Former NFL coach, defensive guru Buddy Ryan dies at age 82

— -- Former NFL head coach and influential defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan died Tuesday. He was 82.

The always outspoken Ryan, who coached in the NFL for 26 seasons, was known for building some of football's top defenses behind a relentlessness that focused on creating havoc on the field.

His death was confirmed by the Buffalo Bills, who employ twin sons Rex and Rob Ryan. James Solano, Buddy Ryan's agent, said he died in Kentucky but did not give a cause.

"I wonder who just lost their defensive coordinating job in heaven," former  Chicago Bears defensive tackle Steve McMichael told ESPN on Tuesday.

James David Ryan was a Korean War veteran who went to Oklahoma State, then got a master's degree from Middle Tennessee State even while coaching. He got his first major job in the pros in New York, then of the AFL, in 1968. Ryan was the linebackers coach for the Joe-Namath led Jets, a boastful, confident team that fit his personality.

Those Jets led the AFL in defense in his first season on staff, then shocked the Colts in the Super Bowl, 16-7.

"That's something my dad was very proud of," said Rex Ryan, who is entering his second season as the Bills' head coach. "When (former Jets coach Weeb) Ewbank hired him, he had to make a difference. If he felt he wasn't making a difference, then his career as a professional coach would be short."

Ryan's first job as a defensive coordinator came in 1976 with the Minnesota Vikings under Bud Grant, like Ewbank a Hall of Fame coach. He spent two years there before moving to the rival Bears, where he concocted the "46 Defense" that overwhelmed the league with its aggressiveness and unpredictability.

Ryan's defenders, featuring such Hall of Famers as linebacker Mike Singletary and ends Dan Hampton and Richard Dent, came from all angles and was nearly impossible to budge on the ground. Not that teams had more success in the air, either.

"Some say the 46 is just an eight-man front," said Ryan, who named the scheme after safety Doug Plank, who wore that number. "That's like saying Marilyn Monroe is just a girl."

Carolina Panthers coach Ron Rivera, a member of the '85 Bears, tweeted his condolences.

Ryan and head coach Mike Ditka often feuded during that 15-1 season and Super Bowl run. They nearly slugged it out at halftime of Chicago's only defeat, at Miami on a Monday night in December. (Ryan would punch offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride on national TV on Jan. 2, 1994 when both were assistant coaches with the Houston Oilers.)

With the Bears, Ryan's notoriety skyrocketed. The "46 Defense" was founded on sending more blitzing players than an offense could block. And in 1984, the Bears tallied 72 sacks, a record that still stands. The '85 Bears capped their Super Bowl title with seven sacks.

At a meeting the night before the Bears beat New England in the 1986 Super Bowl, Dent said a teary Ryan informed his players that he was going to Philadelphia: "You guys are going to be my champions. Let's kick some tail," Ryan said.

Hampton then kicked a film projector out of defensive line coach Dale Haupt's hands, and defensive tackle Steve McMichael flung a chair across the room, its legs impaling a chalkboard.

After the game, Ryan was carried off the field next to Ditka.

"People ask all the time, 'Why didn't you guys win another Super Bowl?'" McMichael said. "Well, Buddy Ryan went to Philadelphia. Period. Doesn't anybody understand that? That was the first tooth being pulled out of the snarl."

Such was the devotion players felt for Ryan, who guided the Eagles to the playoffs in 1988, '89 and '90. But they lost all three playoff games, and he was fired after the 1990 season by Eagles owner Norman Braman despite a 43-35-1 record.

Earlier that season, Ryan bragged that his Eagles would so badly beat up the Washington Redskins in a Monday night game "they'll have to be carted off in body bags." The Eagles' defense scored three touchdowns in a 28-14 win and knocked nine Redskins out of the game, including two quarterbacks.

"It's a tough, physical, rough game," said ESPN's Mike Golic, who played for Ryan with the Eagles. "... And Buddy epitomized that style of play more than any other coach I had at any level. ... He wanted the results, and he put you in position to make plays.

"You loved playing for him because he coached the way you wanted to play the game: attack mode. Attack, attack, attack. And if you don't think we're attacking much now, just wait and we're going to attack even more. Oh wait, you don't think we're blitzing enough, we're going to blitz more. We're going to hit you in the mouth. We're going to knock you down. They're going to have to carry you off the field. That was his mentality, and that's what you kind of absorbed as a player."

A year earlier, Philadelphia routed the Dallas Cowboys 27-0 on Thanksgiving Day with hardly any holiday feelings in the air. Cowboys kicker Luis Zendejas claimed Ryan put a $200 bounty on him, something Ryan laughed off as ridiculous.

Arizona hired Ryan as head coach in 1994 and the Cardinals went 12-20 in his two years there. He never coached again, letting Rex and Rob carry on the family legacy.

Rex Ryan told TheMMQB.com in an interview published in May that he and his twin brother, Rob, were "going for broke" this upcoming season as their father's health was declining. Rob is the Bills' assistant head coach/defense.

"Because, who knows?" Rob Ryan told TheMMQB.com. "[Buddy] is not going to be able to watch us coach for much longer, I don't think. But hopefully he can see this one, because we have got big plans. Bring [Bill] Belichick on. We got him."

Buddy Ryan, suffering from the aftermath of a devastating stroke and battling cancer and confined to a wheelchair, attended a Bills game last season.

"Buddy was a legend in our league in so many ways," the Bills said in a statement issued Tuesday. "His defenses were innovative and he was a master at putting his talented and tough players in a position to succeed. He was a real game changer and much of his philosophies and defensive tactics are still utilized effectively by teams today. Buddy's influence will be carried on by defensive coaches for generations to come, but none more so than by Rex and Rob. Our heartfelt thoughts and prayers are with the Ryan family today."

He began his 33-year coaching career in 1961 as a defensive line coach with the University of Buffalo.

ESPN Staff Writer Mike Rodak and The Associated Press contributed to this report.