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Oh, The Possibilities: The New York Jets Are Your Featured Hard Knocks Team

The New York Jets held a press conference today to announce that they will be the featured team on this season’s edition of HBO’s Hard Knocks. This means that their controversial head coach, Rex Ryan, will be prominently featured on the program. Members of the sports media, bloggers in particular, are delighted by the news.

First: for those unfamiliar with Hard Knocks, it’s a documentary-style show that follows an NFL team from training camp right up until the season begins. The main dramatic elements of the show revolve around up-and-coming players struggling to make the team, and star players and marquee personalities sometimes become an afterthought. Fans often find the lower-tier players, their personal lives, and their quest to make it to the NFL more interesting than getting a sneak peek at the daily goings-on of the star players and coaches.

That trend may be bucked this year, however. Rex Ryan is a darling of the New York sports media, mostly due to ability to drop entertaining sound bites during team press conferences, and his brash behavior is tailor made for the show.

Indeed, his bluntness and larger-than-life frame has made him popular among sports bloggers. In January, Ryan famously gave some rowdy fans the bird, and Deadspin mourned the upcoming loss of his gut after lap-band surgery two weeks ago. Blogger Drew Magary has a set of mini-screenplays where he portrays Ryan as a sort of sex-crazed oil tycoon who implores his players to eat a live Colt in preparation for their game against Indianapolis.

Although the symbolic eating of opponents is unlikely, expect plenty of this: