When Rob Ryan got canned by the Cowboys after 2012, he said he'd be a free agent for all of five minutes. It looked like he was going to be accurate and he ended up with the Rams for a hot minute. But Ryan ended up bolting St. Louis and took the Saints' DC job after they fired Steve Spagnuolo.
His departure from St. Louis reportedly created some "bad blood" between the two teams. According to Mike Silver of NFL Network, Jeff Fisher's mad that they missed out on more qualified candidates for the defensive coordinator position after hiring Ryan and moving forward.
The Rams ended up with Tim Walton, but Fisher's taken over the defensive game plan, per Silver.
The actual departure itself isn't helping matters, as Silver -- via NFL.com -- reports that Ryan walked into Fisher's office, dropped his keys on the desk and then went out for a goddamn snack.
According to Silver's account, Ryan entered Fisher's office at 7:30 a.m., dropped his keys on the desk and told the coach he wanted out. Meanwhile, Fisher's other assistants were in a staff meeting with a window that looked out on the parking lot.
The Rams' coaches watched Ryan leave the building and head across the street to a McDonald's. Ryan "goes to get a Big Mac and never comes back," Silver said.
Wait. Can you even buy a Big Mac at 7:30 a.m.? That's an honest question. I have no idea -- not a McDonald's guy and if I'm there at any point in the morning it's Egg McMuffin time.
Regardless, the idea of Rob Ryan quitting his job and heading off to dominate a three-bun plastic burger soaked in Thousand Island before the sun comes up is alternately the grossest and greatest thing at the same time.
Ryan said this week that his stint with the Rams was "a complicated thing" and felt his was his "obligation" to go find "something different" after finding out what St. Louis wanted to do on defense.
"Well, it was kind of a complicated thing," Ryan said. "Getting fired in Dallas was a shock to my system and I was a little pissed off. But I took a job with the Rams and hadn't had anything signed, and just from being there and finding out the direction of how they wanted to do things, it was my obligation -- not only to me but to them -- to just walk away and look for something different."
He found something different. But his new thing is going up against his old thing this week and it's pretty obvious that things aren't quite as cool in St. Louis as Ryan might want to let on.
