FLORHAM PARK, N.J. -- It didn’t take Calvin Pryor long to become a Jet. The first-round safety was already talking about how he disliked the Patriots and quarterback Tom Brady last week – following a script set by coach Rex Ryan and former CB Antonio Cromartie.
So, of course Ryan wasn’t annoyed by what Pryor said.
“Somebody in an opposite color jersey, you don’t want to like them,” Ryan said. “You respect everybody that you play against, but you don’t like any of them and that’s it because they’re trying to take something away from you -- they’re trying to take victory away from you. And all that hard work and everything else you put into it, so having that dislike for them even, I think is a good thing. I know my brother's on the sideline -- I love him. But on game day? Can’t stand him. He’s trying to take something from me. That’s kind of the mentality that you take, and I think Pryor understands that.”
Here’s what Pryor said last week during a television show.
"Yeah, man," Pryor told SNY’s Daily News Live. "We don't like Tom at all. When I first came here, that was one of the first things I heard about: We hate the Patriots, and we hate the Giants. That's what everybody was telling me. We hate those guys, and I look forward to playing them this season."
Ryan laughed.
“He knows who the enemy is,” Ryan said.
Ryan debuted in 2009 saying he wasn’t going to kiss Patriots coach Bill Belichick’s Super Bowl rings. Over the years he’s called out Brady and his coach, but hasn’t been able to outright win the AFC East.
“They’re the ones we have to beat,” Ryan said. “We recognize it, as everybody should. They’ve won it 10 out of 11 years or something like that and the only year they don’t win it is the year Brady wasn’t there. Obviously your chief rival, and your biggest enemy or whatever, you probably respect them more than anybody. But at the same time, nah, you don’t like them.
“They’ve earned what we’re looking to earn and that’s to win that division.”