Vernon Gholston does not like Rex Ryan.
The Jets' 2008 sixth overall draft pick made that much clear Monday night after his new team — the Chicago Bears — played the New York Giants in his first time back to New Meadowlands Stadium since being dumped by the Jets.
"Being a first-round pick, you would have hoped for more [of a chance]," Gholston said, according to the New York Post.
Ryan infamously called Gholston a "phony" in his book, "Play It Like You Mean It." But that was not the first comment that the Jets head coach made that irked Gholston.
"Rex made a comment to me when he first came in that he thought I wasn't liked by the guys on the team, then once he got there he saw that wasn't the case," Gholston said. "Those perceptions kind of determine the outcome, and it's sad to say."
The outcome on the field was that Gholston — a tackling machine at Ohio State — had zero sacks and only 42 combined tackles in 45 games with Gang Green. But Gholston blames his lack of production on the Jets' lack of patience and their inconsistent approach towards his talents.
"Teams are always looking for talent, and to say I don't have talent is a far stretch," Gholston said. "It's all about getting a fair shot and time in the system. With the Jets, it was constant position change and coaching change. There was no stability. I never really had that with the Jets."
Gholston believes that part of the reason he never got a fair shake in New York was because Ryan played favorites with the players he brought over from Baltimore such as Bart Scott and Jim Leonhard.
"Whenever you have a new coach, you hope everything's fair," Gholston said. "But obviously, he was in Baltimore for a number of years and has a passion for those guys."
Gholston put his dislike of Ryan most bluntly when he said, "I heard how he was perceiving me before the [2008] draft, before he knew me, and I was the same way — I wasn't hoping for him to be [my] first coach of the Jets when I was there, either."
