Dallas blowhard at it again

Rob Ryan sure has a big mouth. And he’s not shy about using it.

Upholding what seems to be a family tradition of yapping just to hear yourself yapping, the Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator said Friday he can’t wait to play the Browns Sunday down in Dallas.

Why? Revenge. That’s why.

Seems that Ryan, never at a loss for words unless he has laryngitis, has a beef with the Browns, for whom he worked for two very long, very vocal and very unproductive seasons as Eric Mangini’s defensive coordinator.

For those two seasons, all we heard was Ryan boasting about how he would turn around the Browns fortunes on his side of the ball. And all we got was empty promises.

Then the Browns had the temerity to fire the self-anointed best defensive coordinator in the National Football League. Oh, and by the way, the Browns were 10-22 under Mangini and his wonderful defensive coordinator.

Asked by the media in Dallas how often he has talked with his defense this week about his problems with the Browns, Ryan said, “Honestly, I’m going to say none. Honestly. Honestly. Honestly, I’m not going to say no. Honestly, I haven’t talked about it. Honestly, I don’t know how that got out there. Honestly, I don’t know.”

Honestly? Huh?

Then he admitted it Sunday will be personal. “Any time you pour everything you have into it and apparently management didn’t see it as if it wasn’t good enough, of course it’s personal,” he said.

“Eric (Mangini) is a good friend. He hired me to do a job. Hell, I did it and got everybody fired anyway. I don’t know why, but I wasn’t in charge of that decision. But I plan on doing something about it.”

Ryan, whose brother, Rex, and father, Buddy, have cornered the NFL market on chutzpah, has coordinated defenses for three NFL teams – the Oakland Raiders (five seasons), Browns (two) and now Cowboys (halfway through his second).

The combined record of those teams during his tenure, including this season’s 4-5, is 42-95. No, that is not a misprint. Last season’s 8-8 with the Cowboys is the closest he has come to a winning season. Throw away the last season and a half and the Ryan record as a coordinator is 30-82.

He has never experienced the wonder and excitement of a playoff game, let alone a winning season. He has been associated with nothing but losers, whether it’s Oakland, Cleveland or Dallas.

None of his teams has led the league in any statistical defensive category. But Ryan, in a cheap move to motivate his team this weekend, hauled out the old bromide about exacting revenge against a former employer.

Never mind that the Browns are 2-7 and headed for the garbage heap once again. Yeah, beating them will be a real accomplishment and give Ryan the warm and fuzzies.

Now the Cowboys might come out and play a hell of game against the Browns, but take into consideration the Cowboys have a more talented roster and should win.

If this is what Ryan needs to motivate his men, that’s a sad commentary. It’s just one game out of 16. Where was he all the other times his teams needed him to coach them up instead of opening up his big mouth?

And once Sunday’s game is over, it’ll be business as usual with Ryan except he’ll have to wait another four years to exact more revenge on the Browns. By then, maybe the rest of the NFL will realize he talks a much better game than he coaches.