Rob Ryan was at his best Friday, holding court in the Cowboys locker room. As is usually the case, he explained why his defense is the best, why he's the best (and best looking), and what he thought about this week's opponent.
But he was also asked finally about the, shall we say, " illustrations" on his sideline play chart from week to week, which were first noticed in the game at San Francisco.
A down-to-Earth kind of guy, Ryan has nothing to hide, but he's quick to point out he has other interests besides pictures of hot, hot supermodels.
"It's California," Ryan said. "So I had my shark on the one side. I had Alioto's restaurant, my favorite restaurant in California, I had the golden arch. I mean, hell, it's just whatever I see. Look, some people, they get dyslexic or whatever. I can't have a bland call sheet.
"I know Andy Reid's got a Denny's sheet. I don't know, I like spicing things up, that was probably too much. I was just trying to stick with the California theme, you know the Beach Boys song, "California Girls," but apparently I'm not going to do that again, so no problem."
Ryan is a character, no doubt about it, forming what would seem to be football's version of "The Odd Couple" with the more buttoned-down Jason Garrett, but the head coach doesn't appear to have any problem with Ryan's personality. He actually thinks they're a lot alike.
"To be honest with you, I think we're actually really similar," Garrett said. "We come from similar backgrounds, and we both certainly have a passion for football. Different people have different personalities, different people have different exteriors. But one of the things that was so attractive to me about Rob when he showed up for an interview was how much we hit it off and how natural it was right from the start.
"We don't want everybody to be the same. This is not a cookie-cutter operation by any means."
