The first hours after Tim Tebow's signing illustrate the difference between Bill Belichick and Rex Ryan's relationship with the media. Rex Ryan can't get enough of the microphones and has a foot fetish that involves putting his own foot in his mouth.
Conversely, Belichick appears like he'd rather be diving into poison ivy than standing up in front of the press. If you learn anything from the Tebow saga, it's that Belichick's strategy has been the most successful one.
On Tuesday, Ryan was bombarded with questions about his former quarterback. Instead of simply replying with a shrug and leaving those questions for Belichick to answer, he answered each of them in painful detail. He even gave the Pats a little advice for how to handle the faux quarterback controversy that will never happen in New England.
“If they want to replace Brady with him, that’s fine.” Ryan said during his presser.
In day one of the Tebow Inquisition, however, Bill Belichick played it cool by mumbling his way through a few questions, remained vague about Tebow's role and was more discreet than a dude trying to hide his call history from his girl. It was in stark contrast to Ryan getting drunk off the limelight and spilling his heart out about his blueprints for Tebow.
Via USA Today:
In what was surely an effort to immediately show he intends to stomp out any possible distractions Tebow could bring into his team's locker room, Belichick was evasive and terse when asked anything from how he plans to use Tebow to whether he'll care if his, uh, quarterback does a little Tebowing on the field.
"Anything we do is in the best interest of the team," Belichick said. "Tim's a talented player that works hard, so we'll see how it goes."
Did you talk to him about dealing with the attention?
"In all honesty, we've been in front of bigger crowds than this. Just keep doing what our job is and try to get better as a football team individually and collectively."
What position will he play?
This one, because it was a peach, we'll quote word-for-word: "Coach, will you have any objections to Tim kneeling down and praying after he makes a big play, Tebowing as it's come to be known?"
"I think we've already talked enough about him. I think I've covered it. Anything else?"
Ryan promised to tone down his antics this season, but if he needs a lesson on how to keep his locker room controversy-free for the first time in his tenure as head coach, Bill Belichick is the coach to emulate.
