Been meaning to post this for a few days, but I've been a little busy. At the Texans game Monday I started talking about the last night Monday Night game in Houston against the Giants in 1994 with someone and we began talking about Buddy Ryan.
Ryan was one of the great defensive coordinators in the history of the game; he ran the '85 Bears defense. He was hired to be the Oilers DC after the debacle in Buffalo in the playoffs, only he did not answer to head coach Jack Pardee. He was given free reign to do whatever he wanted with his defense. The Oilers ran the Run and Shoot offense back then, an offense that Ryan despised. He called it the Chuck and Duck offense. He HATED Oilers offensive Coordinator Kevin Gilbride. That led to one of the most famous sideline incidents in NFL history when Ryan punched Gilbride after 2 Oiler defensive players got hurt after the offense was unable to run out the clock in the first half, which Ryan blamed on the system.
After the '93 season Ryan was named the head coach of the cardinals. After Gilbride and Pardee were fired on November 14, 1994 Ryan was asked for his reaction. He had complimentary things to say about Pardee, but here is what he said about Gilbride: "Last year, I predicted (Gilbride) would be selling insurance in two years, and he's a year ahead of schedule."
Another story about Buddy Ryan is that the one season that he was in Houston he did a weekly coaches show. First of all that tells you how much of a star he was, how many coordinators had their own shows, especially before talk radio exploded. Anyways he did the show on the Oilers flagship station KTRH. After the first couple of weeks the station had to send a car for him because he was showing up late. He would also show up with essentially a Big Gulp, and it contained more than just Coke.
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