Ryan doesn't apologize for his New York swagger

Twin Cities reporters just got a chance to talk to Jets coach Rex Ryan on a conference call. Too bad there aren't 31 more NFL head coaches like this guy.

He's not only a very good coach and motivator, he's also a breath of fresh air in a league that's mostly filled with cliche-spewing people who are afraid to speak their mind.

I asked Rex if he ever weighed the consequences that come with his brash behavior and the public swagger that he has instilled in his players. We all got a good inside look at Ryan and the Jets during HBO's Hard Knocks series this summer. There's no question the Jets' arrogance put a giant target on them.

In Week 1, Ray Lewis and the Ravens took the Jets' behavior personally and beat the Jets up in a 10-9 win at the new Meadowlands stadium. The Jets have since won three straight.

"It really doesn't matter," Ryan said. "Ray Lewis is going to be motivated anyway. I spent 10 years with Ray. He'll look for anything he can."

Then Rex said the sentence that makes him one of my favorite coaches of all-time.

"If the [other] team needs that kind of motivation, we're going to beat them anyway," Ryan said. "And that's the truth."

"You're motivated by competition. I think that's the No. 1 thing. But if it takes some bulletin board material and all that, so be it. I think with us, we're a team that really built ourselves up. We talk more about ourselves than we talk negatively about our opponents. I know I've never had a bad word about an opponent. They just don't like how I brag about my team. I'll be honest, I've never gone into a game in my life that I didn't think I was going to win. That's college level, National Football League or whatever. I've always gone in thinking I'm going to win. And if people have a problem with it, then so be it, but I'm never going to change."