He wanted the Falgoons job but guess the feeling wasn't so mutual... http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/football/jets/mehta-fickle-falcons-led-rex-ryan-bills-job-article-1.2074037 Feeling strung along by Falcons, Rex Ryan took Bills coaching jobRyan would have cancelled his trip to Buffalo if the Falcons committed to bringing him back for a second interview, according to sources, but there was hesitation on the team's part. He wasn't going to be played for a fool again after losing out on the Atlanta job seven years ago.NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Sunday, January 11, 2015, 7:09 PMThe realization first struck Rex Ryan just past 10 o’clock Saturday morning.He wanted to be the next Falcons head coach for a million reasons, but rumors and a cold silence from the people that he’d hit it off with just days earlier made it impossible for him to separate fact from fiction.He thought he had the Atlanta job seven years ago before losing out.F--- it, he thought now. He wasn’t going to be played for a fool again.Ryan called the 49ers later in the morning to find out if they had any intention of bringing him back for a second interview, but confusion over the Falcons job stung him most, according to sources.The Bills had embraced him from the first interview last Thursday. It was the third gig on his pecking order, but none of that mattered anymore.“They made him feel wanted,” a source said.Ryan wasn’t going to wait on the Falcons, so he flew from Morristown, N.J., to Florida Saturday afternoon to meet with Bills brass at new owners Terry and Kim Pegula’s home before finalizing a 5-year, $27.5 million deal Sunday to become the next Bills head coach, according to sources.He wants to bring aboard several Jets assistants, including defensive coordinator Dennis Thurman and quarterbacks coach David Lee, and former 49ers offensive coordinator Greg Roman.Friends had advised Ryan to keep a level head and not make any rash decisions on Saturday. Wait 24 hours. Give the Falcons one final chance.“If they ain’t gonna call,” Ryan told friends, “I’m going to go for it.”The Falcons never scheduled a second interview, paving the way for the first coaching domino to fall this offseason.Ryan, an eternal optimist, was confused in the aftermath of what he believed was a productive five-hour interview with Falcons president Rich McKay, general manager Thomas Dimitroff and assistant GM Scott Pioli last Tuesday. Owner Arthur Blank left the meeting early to attend to his ailing mother.Blank’s personal circumstances struck a chord with Ryan, who reached out to the owner’s assistant, Dimitroff and Pioli Wednesday night to offer condolences after Molly Blank died.Ryan would have canceled his trip to Buffalo Thursday morning if the Falcons had committed to bringing him back for a second sit-down, according to sources, but there was hesitation on the team’s part.Whispers about strong interest in Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, who had a history with former Bill Belichick disciples Dimitroff and Pioli, irked him. (Cardinals defensive coordinator Todd Bowles impressed the Falcons brass in a five-hour session Saturday.)Ryan didn’t harbor any ill will toward Dimitroff after getting snubbed in 2008. “I’m going to take it out on the rest of the league,” he thought at the time before landing the Jets job a year later.The past was the past. No hard feelings. He was ready to build a winner with Dimitroff, Pioli and Blank. Let’s fix the defense fast, flip this thing and win the damn championship, he told them. He already had the biggest piece to the puzzle in place: An established quarterback in Matt Ryan.The charismatic coach would have been the ideal PSL pitchman for a $1.4 billion retractable-roof stadium scheduled to open in 2017. He would have also provided an element of toughness to the team that Blank desires.Dimitroff told friends that he came away from the Tuesday interview with a favorable impression of Ryan. So, what was the holdup? Ryan didn’t understand.This was the right job at the right time for personal reasons, too. His wife, Michelle, would have been a couple hours away from their son, Seth, a Clemson sophomore. The family had a house a few hours away in Tennessee.Four days after the interview, Ryan just didn’t believe that Dimitroff was in his corner, according to sources. He didn’t want to be teased again only to miss out.Ryan had tried to convince himself that television might be the way to go, but he was fooling himself. ESPN and CBS executives were impressed in meetings, but he made it clear that finding a head coaching job was his top priority.He was a coach’s son. Walking away from that, even temporarily, proved to be too difficult.Ryan had waited so long for his first head coaching opportunity. There was no guarantee that he would get a second chance in 2016 or ever again if he went the TV route. He also wanted to give his son a chance to coach with him like his dad, Buddy, did for him. He had learned more in those two seasons with the Cardinals than all his previous stops. “I want to do that for my son one day,” Ryan told the Daily News recently.So, he couldn’t pass up a head coaching opportunity.He landed in Buffalo with a franchise that hasn’t made the playoffs in 15 years and with a roster makeup eerily similar to that of the Jets. Some believe Ryan is destined to fail without a quality quarterback and no 2015 first-round pick.He understood all those challenges Saturday morning. He was going to make Buffalo a winner again. It wasn’t anything he hadn’t done before.He will galvanize and inspire his new players like he did his old ones. He will inject life into an organization stained by the previous regime. He will sprinkle the place with positivity, because that’s who the man is.Rex Ryan made the choice that made sense for him. He got his second chance knowing full well that there likely won’t be a third if he fails.He can live with that.
