Asked on Tuesday if he had Thursday's showdown -- airing exclusively on NFL Network -- with the Jets circled on his calendar, Bills coach Rex Ryan insisted that wasn't the case with his former team.
Why? Because Ryan remains dangerously obsessed with another AFC East foe that has haunted and badgered him since 2009.
"Everybody knows me, I circle the Patriots," Rex told reporters, per ESPN.com. "That's what I do."
At least he's honest about it.
Ryan has never been mute about his inner mixture of hatred and fascination for the Patriots.
After failing to upend Bill Belichick's steady operation as coach of the Jets -- save for a mostly forgotten playoff win half a decade ago -- Ryan couldn't help but drone on about New England in the lead up to Buffalo's more-pressing encounter with New York.
"The quarterback never gets worse," Ryan said of Brady. "What's wrong with him? That quarterback never gets worse. Like what is wrong with him. You know what I mean? When you get older, you're supposed to get worse. This dude's getting better."
Said Rex: "It's sick. It's not right. I'm waiting for the wheels to fall off."
Ryan said it all with a smile, but quips and subtle arrows don't mask his compulsion -- timely or not -- with throwing a wrench in Belichick's magical football machine.
The Patriots -- always willing to let Rex free-verse himself into an embarrassing corner -- love every minute of it.
