As Irascible as He Was Brilliant, Buddy Ryan Left Mark on NFL None Should Forget

June 28, 2016   ·   Mike Freeman   ·   Jump to comments

The first time I met Buddy Ryan, it was in Philadelphia, where he was the head coach. Ryan started off by saying he "didn't have time for this s--t." Or something like that.
More than an hour later, I felt like I had a better understanding of Ryan, particularly when he said these words: I'm my own man.
If there were a credo for Ryan, it was that. There was never a coach in any sport who did things his own way, to such astounding success, as Ryan did. He constructed historic defenses his own way. He coached them his own way. He destroyed relationships with other coaches his own way. He built lifelong, genuinely tender relationships with his players his own way. He raised football sons his own way.
And he created a legendary coaching career his own way. Ryan was cantankerous and didn't care about the media or how he was perceived. It's why he punched a fellow coach in the face during a game and why he and Mike Ditka ran two separate teams while both were with Chicago. Ditk...

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