talk off the field that matters most.
It's the fire on the field that makes this one of the best rivalries in football.
``I'm ready for a fight,'' running back Ronnie Brown said.
Now, that's more like it.


Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/09/24/1839687/once-heated-jets-dolphins-rivalry.html#ixzz10SHjXGYe