Ryan brothers, Rex and Rob, recount college fistfight

If nothing else, the Ryan brothers, Rex and Rob, are fighters.

“I tell my players, ‘I’ve been in a bunch of fights in my life. Never lost one, but I had my twin brother with me.’ If I can get my team to fight like we did as twin brothers, we’ll whip everybody,” Bills coach Rex Ryan told Tim Graham, who wrote an excellent feature on the Ryan family in Sunday’s Buffalo News.

In addition to Rex and Rob, the New Orleans Saints defensive coordinator, Graham interviewed Doris Ryan — their 80-year-old mother who lives in a house Rex bought her in a Henderson retirement community — and Jim Ryan, their older brother who said, “Those two mad at you is a sight to behold.”

“I think Rob had about 25 drunk-and-disorderlies in college,” he recalled. “One of their best friends was a baseball player, not a big guy. They would go into these small-town, redneck, Oklahoma bars and some drunken idiot would decide to pick on the little guy, not knowing who he was with. Oops!”

While Rob Ryan said, “We’re as tight as we can be, closer than blood,” the twins spilled each other’s blood as students at Southwestern Oklahoma State only days before their father, Buddy Ryan, was carried off the field by the Chicago Bears’ defense after winning Super Bowl XX.

Rob had a date and wanted Rex to be his wingman. Rex wasn’t interested because he’d already met Micki, his future wife.

Rob: “I was a solo rider and had a babe on the line. But she had a friend. I said, ‘You know, come on. Be a team player.’ ”

Rex: “I said, ‘Dude, I’m staying at home today.’ ”

Rob: “So after a few hundred beers I said, ‘You need to help out.’ He didn’t, so I was pissed and got in a wrestling match with him. I think he was a lot more sober than I was.”

Rex: “I was bigger and was just going to throw his ass down. But he reversed me and got on top. So we went at it. We ended up outside, and here he comes.”

Rob: “I ran after him, and he had a right hand waiting for me. I never saw it coming. Still haven’t seen it.”

Rex: “I got him good, and it was over. I felt terrible. I couldn’t believe I hit my brother like that.”

Furious and wearing the remnants of a bloody shirt, Rex drove off to clear his head and got pulled over by a cop.

“He sees me and doesn’t know what he’s got,” Rex said, smiling. “I said, ‘I just got in a fight with my brother. You can take me back there, and he’ll explain it.’

“They take me to jail and then called my brother. He said, ‘Nah, leave him in there.’”

Rob’s ankle and nose were broken in the brawl. When they arrived in New Orleans for Super Bowl week, Rob said, “We both had black eyes.” Buddy wasn’t amused.