The previous Team That You Love To Hate was the Patriots, but for different reasons. The Patriots rarely opened their mouths; in fact, it was Belichick’s sullen inscrutability, which spread throughout his roster, that rankled observers and opponents more than any overt attitude. Tom Brady, the team’s poster boy for goodness and victory, was always maddeningly efficient rather than brazenly antagonistic.

The Patriots got your goat by frustrating it; the Jets do it by hitting it with a shovel.

That’s tolerable when you’re 2-0. But if Ryan and the Jets lose a few; if they suffer a key injury or two; or if the clock strikes midnight and Sanchez starts to bear an uncanny resemblance to a pumpkin, then foes, fans and media alike will being to return the uncouth favors.

Ryan learned about football from his father, Buddy Ryan, a great defensive coordinator with the Chicago Bears and a so-so head coach with the Philadelphia Eagles and Arizona Cardinals. Buddy was never a student of the Ann Landers school of football etiquette. He liked to toss barbs as often as some coaches blow whistles. Buddy was quick to mix it up with coaches on his own staff (Ditka in Chicago, Kevin Gilbride in Houston) and was once accused by the Cowboys of taking a bounty out on some of their players.

Buddy knew his football, and Rex certainly has inherited his dad’s gift as a defensive architect and a motivator of players. Unfortunately, he seems to also possess the same amount of humility, which is in the negative numbers.

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Near the end of the storied 1985 Super Bowl campaign, Buddy declared before the NFC Championship Game at frigid Soldier Field that Rams running back Eric Dickerson would put the ball on the turf at least three times. He was wrong — he only fumbled twice, losing one — but Dickerson was held to 46 yards in a 24-0 thrashing by the Bears. Yet the laws of NFL physics dictate that for every opportunity to crow, there is an equal number of chances to eat crow.

Pomposity in the NFL often has a short expiration date. If Rex Ryan didn’t absorb that fact from his father at some point, I guess he’ll have to learn it the hard way.

And if I were Jets Fan, I would continue to sharpen my grousing skills, just in case. It’s still early in the season, and next year’s draft day will be here before you know it.

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