Rex Ryan was fiercely loyal to his players during his six seasons as the New York Jets' coach, but loyalty comes with an expiration date.
The Buffalo Bills' new coach fired back at one of his former players, tight end Jace Amaro, who said in a recent radio interview that last year's team lacked accountability.
"He's full of s---, and I'll remind him of that when we play him," Ryan told The MMQB. "Look, we weren't perfect, and I never said we were going to be perfect. But that's a f---ing B.S. comment. But hey, he's happy that he's got a different coach in place. We'll see how happy he is when I play against him."
On Wednesday, Ryan said he stands by his comments when he was asked how much he is looking forward to the first game against the Jets.
"Well I just think that it's with anybody, but I'll stand by my comments 100 percent, I'll stand by them. I'm looking forward to competing against anybody in this league -- all of them -- and he's the least of my worries."
Amaro angered his former coach with comments he made April 6 on SiriusXM NFL Radio. The second-year tight end praised new coach Todd Bowles while tweaking his old boss.
"[Bowles is] not really playing around with everyone being late," Amaro said. "We had an issue with that last year. Guys just weren't accountable last year as much as they could be. I think that's the biggest thing. [Bowles] is making sure everyone's going to be 100 percent in or he's not going to be on the team."
Amaro appeared to respond to Ryan's remarks on Twitter, saying, "Game On Then." But he quickly deleted the tweet.
There were two highly publicized instances of players showing up late and/or missing meetings.
Quarterback Geno Smith missed a meeting on the eve of a game in San Diego, reportedly because he got his time zones confused. He received no discipline, at least not in terms of a reduction in playing time.
Rookie safety Calvin Pryor showed up late for multiple meetings and weightlifting sessions and was demoted to backup status for a few weeks, although Ryan said that wasn't the primary reason for the lineup change.
Ryan was fired after the 4-12 season and was hired by the Bills two weeks later. After three months of saying he was done talking about the Jets, Ryan opened up in the MMQB interview, painting himself as the victim of a power struggle with former general manager John Idzik, who was hired in 2013.
Ryan wasn't critical of Jets owner Woody Johnson, but showing the old Ryan bluster, he added: "I want success for Woody Johnson, I do. But don't kid yourself -- we're gonna try to kick the s--- out of them when we bring our team in. We're going to try to whip your ass. There are people in that organization who are going to be lifelong friends to me. But this is my damn football family now."
ESPN.com Bills reporter Mike Rodak contributed to this report.