Rodney Harrison has a bone to pick with Rex Ryan.
The former New England Patriots safety joined WEEI’s “Ordway, Merloni & Fauria” on Tuesday to discuss the upcoming “Monday Night Football” matchup with the Buffalo Bills. Harrison didn’t have many nice things to say about Ryan’s team.
“The team has been so inconsistent,” Harrison said. “Obviously Rex brings a lot of garbage with him, a lot of fanfare. It’s one of those things where I still think the Patriots flat out are a better team. I think they’re a better-coached team. Rex, he’s going to have those guys pumped up, he’s going to blow them up with a lot of B.S. to say, ‘Hey, you guys can beat the Patriots.’ If the Patriots just do what they do, they should win this football game.”
Ryan has never had a problem making his desires to beat the Patriots known, and Harrison believes hyping up those two matchups per year only hurts the coach’s teams in the long run.
“Just shut up,” Harrison said. “You just don’t need all that from a coach. You can’t treat one game more special than the other, in a sense. When you start doing that, you put a lot of pressure on your players, and now all of a sudden, they get nervous. Will they become overaggressive, or will they be a little bit more relaxed, or will they be more a little hesitant?
“It’s just one of those things. Don’t treat the Patriots like the Super Bowl. Because when you lose it, it’s devastating to your team.”
Maybe that’s why Patriots head coach Bill Belichick is a man of few words.
Thumbnail photo via Brad Penner/USA TODAY Sports Images
