NEW YORK — Rex Ryan is a better talker than any of his peers — glib, self-assured and sly as a fox — and that's just his R-rated material. If games were decided in the interview room instead of on a field, you could hand the Super Bowl trophy to the Jets right now.

Guys who play for him swear he's even funnier when the cameras are off, more profane and a whole lot more persuasive. But Rex wasn't always so sexy.

"Pffff!" Buddy Ryan practically snorted into the phone the other day. "You never saw the two of them when they were kids."