National Football League

Rex Ryan sports new tattoo as Jets open camp

Published Aug. 1, 2011 11:40 p.m. ET

foxsports

Rex Ryan has a big, new tattoo. And, no, it doesn't appear to be a Super Bowl guarantee in permanent ink.

The New York Jets coach showed up for the first day of training camp practice Monday sporting a tribal-style tattoo on his right calf, something he got while he was on vacation in Hawaii early last month. The gaudy new ink is black and curls up from the top of his ankle to just below his knee.

''I just felt like it,'' Ryan said in a statement - maybe the first issued by an NFL coach about his own tattoo.

''The guy that I went to had given me tattoos before,'' Ryan added, ''and it's just something that I wanted to do.''

Ryan, who has other less conspicuous tattoos, revealed this one to fans in a video on the team's Facebook page Monday morning.

''Fans,'' Ryan said, ''I want you to guess what my new tat means.''

Ryan plans to explain it in another video on the Facebook page at noon Tuesday. Just a few hours after posting the video, nearly 400 people ''liked'' it and more than 220 had offered the best guesses.

''Here come the Jets,'' commented one fan, while another optimistic fan said: ''It means we're going to swirl our way into tha superbowl.'' Yet another offered this gem: ''I love pretzel M&Ms,'' a playful reference to the coach's snack of choice.

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