Brian Bassett from TheJetsBlog.com called into the studio to talk about the Jets and their upcoming matchup with Cheater McMisunderstoodtherules, better known as Bill Belichick.

Man, could a bigger deal have been made over reports that Rex Ryan cried after Sunday’s loss to the Jaguars?

Look: I’m all in with Tom Hanks and “there’s no crying in baseball.” Baseball is a measured game, and features a 162-game season, so it’s certainly best the players and coaches not get too emotionally caught up in any one event.

Football, though? I don’t know. It’s different.

Maybe it’s something about the adrenaline that comes from the sheer physicality of the sport, the fact that 11 men on the field are, at any given time, trying their best to hurt another 11 men on the field. Or maybe it has something to do with how many fewer games there are, which renders each contest much more important.

Either way, I know this: I’m not a crier, but I’m certain that the hardest I’ve cried in the last 20 years was after my final high-school football game. That was a massively different circumstance than the one that prompted Rex to blubber, but there’s something about the sport, I think, that facilitates tears.

Heck, I even found coaching football — at the JV level, no less — to be a wildly emotional experience. Players used to joke about my sideline behavior when we watched the game films; I often tore down the sideline with on pace with the play if we had a long gain, and even more often blew up in the faces of referees.

And I’m really not a demonstrative guy.

It wasn’t about putting on a show or drawing attention to myself in any way, I was just caught up in the game. The players dug it, I think, because clearly I cared.

Sounds like the Jets felt that way about Ryan’s outburst, at least.

“It’s an emotional game and that just showed his passion,” linebacker Calvin Pace said. “If I was in that situation, I would’ve cried, too, man.”

“You want to win for a coach like that,” [Damien] Woody said. “Whatever the perception is outside is irrelevant. It means nothing. We know how Rex feels about this team and what he was saying.”

Members of the media can call it a sign of weakness or whatever, but, well, whatever. Let a dude show emotion over something he cares about.

Honestly, could this city’s media shoot itself in the collective foot with any more frequency? Does everyone really want to make it so that athletes and coaches never say or do anything interesting, just to avoid the nonsense that inevitably follows?

I talked to James Ihedigbo about the Jets and trash talking today at the SNY studio. It looked like this:

Brian Bassett from TheJetsBlog.com gets on the phone with this guy to grade the Jets at the midway point:

I actually shaved this morning, a rarity for a Monday. Later, I spoke to Brian Bassett of TheJetsBlog.com about the Jets. Here’s that:

I’m still trying to process the Jets’ loss yesterday.

Gary Myers in the Daily News points the blame at Rex Ryan, but I’m not willing to.

Going for the two-point conversion in third quarter was a questionable call. But Ryan was pretty clearly thinking that two points would put the Jets within three points of Miami, and until that quarter the game had been a defensive struggle. So I’m not going to kill him for that call.

Myers blames Ryan and special teams coordinator Mike Westhoff for kicking the ball to Ted Ginn Jr. after he had already broke one for a touchdown.

I mean, I guess. Myers points out that the Jets had never allowed two kickoff-return touchdowns in the same game in their history, as if that’s an indictment of Ryan. Doesn’t that speak to how rare a kick-return touchdown is, even from the legs of a returner as deft as Ginn?

Plus, just a few weeks ago Ryan was being praised for his swagger and bravado. I understand those things can become difficult to bear when a team starts struggling, but I also suspect that in football — unlike in baseball — they might actually help a team win.

Ryan and Westhoff had to show confidence in their kickoff coverage or risk undermining everything Ryan has said all season. Live by the sword, die by the sword.

Essentially, the Jets outplayed the Dolphins in nearly every aspect of the game and lost because of three freak plays: The kick returns and Jason Taylor’s 48-yard fumble recovery return.

Those were all indicative of poor play by the Jets: Jay Feely made a bad kick on the first return, the tackling broke down on the second, and Shonn Greene coughed the ball up for Taylor.

But none of them exposed any massive flaw in the Jets’ roster or gameplan. They were just three  bad plays that happened to come in the same game.

So it strikes me that the loss might be the product of a whole lot of bad luck, more than a bad coach or a bad team.

The problem is — and again in contrast to baseball — the NFL’s 16-game schedule doesn’t allow a whole lot of wriggle room for misfortune.

So now Ryan and the Jets enter their bye week with an uphill battle on the horizon. To make the playoffs, they’ll now not only have to avoid similar bad luck against the Jaguars, Panthers, Bills and Bucs, but they’ll likely need to beat two of the Patriots, Falcons, Colts and Bengals.

The odds appear against them, for sure. But, for the first time in my life as a Jets fan, I have some confidence in Ryan’s confidence.

Here’s me and Brian Bassett previewing Sunday’s Jets-Dolphins matchup:

It’s rare that I post any breaking news around here, but here’s some:

The Jets have placed Leon Washington on the IR and signed DB/KR Justin Miller, who was released by the Raiders earlier this month.

Miller, you may recall, was a Pro Bowl kick returner for the Jets in 2006.

You may have heard the term “Pyrrhic victory” before, but did you know that it is named for Pyrrhus of Epirus, a shrewd military strategist and benevolent king from 297-272 B.C.?

Maybe. Anyway, here’s me and Brian Bassett of TheJetsBlog.com talking about yesterday’s Jets win:

I can’t believe that Mark Sanchez is dealing with even the tiniest bit of sanctimony over eating a hot dog during the fourth quarter yesterday.

I don’t get it at all. He apologized afterward. Why? Honestly: Why? Why should he be sorry for eating if he’s hungry? He said he was feeling a bit queasy, so he wanted to eat something.

I’m not sure a hot dog is the best way to cure an upset stomach, but if it’s what Mark Sanchez wanted, why does anyone care? He said he should have had an energy bar instead. Why? It’s all food, right? Don’t judge Mark Sanchez for the complexities of his palate. If you want a hot dog, Mark Sanchez, eat a hot dog.

He shouldn’t have even had to hide it! Poor guy had to go into stealth mode to put mustard on the thing. Stand up, Mark Sanchez, and proudly munch that frankfurter. Let the world know that when you eat a hot dog, it’s an extremely hot dog.

I happen to think it’s particularly awesome. What a stud. Here’s what it looks like when Mark Sanchez eats a hot dog: