Back in June, before we knew that Rex Ryan would fix what Eric Mangini broke or that the Dolphins would return to their pre-Tuna form, the long-distance gum-flapping between Ryan and Miami's Channing Crowder was just that. A summertime diversion between an unproven head coach and a chatty linebacker. Now, four months later, the AFC East division rivals will finally face off, and Ryan sounds like he has gained some perspective. Crowder, however, is a different story.
"I think the thing with Channing Crowder, if I had to do one thing over, that would probably be it," Ryan said in a conference call earlier this week, "because clearly I was joking about the whole thing, which I had done before in the past in Baltimore with Chad Johnson [Ochocinco] and with some other guys."
Crowder, meanwhile, has given notice: there's going to be a lot of cussing Sunday, particularly when he sees Jets running back Leon Washington.
"We do not like each other," Crowder told the Associated Press Wednesday. "With Florida State, I hated him. I hate him now. If I see him out, I'm not going to talk to him. I'm not going to slap him, but I'm not going to be pleasant." ...There's more, of course. "[Mark] Sanchez is probably the only person I haven't cussed out, because he's a rookie," Crowder said. "He'll get cussed out this week. ... It's a rivalry. They don't like us. We don't like them."
"Every time (Washington) sees me, he starts cussing," Crowder said. "I see him and I start cussing. It's going to be like that the whole game."
To recap: there's going to be a lot of cussing Sunday. And there might be a murder if somebody gets de-legged.
