Rex Ryan fostered the Animal House culture that has bitten him in the butt and GM Mike Tannenbaum assisted when he made a radical 360-degree turn from the old Eric Mangini core values days, importing the likes of Santonio Holmes and Antonio Cromartie, unique talents who can help you both win games and divide your locker room.
You made the bed, Rex. Good luck sleeping in it.
Cromartie? He is the second-best cornerback on the team, and if he is even in the conversation as second-best wide receiver, then Mark Sanchez will have no chance, and neither will the Jets. Cromartie can leave you breathless with his athletic gifts … and with his cluelessness. He leads the league now in open-mouth-insert-foot moments. To wit: “Tom Brady is an A-hole.” And now failing to recognize that offering the opinion he is the second-best receiver in camp could be construed as a lack of respect by any and all receivers not named Santonio Holmes. In particular, Chaz Schilens, who is new to the green-and-white madness, and couldn’t keep his mouth shut and try to prove to Cromartie how wrong he is on the field.
Only on the Jets can a molehill turn quickly and ominously into a mountain of turmoil, with Schilens taking offense to Cromartie’s mindless boast and Ryan acting as if Bill Belichick had installed electronic surveillance inside the Atlantic Health Jets Training Center.
All this at a time when Ryan has vowed that the inmates would no longer be running his asylum. Into the ground.
He has vowed to build a team this summer. But you have no chance to build a team if you have key players who think there is an I in T-E-A-M and cannot help themselves.
It means that Ryan has taken this latest sniping in his midst as a direct slap to his face, and a direct threat to his authority.
It means that No More Mr. Nice Guy is off to an inauspicious start.
He has to Put Up, and somehow, against all odds, he has to make his players Shut Up.
Holmes? He was a steal for a fifth-round draft choice — the Steelers would probably have unloaded him for Fireman Ed — until he got his big contract and anointed himself Offensive Coordinator For Life once Ryan morphed into Neville Chamberlain and slapped the captaincy on his chest. If that’s making him out to be a scapegoat in his eyes, tough.
From the outside, the perception is that the difference between the Giants and Jets is the difference between professionalism and unprofessionalism. The Giants aren’t perfect, but for the most part, Big Blue talks mostly about winning yet another Super Bowl championship. Talk is cheap, play the game has worked fairly well. The Jets? Talk is second to breathing, play the media game.
The Jets like to hear themselves talk more than they are committed to winning football games and the franchise’s first championship in 44 years.
More character in Albany, more characters in Cortland.
“I’m aware of what was said. … I’m on top of it, and it will not be a problem. … I will handle this,” a terse Ryan assured the media yesterday.
The team meeting Ryan swiflty called was, in essence, the reconvening of Romper Room. The theme, more or less: SHUT UP AND ACT LIKE ADULTS! All of a sudden, loose lips sink ships on the USS Wrecks.w
Cracking the whip now will be no easy task for him. A leopard never changes his spots, even as he tries to change his. He tries to change his because if he doesn’t grab his team by the scruff of the neck and attempt to stamp out the Wild West lawlessness that sabotaged the 2011 season, Woody Johnson just might decide to grab him by the scruff of the neck and throw him out the door.
Ryan might want to ask Tim Tebow to pray for him. He may be skinny now, but playing the heavy inside his Animal House offers no guarantees.
steve.serby@nypost.com