NFL

Sanchez: Finger Rex was caught up in moment

Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez said yesterday that coach Rex Ryan was caught up in the MMA atmosphere when he gave the finger to a heckling fan in Florida last weekend.

Speaking on “The Dan Patrick Show,” Sanchez jokingly told the radio host that Ryan’s actions were “taking all the pressure off of me.”

“He was like in character, he was almost one of the fighters, getting into it with the crowd,” Sanchez said of Ryan. “He grabbed the [microphone] and said, ‘We’re coming down to Miami, we’re gonna win both games,’ and that’s totally his personality. He just took it over the edge a little bit.”

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Fox Sports reporter Jay Glazer, who was with Ryan at the mixed martial arts event in Sunrise, Fla., last Saturday night, said the fan that angered Ryan spit on the coach and accosted him three separate times.

Ryan apologized and was fined $50,000 by the Jets. The NFL did not punish Ryan.

“If you see the clip, the fan was getting pretty nasty,” Sanchez told Patrick. “There’s no excuse for doing something like that, and Rex knows that. He got hit with a big-time fine, but it was just too bad.”

Sanchez told WFAN today that he spoke to Ryan since the incident and the head coach told him to avoid doing something similar.

“He said, ‘Whatever you do, don’t do any of that,’ ” Sanchez said on the “Boomer & Carton Show.”

Asked by Patrick if Sanchez could take Ryan in a fight, Sanchez replied, “I’d take a pizza.”

“I wouldn’t want to get hit by a right hook from him,” Sanchez said.