FILE – Rex Ryan, football analyst and former NFL coach, participates in the “Sunday NFL Countdown” panel during the ESPN Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour at the Beverly Hilton on Wednesday, July 26, 2017, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File)
Chris Pizzello/AP Photo/Chris Pizzello
This booking photo released by the Metro Nashville Police Department, shows former NFL football coach Rex Ryan. (Metro Nashville Police Department via AP)
Metro Nashville Police Departmen
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Former NFL coach Rex Ryan turned himself in Wednesday for allegedly hitting pedestrians with his car in Nashville and leaving the scene, police said.
Two pedestrians had the right of way crossing a main street in downtown Nashville’s popular tourist area last week when Ryan allegedly turned at a red light, running over the victims’ feet, Nashville police said Wednesday. They suffered minor injuries, police said.
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Ryan, an ESPN football analyst, was on the network Sunday for the NFL pregame show and Monday for a morning show, both of which are taped in New York.
Ryan showed up at Nashville’s Downtown Detention Center early Wednesday, according to the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office. He was later released.
Ryan was charged with two counts of leaving the scene of an accident, two counts of failure to give information or render aid and two counts of failure to obey a traffic control signal, according to court records. All are misdemeanors.
Online records did not identify an attorney for Ryan. A phone number believed to be Ryan’s had an automatic outgoing message, and a message could not be left.
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A judicial commissioner set Ryan’s bond at $6,000, but he qualified for pretrial release, which means he was released on non-financial conditions.
Ryan is scheduled to appear in court next month.
Ryan is a former head coach of the Buffalo Bills and New York Jets, leading the Jets to the AFC Championship Game in consecutive years after the 2009 and 2010 seasons.
While with the Jets, Ryan became one of the team’s — and the NFL’s — most popular figures, especially during his first few seasons as coach, because of his brash, colorful approach in news conferences that became must-watch TV.
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He has not coached since being fired by the Bills with one game left in the 2016 season, though he has since expressed an interest in coaching and interviewed in 2025 for the Jets’ head coaching vacancy when Aaron Glenn was hired.
His father, the late Buddy Ryan, was an NFL coaching legend who famously coordinated the 1985 Chicago Bears defense that was one of the best in history. Seth Ryan, one of Rex Ryan’s two sons, is currently in his first season as the Jets’ passing game coordinator.
Ryan is best known now for his work at ESPN as one of the analysts on the network’s NFL pregame show.
“We are aware and are in touch with Rex,” ESPN said in a statement Wednesday.
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Fingerhut reported from Des Moines, Iowa. Associated Press writers Dennis Waszak Jr. in Florham Park, New Jersey, and Joe Reedy in Cleveland contributed.