But on Tuesday, Ryan broke that code. The Jets head coach actually backed up Belichick in his decision to play Rob Gronkowski on an extra point late in the Patriots’ Sunday night win over the Colts, the same play where Gronkowski broke his left forearm. Gronkowski could miss anywhere from four to eight weeks.
Ryan went as far as to call the criticism of Belichick’s decision “absolutely ridiculous” before further defending his rival.
“[Gronkowski] is on an extra point. He’s probably done it 100 times this year for the simple fact that’s how many points they score,” Ryan said. “You never see that. Every single team in the league [does it]. We have D’Brickashaw Ferguson there.”
Belichick’s decisions sparked a pretty polarizing debate on the issue, with some even questioning the intelligence of the man many call “genius.” But Ryan understands as well as anyone how easily a player can suffer that sort of freak injury and says Belichick wasn’t wrong in his decision.
“You don’t play the game that way, and it’s just an unfortunate thing,” Ryan said. “That’s just a freak deal that that would happen. But unfortunately that’s part of the game. Injuries do happen. We lose [Santonio] Holmes and [Darrelle] Revis to non-contact injuries, and it’s just one of those things and it’s unfortunate, obviously.”
Belichick responded to Ryan’s support with some reflections on his long and “good” relationship with the Jets head coach, but he still wouldn’t comment specifically on the injury or Ryan’s thoughts on Gronkowski.
While these two teams may have a deeply rooted hatred for one another — and those emotions will be on the field Thursday night — Ryan and Belichick obviously have a strong respect for one another. And exchanges like this only serve to spread that sentiment even further.
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