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He was asked about his father, Buddy, a tough old bird who fought in the Korean War and is waging yet another war against cancer and still refuses to miss the joy of watching one twin boy coach against his other twin boy Sunday night when the Jets and Cowboys open their seasons at MetLife Stadium, and tears began welling up in Rex Ryan’s eyes.
“Anytime you got cancer again, it’s a huge concern,” Rex Ryan said.
And the health and well-being of his father isn’t all that is weighing on Ryan’s mind as he begins his third Super-Bowl-or-Bust season as head coach of the Jets. The NEW YORK Jets, who will be representing New York on the 10th anniversary of Sept. 11 when America watches them against America’s Team on the grand Sunday night stage.
Ryan searched for the right words to describe how he feels about the responsibilty of coaching the NEW YORK Jets on this night, the significance this game in the shadows of where the Twin Towers once stood brings for him.
“I feel a . . . like a . . . I don’t know, it’s different. . . . Like a responsibility . . . and every week it’s my responsibilty to make sure our team’s prepared, and all that kinda stuff, but I don’t know, it just feels different to me. . . . The significance of it. . . . I think it’s stronger than any game I’ve ever felt,” Ryan said.
“I feel more pressure on this game for whatever reason than any game I’ve ever coached, seems like.”
His twin brother, Rob, on the other sidelines, is chasing the same dream he chases. His 80-year-old father, stiff-arming surgery, will be in the stands to watch his boys. And a city that nothing and no one can keep from standing tall as twin towers both mourning and honoring the memories of the lives that were lost and celebrating our way of life as well.
Rex Ryan has coached in Super Bowl XXX against the Giants, he has coached in the past two AFC Championship games and he has coached aganst his brother. But he has never coached a NEW YORK team on the 10-year anniversary of Sept. 11. That is why he feels more pressure to win this game than any game he has ever coached.
“This whole region, this whole area . . . and I know it’s football, we’re not talking about life or death or anything like that,” Ryan said. “I don’t know, that’s kinda how I’m taking it. It’s my job. My job’s to get this team ready to go, and we will but . . . I can’t explain it, why I feel this way or whatever, but I just do.”
All of us remember the morning of
Sept. 11, 2001. Ryan was the Ravens defensive line coach at the time.
“I was in Baltimore, and Pat Moriarity that — and I was walking by his office, he’s like, ‘Oh my goodness!’ “ Ryan recalled. “And I looked in there, and we were getting ready to practice, so I’m watching it, and then right when I was watching, the other plane hit the second tower. . . . I’m like, ‘Oh my goodness,’ you know? I was thinking about my cousin [Matthew Russo], who was a New York City fireman, and all that . . . so, a lot of thoughts about those times.”
He comes from a tiny place called Ardmore, Okla., but he has never sounded like anything but a New Yorker from the minute he blew into town.
“Everybody deals with their own issues and things,’ Ryan said, “but my job is to coach football and that’s exactly what I’m gonna do.”
He loves coaching the Jets, and never stops loving his team’s chances, in case you haven’t noticed. His players sure have.
“It’s Super Bowl-or-Nothing,” Matt Slauson said. “With us, it is a losing year if we don’t go to the Super Bowl.”
A sense of excitement and anticipation swept across the Jets locker room with the real games finally on the horizon.
“This has been a long time coming . . . having a lockout has made getting here feel like years,” Slauson said. “Brandon Moore? Was out at practice running sprints during practice, and that wasn’t part of his rehab stuff or snything. He was just doing it. Guys are stoked. They want to have the most successful year that we can possibly have.”
Maybe no one appreciates the moment more than Plaxico Burress, three months to the day removed from prison, nearly three years removed from his last regular-season game.
“It’s the start to a long journey,” Burress said.
A journey that maybe only he could see from inside his tiny cell inside the Oneida Correctional Facility.
“I kinda go over in my mind what it’s gonna feel like, but I don’t even know,” Burress said. “When I get out there, whatever happens, if I shed a few tears or whatever that may be, then the world’ll see it. I’m excited, and I don’t want to just start pressing. Just kinda let it come to me.”
Rex-tra special night for Plaxico Burress. For the head coach of the NEW YORK Jets. For all of New York and America.
steve.serby@nypost.com