NFL

FOX Sports reporter says fan spit on Jets coach

The fan who got the finger from Rex Ryan spit on the Jets head coach and confronted him three times before Ryan reacted, according to someone who was with Ryan in Florida.

FOX Sports reporter Jay Glazer gave a blow-by-blow account of the confrontation this morning on WFAN’s “Boomer & Carton Show.”

“We all showed great restraint. (Rex) showed the greatest restraint …,” Glazer said. “This wasn’t heckled. This was a guy who was going out of his way to incite a fight, to incite some sort of violence to get the head coach of the Jets to ruin his job and to really put Rex in a place he didn’t need to be.”

Ryan, who has apologized for the incident that occured at an MMA event in Sunrise, was fined $50,000 by the Jets but was not punished by the NFL.

“I think to fine the guy 50 grand is the most ridiculous thing,” Glazer said. “If (Jets GM) Mike Tannenbaum or (Jets owner) Woody Johnson was there, they would have hit the guy.

“I think (Rex) needs a reward for showing restraint. I’d give him 50-grand for not hitting the guy.”

Ryan was with Glazer at the event last Saturday night, along with NFL players Patrick Willis and Trent Cole. Once recognized, fans started jawing with Ryan and the group in fun until one fan went too far.

“Really, the crowd was awesome. As we walked in, guys were kind of ribbing him a little bit, he was back and forth,” Glazer said. “It was fun; he loved it, they loved him, everybody was great.

“As we get down to the floor … we walk past this one fan, he sees Rex … he’s literally one foot away … This is about as close as I can get it: He said, ‘Hey. I eff-in hate you. I hate you. I hate you. You’re an eff-in piece of eff.’

“I mean it was unbelievable, and he just kept going on and on. Then he said, ‘I hate you. I hope you die, you fat piece of crap,’ and then spit at him.”

Glazer wouldn’t say if it was an intentional spit at the coach, or an accident based on how close the men were.

“I got in front of Rex (because) I didn’t want Rex to kill the guy,” Glazer said. “And Rex said, when the guy said, ‘I hope you die, you fat piece of crap,’ that’s when Rex stopped and said, ‘Hey,’ and he turned, and that’s when the spit came. …

“That’s when Patrick and Trent said, ‘Hey, hey, hey,’ and kinda stepped in so Rex didn’t do anything that was bad.

“I gotta tell you guys, I’ve never seen a fan go so far over the line like this guy had. At first we thought he was joking, because, I mean nobody’s really gonna do this.”

After the group got to their seats, Glazer said the same fan found them an hour later and started taunting Ryan again. Then, after asking security to remove the fan from the arena and they did not, Ryan’s group was being escorted out when they encountered the fan a third time. That’s when Ryan finally flipped his middle finger.

“It was a quick thing. It was ‘Bleep’ and he gave him the finger,” Glazer said. “And I saw it, too, because the dude’s friend had the camera, and I was like, oh, man here we go.”

David M. Hildenbrand, a Dolphins fan who took the picture of Ryan flipping the bird, earlier told The Post that Ryan “was walking by us after the event, and a couple buddies of mine said some things like, ‘Dolphins rule, Jets suck.’”

“[Ryan] looked at us and said, ‘Go f— yourselves,’ and then he gave us the finger.”

Hildenbrand did not detail any previous encounters between he or Ryan.

Ryan was booed loudly when he was interviewed by Showtime during the card and said his Jets would defeat the Dolphins next season. Ryan was with Glazer to discuss Glazer’s MMA-based training methods for NFL players, with Vernon Gholston a possible candidate.