Rex Ryan and Jim Schwartz. A comparison

A person must wiser than I once told me, "It's not necessarily what you actually say or do. How your words and actions are perceived by others is what can get you in trouble sometimes". To this day, yours truly believes truer words were never spoken. Which brings me to Detroit Lions' head coach Jim Schwartz and NY Jets' head coach Rex Ryan.

Both are supposedly on the "hot seat" this year for their jobs if their teams don't show a lot of improvement over last year. Is it fair to lump them into the same category? Let's take a closer look.

Both were named the head coaches of their respective teams beginning in 2009. They're entering their fifth year. Similarly, both their starting quarterbacks also came into the league in 2009, and are entering their fifth years as well.

In the Lions' case, that would be Matthew Stafford. Over the last two years, Stafford has passed for about 10,000 yards. Very impressive stuff. However, it should be noted that Stafford had the luxury of having wide receiver Calvin (Megatron) Johnson on his "go to" list. Johnson set a record for receiving yards himself last year. When in doubt, heave it Calvin's way. Double teams be damned, the Megatron seems to find a way to catch any ball thrown in his zip code area. The man's amazing.

On the other hand, the Jets have had Mark Sanchez as their QB for the same amount of time. Besides not having a Megatron at his disposal, or much else, for that matter, Sanchez himself hasn't exactly shined. Since 2009 when he came into the league, Sanchez is dead last amongst NFL starting QBs in yards per game, touchdown to interception ratio, and overall QB rating. And, of course, there's his infamous, but mostly comical "butt fumble" that still gets replayed from time to time.

Lions' head coach Jim Schwartz is known as a no-nonsense kind of guy. If the man has a sense of humor, he's yet to show it to the public. On the other hand, Rex Ryan can and has yukked it up with the best of them. Wearing a long, curly blond wig to a press conference? Jim Schwartz wouldn't be caught dead in that. For that matter, Ryan used to have long real hair of his own and appeared to have a half barrel of beer tucked under his shirt at belly level. He's since shortened his locks and lost a serious amount of weight. Conversely, Schwartz has always been a slim, trim, crewcut sort. Schwartz's idea of "letting it all hang out" might be watching an old Elvis video while sipping a drink with one those little umbrellas in it. Let's just say he appears to be a bit on the conservative side.

But let's get down to the nitty-gritty.

During the same tenure, Rex Ryan has posted a 35-30 record as head coach of the NY Jets, for a winning % of .538. Not too bad. He's also led his team to 6 playoff games, winning 4. Last year Ryan's boys slipped to a 6-10 record.

In the meantime, Jim Schwartz has posted a 23-42 record as head coach of the Det Lions, for a winning % of .354. That's not only bad -- it's shameful. He has led his team to only 1 playoff game, where they got blown out. Last year Schwartz's boys crashed and burned to a 4-12 record, including losing the last 8 in a row.

So let's see. While having much less talent to work with, Ryan's won a whopping 12 more games than Schwartz during the same short 4-year time frame, been to and won playoff contests --  but somehow he's perceived as a buffoon while Schwartz got more millions of guaranteed money in a contract extension? And they're both on the same hot seat for their jobs?

Wow.

My old friend was right. That perception thing can be rough sometimes.

Either that, or some cities won't settle for less than a winner -- while others have become so used to losing, they consider being merely mediocre a cause for celebration.