| D'Brickashaw Ferguson is the latest Jet to potentially step in it. (Getty Images) |
There was a time when Rex Ryan was the lone idiot.
He guaranteed a Super Bowl victory. Didn't even get to the game. Then, if memory serves, he guaranteed another. Didn't get there. Ryan suddenly realized his idiocy and stopped.
"I don't know what I accomplished out of it," Ryan said in a radio interview last year. "I think if it gave an opponent fuel to the fire, then, obviously, that was a mistake. If it put undue pressure on our team, then that was a mistake. Certainly I didn't want to do it, I wanted to put -- coming off back-to-back championship games all that’s left is the Super Bowl. And I thought by guaranteeing that, it would put the arrows on me. Now granted it did, but it also put arrows on our players and I didn't want that. If it was gonna come down, it would come down on me only. That was what I thought would happen, and that didn't happen. It was shot on some of our players and obviously shot at me as well, where it should have been. But it wasn’t directed at me, and I think that was my mistake by saying what I said."
Unfortunately rest of the NFL didn't learn from Ryan's mistake. There is suddenly a wave of guarantees sweeping the sport. In 20 years of covering the NFL, I've never seen anything like this. Ever.
Last year, Vince Young declared the Eagles were a Dream Team. They didn't make the playoffs. This year, Mike Vick went a step further, and declared that an organization that has never won a Super Bowl will be a dynasty. That makes Ryan seem humble.
It goes on and on. Just within a matter of days the guarantees and bragging have reached ridiculous, all-time levels.
Jets' D'Brickashaw Ferguson, not learning from his coach, said the Jets, who didn't make the playoffs last year, are bound for greatness. Alrighty then.
Carolina's Ryan Kalil took out full-page newspaper ad guaranteeing Panthers would win the Super Bowl. The only bowl the Panthers will get this season is one filled with Frosted Flakes.
Miami's Karlos Dansby said the Dolphins would win the AFC, period. Is that the All Fantasy Championship?
I'm sure a chunk of it is the ever-increasing media presence since we record every thought, giggle and belch from an athlete.
But one thing does seem certain. The wall of humility that was once slowly falling is now totally gone.
NFL players don't care if their team stinks. They're gonna brag. Even if their bragging has no basis in reality.