Good-natured Rex Ryan takes photo with Jets fan wearing ‘This team makes me drink’ shirt
CORTLAND, N.Y. – A chance meeting between a New York Jets fan and coach Rex Ryan showed that even though Ryan is facing the pressure of a season on the hot seat, he still has a sense of humor.
On Saturday night following the second day of training camp, Ryan and his coaching staff went out to enjoy the nightlife of Cortland, N.Y. and bumped into Joseph Grinwis, a lifelong Jets fan. When Grinwis strolled up to Ryan around midnight on Saturday night to ask for a photo, he wasn’t sure how his T-shirt would be handled by the head coach of his long-suffering team.
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His shirt simply said: “This Team Makes Me Drink.”
“I was a little bit ‘Oh no’ inside. I mean, the one night I’m wearing this shirt, you know?” said Grinwis, who made the trip from Wantage Township, N.J., more than a three-hour drive from upstate New York, to watch training camp. “But he was cool with it. Maybe he wasn’t on the inside but he seemed cool with it.”
Ryan referenced the trip to downtown Cortland during his Sunday press conference.
“The entire coaching staff and scouting department went out last night. That’s how close this group is. And not because you make them, well half of them,” Ryan said jokingly. “But we all go out and we sit around, we talk – had a water.”
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Grinwis said he saw Ryan in the Dark Horse Tavern and spoke with the head coach, telling him how much he loved the Jets. He said that Ryan was appreciative of his support and the effort he made to come up to training camp.
And even seemed fine with a T-shirt poking fun at his team.
“He looked at it and laughed,” Ginwis said. “He didn’t make a comment. He just laughed.”
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