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Rex Ryan has had a very impressive football career. He’s been a head coach at the NFL level with the New York Jets and Buffalo Bills, and won a Super Bowl as the defensive line coach for the 2000 Baltimore Ravens.
He was named the 2006 NFL Assistant Coach of the Year and has been involved in football as a coach or TV analyst for the past 37 years.
Yet, despite all of those accolades, the one thing many football fans think of first when they hear the name Rex Ryan is his unabashed love for women’s feet. Or, well, certain women’s feet.
For the few that aren’t familiar with this story, in 2010, while Rex Ryan’s Jets were getting ready for the playoffs, a foot fetish video of Ryan’s wife Michelle appeared on the internet. In the background of the video, the man operating the camera can be heard speaking and, lo and behold, it sure sounded a lot like Rex Ryan.
Rex Ryan eventually fessed up to his admiration for a good foot and has since leaned into the whole thing, making jokes about it and being the butt of jokes made by his co-workers at ESPN and others.
His acceptance of being comfortable with people knowing about his foot fetish was never more evident than it was on Tuesday during an appearance Rex made on The Pivot with Channing Crowder and Ryan Clark.
“Channing’s been trying to ask me, since we work together, ‘Why does Rex love feet so much?'” Ryan Clark said to the former Bills coach.
“Oh yeah. I don’t know what it is, man. I love my wife’s feet,” said Ryan. “I don’t know what it is. And then, but if a chick’s got jacked-up feet, I’m out. I don’t care how gorgeous. I’m out.
“I don’t know what the hell it is. Some people are b— guys, leg guys, you know, whatever. Of course, I notice a pretty gorgeous face, whatever, but don’t kid yourself, I’m checking the feet out. Just the way it is!
“I don’t know. And you know what’s funny, and when s— that came out, front page New York, my wife’s gonna freaking kill me, right? When that s— came out.
“But I’m like damn. I can’t tell you how many of my players came up, said, ‘Dude, I like feet too,’ and I’m like, ‘Hell yeah, you do! You’re a freaking man!’ You know what I mean? Like, ‘Damn right!’
“I mean, I don’t know what it is, but now I have fun with it and it’s like, ‘Yeah, that’s me. That’s who I am.’ I own that s— and if a chick’s got great feet I’m looking.”
Ryan Clark went on to ask Rex how that whole feet “scandal” affected his life in 2010 and Ryan did admit, “It was worse than I’m letting you know because it was like, ’cause it affected my wife, you know what I mean?”
But he said that those in the Jets locker room, especially his assistant coaches had his back, and that was one of the beautiful things about football: how 53 men can have so many differences, but still work together as a unit.
“How different would our world be if every single person played football, and grew up in a damn locker room, you know?” Ryan asked. “The great thing is everybody can have their thing, but we’re all going to respect our differences. I wish it was like it, unfortunately our world’s not like that.”