The Ryan Bowl should make Cleveland Browns vs. New York Jets twice the fun

Browns defensive coordinator Rob Ryan and his twin brother Rex share a love of football and life, and their personalities promise to play out on the field today in Ryan Bowl VIII, Rob's Browns vs. Rex's Jets.

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Doris Ryan knew early on that she was in for a wild and hilarious ride with her twin sons Rob and Rex, the youngest of legendary NFL coach Buddy Ryan's three boys.

"I was in the kitchen and I heard all of this crashing and giggling," she said. "The twins, who were toddlers, climbed onto a cabinet and Buddy had all kinds of football pictures on the wall. They were taking the pictures down and throwing them on the tile floor and laughing like crazy."

The Ryans have been breaking the rules and laughing about it together ever since. Today, they'll square off in Ryan Bowl VIII at Cleveland Browns Stadium, with Rex as head coach of the 6-2 Jets and Rob as defensive coordinator of the 3-5 Browns. The matchup promises to be as thrilling and original as the Ryans themselves.

"The twins have always been close, they've always loved football and they've always loved life," said Doris.

Doris and Buddy divorced when the twins were two and their brother Jim, now a lawyer in St. Louis, was 7. The boys lived with their grandmother for a few years in Oklahoma while Doris finished her doctorate at the University of Chicago. Then they moved with her to Toronto, where she became vice president of a university.

Buddy often came to stay with them in Toronto and they flew to New York on weekends to attend his Jets games. When the twins were 6, they went to the Super Bowl in Miami and watched Joe Namath make good on his famous guarantee over the Colts. The twins were inseparable, and had their own language.

"In fourth grade, they were kicked off their Pop Warner football team for hitting too hard," recalled Jim. When Buddy bought a farm in Kentucky in 1976, "the twins and I did a lot of posthole diggin', a lot of manure-spreadin' and scoopin', but we had a lot of fun," recalled Buddy.

In junior high, the principal separated them so they'd stop fooling around so much in class. "But it backfired because they spent all of their time figuring a way to get out in the hall so they could see each other," said Doris.

The twins were not identical but looked so much alike that they could fool their teachers. "They'd sit in each other's classes and take tests for each other if one knew a subject better," said Jim.

Rob was the accident-prone one, once breaking his arm while running around a swimming pool and another time after falling out of a tree. "And being the sympathetic brothers that we were, we put cheese and all kinds of stuff down his cast," said Jim. "By the time doctor opened that cast, he had to clear the room."

Growing up in Toronto, the twins played hockey and became huge Maple Leafs fans. But toward the end of junior high, they became too much for Doris to handle and Jim convinced her to let them move in with Buddy, an assistant with the Minnesota Vikings at the time.

"The Ryans were running roughshod on Canada," said Rob. "Our lives changed when we moved in with my father. We got a little discipline."

From the minute they became ballboys for the Vikings, the twins knew they wanted to follow in their father's footsteps. "While the other boys were playing grab-ass, my boys were paying attention to everything that was going on," said Buddy.

Buddy became defensive coordinator for the Bears a year later, and the boys moved with him to Chicago. Ballboys for the Bears, they also played football and baseball in high school. Rob tells the story of how Rex, a home-run king, was down, 0-2, in the count, called timeout, borrowed Rob's left contact and smashed a home run.

"Becoming coaches was their sole focus in life," said Jim. "I don't know how they got through high school. They both read one non-sports book in their life, and that includes schoolbooks."

Buddy got them scholarships at Southwestern Oklahoma State, where they both played defense. Neither was a star but were known for hitting hard -- and living large.

"They were the campus cut-ups," said Doris.

"If you fought one of us, you had to be real tough because you had to fight both of us," said Rob.

Rex, who later found out he was dyslexic, took one semester off because of grades and moved back home with Doris. "But he should've just stayed there with Rob because they were on the phone two or three times a day," she recalled.

"They shared a wallet and a car," said Jim. "If one of them had a date, he'd say 'I need the wallet.'"

The twins rarely fought each other, except for once when Rob's date wanted Rex to double-date with her friend. Rex, who only had eyes for his fiancee Michelle, refused and a brawl ensued. Rob wound up with a broken nose and broken ankle, Rex a black eye.

"It was a typical Ryan day," said Rob. "It's just something that happens once in awhile. Usually there's alcohol involved. He was engaged, I wasn't and I wanted him to be a team player."

During commencement, both wrote "magna cum laude" at the bottom of the card the dean was to read out loud. He took one look and burst out laughing. Afterward, he showed the cards to Doris, who also had a good laugh. After graduation, the twins wanted Buddy, then head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles, to hire them, but he refused.

"He told them they hadn't earned their way into the NFL," said Jim.

Both took the long, difficult way, coaching at small colleges before landing big-time defensive coordinator posts, Rob at Oklahoma State and Rex at Oklahoma. There, they faced each other once, with Rob's team crushing Rex's, 41-26. Afterward, the two embraced on the field with cameras popping.

The next day, Doris' little neighbor girl came over and said it was sad to see the brother who lost the game crying afterward. "I told her 'It was the brother who won that was crying,'" recalled Doris. "Rob was crying because he knew Rex was going to get fired, which he did."

The Ryan twins have talked plenty of smack this week, with Rex donning a wig and stuffing a pillow under his shirt to simulate Rob, and Rob vowing "we're going to win the game."

But when they meet on the field at the end, they'll share a laugh and maybe a tear, and they'll know the family business is in good hands.

To reach this Plain Dealer Reporter: mcabot@plaind.com,216-999-4670