Rex Ryan Blasts Orioles for Not Shifting Schedule to Accommodate Ravens' Season Opener

It has become common practice for each Super Bowl champion to open the following season with a Thursday night home game. That’ll change this fall, and Rex Ryan is not happy about it.

No, Ryan’s Jets did not win the Super Bowl last season. That honor goes to the Ravens, who — due to scheduling conflicts with the Baltimore Orioles, with whom they share a parking lot — will open the 2013 season against the Broncos in Denver.

Though the Baltimore teams’ failure to come to a compromise does not affect Ryan, the Jets coach argued that the Orioles’ decision not to move their game was ridiculous.

“Well who really cares,” Ryan told the New York Daily News. “You’ve got 81 at home, maybe you could have done the right thing and given one up and then played 82 on the road and then 80 at home. I really don’t think people are going to care about that game.

“Certainly I can understand, if baseball only had a 16-game schedule you might understand it. But when they have 162 games, you might just [have the] common courtesy and say, you know what, maybe I’ll play this one on the road or whatever.”

Especially in a difficult environment such as Denver, playing on your home field really can be a significant advantage. The Broncos were 7-1 at Mile High during the regular season last year, including wins in their final six home games. The Ravens came out on top in the playoffs, though, upsetting the top-seeded Broncos 38-35 in double overtime in the divisional round.