Settle down, fight fans. It turns out Mark Sanchez wasn't speaking literally when he made comments about wanting to square off against his coach, Rex Ryan.
File this one under Mayweather-Pacquiao -- plenty of hype with no chance of actually happening.
Pick Six: Best sideline skirmishes
Mark Sanchez might have chosen wisely not to engage Rex Ryan in a fight, but it led us to ask, what are some of the best sideline tiffs of all time? Adam Rank takes a look. **More...**
"Was I going to fight Rex? Obviously not," Sanchez said after the New York Jetslost 20-16 to the Houston Texans, according to *The Star-Ledger*. "It'd be like (Oscar) De La Hoya and George Foreman. Way out of my weight class, and he'd probably kick my butt."
Following last season's frustrating December losses to the New England Patriots and Miami Dolphins, in which Sanchez's play suffered, Ryan called for backup quarterback Mark Brunell to work with the starting unit in practice. Sanchez was irate with Ryan over the suggestion that his starting role was in danger.
"I wanted to fight him," Sanchez recently told GQ. "I was really mad."
Jets offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer had to placate Sanchez, who insisted Ryan face him in person.
"I was like, 'He can come tell me,'Â " Sanchez told GQ. "And (Schottenheimer) is like, 'Come on, man, don't do that.'Â "
Sanchez said he had an idea that his comments would create some buzz for the magazine. He explained to The Star-Ledger that there's bound to be conflict between a coach and quarterback who are both driven to succeed.
"You've got two competitive people with each other," Sanchez said. "Look at Steve Young and George Seifert, Phil Simms and Bill Parcells. It's part of the reason Rex drafted me, because I value this job and it's my life. If somebody wanted to take that away from me, it's personal."
Ryan had no problems with Sanchez's GQ comments.
"But that's what you want; you want that guy that is competitive," Ryan said Monday. "At that time, I wanted to send a message that, 'Hey listen, we can bench anyone on this team,' with the exception of (Darrelle) Revis obviously.
"It was one of those things when it's like, 'Come on, kid, I know you've got more to give,' and of course I know how competitive he is, that that's how he's going to respond," Ryan added. "He knows what's best for our team is for him to be out there, and sometimes you butt heads with each other."
