Jets coach Rex Ryan a hit on Broadway

Jets rookie quarterback Mark Sanchez might soon be the "King of New York" with his movie-star looks and a winning touch.

But it's Rex Ryan, the rotund rookie coach, that really has Jets fans swooning after a 2-0 start.

It wasn't just last week's triumph over the hated Patriots, either. It was the trash-talking that preceded it, including an interview on WFAN in which Ryan announced, "I never came here to kiss (Patriots coach) Bill Belichick's rings. ... I'm certainly not intimidated by New England or anybody else."

As if to prove his point, Ryan sent three former Patriots on his roster out for the pregame coin toss. Among the tri-captains was fourth-string quarterback Kevin O'Connell.

"I wanted New England to know that this is our quarterback, this is our player," Ryan said Monday. "He's on our team now. ... The kid's a Jet. I thought it was the right thing to do."

Clearly, hiring Ryan was the right thing for the Jets, whose bungled search left a lot of people around the NFL wondering.

In Ryan, though, they got a gregarious guy with the right coaching pedigree -- his father, Buddy Ryan, actually was an assistant on the 1969 Jets team that won the Super Bowl -- and the right attitude.

Ryan, who spent the last decade helping build Baltimore's dominant defense, took over a playoff-caliber lineup in New York that flopped down the stretch last season, dragged down by Brett Favre's dead arm. Two weeks into the 2009 season, Sanchez is leading the NFL in third-down passing (a 119.5 rating) while the Jets are leading the league in total defense.

From Day 1, there was no talk about rebuilding, though. Ryan, at his introductory news conference in January, talked about taking the Jets to meet President Obama at the White House "in the next couple of years." That's the sort of stuff the New York tabloid media loves, obviously. But it's also who Ryan is.

Linebacker Bart Scott, a free agent who made the move with Ryan from Baltimore, calls it "swaggerlicious." Others simply call it "Rex appeal."

Whatever it is, it's working.

Late fee

The coach Ryan replaced in New York, Eric Mangini , is off to an 0-2 start in Cleveland, and his all-business approach continues to raise eyebrows.

Last week, Yahoo! Sports reported Mangini fined one of his players $1,701 for failing to pay a $3 incidental fee after drinking a bottle of water at the team hotel.

"When we go to hotels, we pay incidentals," Mangini said. "We don't park in handicapped spots, we don't park in fire lanes, we don't park in somebody else's spot. ... I'm going to keep demanding that we have mature, responsible people as part of the Browns. I make no apologies for that."

Bear-ly playable

The Bears have grown tired of apologizing for one of the league's worst playing surfaces.

Another sloppy day last Sunday at Soldier Field -- it's owned and operated by the Chicago Park District -- was blamed on the re-sodding that followed a pair of U2 concerts a week earlier. But it's a perennial problem, with NFL players -- including the Bears -- consistently voting it among the worst in the league.

The Lions are well aware, especially after enduring a rain-slicked turf there last November. Jason Hanson slipped and missed an extra point that proved costly late in the game.

By the numbers

15 Games decided by 6 points or fewer through Week 2, second-most in history.

29.2 Completion percentage for Oakland QB JaMarcus Russell in Week 2 victory at Kansas City.

24.8M Viewers for Sunday's Giants-Cowboys game -- the highest rated in prime time since 1997.

One if by air

The most passing yards since 2006:

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