Namath & Ryan

With Rex Ryan’s book hot off the press, and such great reviews coming from the NY Best Sellers List, I thought it might be a good time to go back to 1969 and read a long lost forgotten book written by Joe Willie Namath and the great Dick Schaap! (Publisher: Random house, Inc) The book appropriately called ‘I Can’t Wait Until Tomorrow…’ Cause I Get Better Looking Every Day! Fits the style of the 2011 Jets, and wow, this one will remind you of Rex Ryan’s confidence without a doubt!

Although a different era, this confidence thing that many Non-Jets fans see as cocky and arrogant won a championship for Joe Namath and seems to be winning over the players under Rex. Could this be the connection to the Jets last Super bowl win? Could confidence be the ingredient to winning championships? If it is as simple as being positive & confident, then how come every super bowl winner over the last 40 + years didn’t have this?  Well if you dig deep and do some research… you will find they did! Just not always through the media. Every super bowl winner had an ultra-confident team that started with the head coach and sold this winning attitude to their players. Vince Lombardi, Bill Walsh, Chuck Noll, Don Shula, Joe Gibbs, Jimmy Johnson, Bill Parcells, are all examples of head coaches with huge confidence egos that transformed their teams into winners. Sure they may not have gone all out with “Media recognition” and their positive antics in public, but what happens in the NFL locker room is not our business while greatness is being achieved. Some coaches speak their mind, some don’t. The point is, all the super bowl winning teams won with confidence just like Joe Willie did!

In life, if you don’t believe in yourself and have the confidence in what you set out to do, success will elude you. The same with sports, you must believe you can or you won’t! Did Joe Montana win all those championships thinking “I hope we can do this” or “I think we might be able to”? No, he knew his abilities and that of his team and acted on them along with the motivation, schemes and confidence derived from the great Bill Walsh.

So how fitting to have a head coach in Rex Ryan who breads the same winning attitude like our only super bowl winning QB Joe Namath? Confidence and honesty! What more can you ask for? And like all the other championship coaches in history, confidence along with that positive fortune, whether in the locker room or out in the spot light is what the New York Jets needed because history shows this is one important ingredient to win in the NFL! Rex doesn’t shy away from the media and his personality becomes an avenue for his message. Like Joe Namath said before Super Bowl III “I guarantee victory” and he went out and did it, Ryan says “the Jets are going to be champions”, without that belief, you don’t have a chance!

Do yourself a favor… after you read Rex Ryan’s new book, go out and read ‘I Can’t Wait Until Tomorrow…’ Cause I Get Better Looking Every Day! And you will see how this ridiculous thing called confidence and the similarities between Rex and Joe breed winners!