Rex Ryan Committed The Ultimate Sin of a Sports Fan
By Erik Lambert
Rex Ryan has a reputation among sports fans for being brash, bold and seemingly fearless in the face of difficult circumstances and situations.
That may be why his players love him. At the same time Ryan has developed a reputation for falling short of expectations. He had two-straight cracks at the Super Bowl in 2009 and 2010 with the New York Jets and failed to break through. Now he’s got his second chance with the Buffalo Bills. So far it’s not going well. For every great performance he gets from his team, they deliver untimely bad ones not too long after.
They are 4-4 at the halfway point of the season. This begs the question. Is Ryan just not cut out for handle big games? Well if one were to follow his recent history as a sports fan, it makes them wonder. Ryan grew up in the city of Chicago where his father was defensive coordinator for the Bears. There the young Rex became an avid Chicago Cubs fan.
So needless to say he was beyond ecstatic when they reached the World Series. He made sure he was there for the epic Game 7 in Cleveland too. Unfortunately he ended up making the absolute worst mistake any sports fan could do.
He left the game early because he thought it was over.
Rex Ryan says he and about a dozen friends left during rain delay of Game 7 of World Series. "I hate to admit it," he says. He's a Cubs fan.
— Mike Rodak (@mikerodak) November 4, 2016
For those who didn’t watch the game, it went like this. The Cubs held a 6-3 lead in the bottom of the 8th inning. Then the Indians scored three runs to tie it with a dramatic home run. After a scoreless 9th inning the umpire called for a delay as the rain really began to pick up. Fans were deflated from the turn of events, but it was still a 6-6 tie going into the 10th.
Apparently that knowledge escaped Ryan who convinced himself to leave the biggest baseball game in modern history. Sure enough it came back to haunt him. Chicago found their footing after the delay. They scored twice in the 10th and held off Cleveland to win their first World Series in 108 years 8-7. Maybe this is a good lesson for Rex.
As Roger Staubach once said, he only wants to be surrounded by teabags. That’s because they perform their best when the water is hottest.