The past few days have been rather entertaining for early June, haven't they? But the verbal sparring between Dolphins LB Channing Crowder and Jets head coach Rex Ryan will likely slow down now - at least from Crowder's end.
Over the past few days, we've heard a lot from these two - which you can read about here and here. But we aren't likely to hear any more from Crowder. Channing told the Miami Herald that he was finished with this:
"This is over. I'm done with this victory. I'm going to save the head coach the embarrassment of arguing with an opposing player to the media. We play twice this season, so we'll see who the better team is then."
Well said, Channing. Very well said.
The bottom line here is that while both men were engaging in this pointless trash talking, it is embarrassing for a head coach to get into it through the media with an opposing player. If anything, Crowder is doing Ryan a favor by ending this nonsense now. For all we know, Ryan would have went back and forth with Channing for weeks. Instead, Crowder is doing the right thing and taking the high road. It's kind of ironic, though. Shouldn't Ryan - the head coach of an NFL team - be the guy making the smart, mature decision and putting a stop to this?
Of course, Channing's decision to put a stop to this is likely connected to what General Manager Jeff Ireland said on Wednesday night while attending the Marlins/Cardinals game at Land Shark Stadium. When asked about the verbal sparring between Ryan and Crowder, Ireland said, "It's about playing football, that's what I know." So has the team spoken with Channing about the situation? "That's a clubhouse thing," Ireland responded. "I'll deal with that myself."
Odds are that however Ireland decided to "deal with that" himself had something to do with Channing's decision to make his final rebuttal at Ryan. But Crowder made sure he declared "victory" - which is always good. After all, most people would agree that the linebacker definitely got the best of the head coach in this one.