Jets coach Ryan removes foot from mouth

Talk about something you don’t hear every day: a regretful Rex Ryan.

The brash and mouthy New York Jets coach knew he messed up Wednesday as soon as he said, “I would have had a couple of (Super Bowl) rings,” if the San Diego Chargers had hired him as coach in 2007.

The comments were taken as a slight at Chargers coach Norv Turner, who was hired instead and hasn’t taken San Diego to a Super Bowl.

Turner immediately received an apologetic phone call from Ryan.

“It was me, it’s all on me,” Ryan said Thursday. “I’m guilty. Absolutely. I did call Norv. I won’t get into that conversation, but it was unintentional.”

Ryan, who made the comments during a conference call with Chargers reporters, insisted he didn’t intentionally insult Turner, but rather was trying to compliment the job the Chargers have done in building a consistent winner. Turner got in a little jab of his own Wednesday when asked about Ryan’s comments.

“I didn’t have a chance to ask him this,” Turner said, “but I was wondering if he had those rings with the ones he’s guaranteed the last couple of years.”

Zing! Ryan was hired by the Jets in 2009, with bold – and so far empty – promises of Super Bowl success ever since.

“I think we’re even because he did get me with a good shot,” a smiling Ryan said. “There’s no question.”

With postgame handshakes a big focus these days after Detroit’s Jim Schwartz and San Francisco’s Jim Harbaugh nearly got into it last Sunday, should eyes be focused on the Ryan-Turner meeting at midfield Sunday at MetLife Stadium?

“I did ask Norv if I need to wear a helmet, but he assured me that I never did,” Ryan said.

It’s just the latest in an ever-growing list of uncomfortable situations Ryan’s mouth has gotten him in.

“Obviously I wish this one never happened,” he said. “It really was unintentional. I don’t know what other word to use. I don’t know what to even say.

“I was praising the heck out of them because I think they have a great organization,” he said.

HGH TESTING NEARS

Commissioner Roger Goodell sent a letter to leaders of a congressional committee outlining the league’s plans for collecting and saving blood samples of players in hopes of eventually testing for human growth hormone.

In the letter to California Rep. Darrell Issa and Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Control, Goodell said specimens would not be analyzed and players would not be subject to disciplinary proceedings until remaining issues about the testing regimen are resolved. Until that time, blood samples would be stored.

The NFL and the players agreed to begin blood testing for HGH as part of their new collective bargaining agreement reached in late July – but only if the union agreed to the methods, which it has yet to do.