Rex Draws Legions of Fans to Signings

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Jets coach Rex Ryan draws legions of fans to book signings

Published: Sunday, May 08, 2011, 4:45 AM

Conor Orr/The Star-Ledger By Conor Orr/The Star-Ledger

NEW YORK — They come wearing purple mesh see-through tops and feather vests. They wait in line for half a day in hopes they can hand a complete stranger a bag of pretzel M&Ms and get a hug. They bring envelopes containing speaker invitations to their Police Athletic League dinner, hoping — and believing — the NFL head coach in front of them will actually consider showing up.

And why not?

N.Y. Jets coach Rex Ryan promotes his book 'Play Like You Mean It' with a book signing in Mendham N.Y. Jets coach Rex Ryan promotes his book 'Play Like You Mean It' with a book signing in Mendham Jets fans line up in Mendham, N.J. to get an autographed copy of "Play Like You Mean It" by Rex Ryan, head coach of the New York Jets. (Video by Saed Hindash / The Star-Ledger) Watch video

The way they tell it, these people are standing in that winding, 3 1/2-hour line at Rex Ryan’s book signing to greet a man just like them but on a grander scale; a portly, foul-mouthed coach in a league of buttoned-up suits. And now, he’s a published author with dyslexia (but you’ve got to read the book).

Ryan, for his part, plays right into their hands. He’s curious about the black-and-white collie some guy named after him. He talks personnel with the third person that afternoon who wants to trade for Tom Brady. He laughs off a request by a woman who wants to sit on his lap with the finesse of a department store Santa Claus.

“It’s been great,” Ryan said Thursday inside the green room of YES Network studios, one of his few chances to breathe on a breakneck media tour promoting his new book, “Play Like You Mean It: Passion, Laughs, and Leadership in the World’s Most Beautiful Game.”

“Even though they’re in the stadium with you, it’s hard to connect. You get to shake hands and meet people and stuff like that, and it’s been a lot of fun.”

After spending the past two years drumming up his new fan base, the head coach of the Jets has finally come face to face with the devoted masses he created in a mold just like himself. And throughout a three-city, three-day book tour last week through New York City, Long Island and New Jersey, the people showing up have come away realizing the man they see on television and on the sideline is no different than the one sitting at the table signing their books.

“You walk up to Michael Jordan at your book signing, would you ask him to speak at your Kiwanis Club? Of course you wouldn’t, because nobody in their right mind believes Michael Jordan might show up,” said Don Yaeger, the author Ryan worked with on the book. “But you know what? They believe Rex Ryan might.”

It was enough for Arty Noskin to miss his first card game in six years at the retirement village in Melville, N.Y. Something about Ryan’s personality made him curious. The closest Noskin had come to one of his Jets idols was when Marty Lyons bought his son’s house.

So he waited in line at a bookstore in Huntington, N.Y., that stretched from Ryan’s table in the cooking section down the stairs, through the lower level, out the door and around the corner. He told the coach he’d like to have him over to speak with some of the other folks in the village. Ryan said he’d look into it.

“He looked at me, he was listening,” said Noskin, 81, and a Jets fan for more than 40 years. “He picked his head up and his eyes were sparkling. I’m glad he’s a coach in my lifetime.”

Noskin left that night putting Ryan behind only Weeb Ewbank as his favorite Jets coach of all time and put Ryan atop a short list of people he’d stand in a line to meet again.

Jets2.JPGSaed Hindash/The Star-LedgerJets coach Rex Ryan meets with fans as he signs copies of his new book last Thursday at Mendham Books.

“Albert Einstein. I admire him,” Noskin said. “I’d like to meet Harry Truman, because Truman and politics was like Rex and football, he said it the way it was. Marilyn Monroe, for her, I’d stand in line for more than 2 1/2 hours.”

It was the same feeling that moved Charles DiComo, an ink salesman originally from Caldwell, to bring Ryan a 1973 Jets yearbook he had in a plastic sleeve. He’d purchased it a few years back and realized there was a picture of Ryan’s father, Buddy, on the inside. DiComo came to the Long Island bookstore with the sole intent of handing it to the coach.

Why?

“I know it’s something that would be dear to him,” DiComo said after meeting Ryan.

They came from all over: Men, women, old and young alike. Nicole Birsner and her friend, Rebekah Khakshoor, both 15-year-olds, planned their meeting with Ryan all day. They would scream “I Love You!” as loud as possible when they got to the table. And Khakshoor did, too.

Why?

“Because I love him, he’s like, the greatest person on the entire planet,” Khakshoor said.

As the third and final book signing was about to begin in Mendham on Thursday — just a day after Ryan did 21 interviews in 24 hours — it was the first time he admitted he was almost talked out.

But he had no regrets. This is what makes him different than the others.

“(Bill) Belichick’s not going to do these,” Ryan said. “But you know, his book would be a lot shorter.”

Conor Orr: corr@starledger.com

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Heh. Great read... keep talkin' doo-doo Francessa...