NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Former NFL coach Rex Ryan turned himself in to Nashville police Wednesday on misdemeanor charges after he allegedly hit two pedestrians with his vehicle in a popular area downtown last week and then drove off after an argument, police said.
Ryan was driving a pickup truck when he allegedly ran over the feet of both individuals, who had the right of way crossing a main street in Nashville's honky-tonk and music tourist district Thursday night, police said in a release Wednesday.
The pedestrians involved, who sustained minor injuries, waved Ryan down at the next red light and said he stepped out to argue with them, according to police. They took a photo of the driver and the license plate on the vehicle, police said.
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.
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.
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.
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. He 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.
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.
Fingerhut reported from Des Moines, Iowa. Associated Press writers Dennis Waszak Jr. in Florham Park, New Jersey, and Joe Reedy in Cleveland contributed.
This booking photo released by the Metro Nashville Police Department, shows former NFL football coach Rex Ryan. (Metro Nashville Police Department via AP)
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)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump observed Veterans Day by suggesting that the towering arch he wants to build in his own honor would also be dedicated to the U.S. military and those who served in its ranks.
That's despite three veterans having sued to stop the project — which a federal court has since temporarily blocked. Some military groups have cheered the arch, but many others have opposed it or joined efforts to stop construction.
Trump has said for months that the 250-foot (76-meter) arch set for construction near Arlington National Cemetery and the Lincoln Memorial would be inspired by the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, and might even be called the “Arc de Trump.”
He's also insisted that Washington has wanted a similar structure for centuries — even though that’s not true. In comments during an annual ceremony at Arlington Cemetery on Wednesday, however, Trump suggested it was actually veterans who had longed for an arch in the capital.
“And soon we’re going to dedicate a magnificent triumphal arc to our veterans," he said. “And that’s in honor of our great veterans and our great militaries." He added: “They've been waiting for it for 200 years.”
Though the arch received approval from the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, whose members were all tapped by Trump, the three veterans are among several groups suing to block the arch's construction. Last week, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan issued a temporary restraining order, prohibiting work for 14 days.
With Democrats soon taking control of Congress after big wins all over the country in last week's midterm elections, Trump’s renovation projects will encounter far more scrutiny and roadblocks — from his effort to put his own name on the Kennedy Center to remaking a public golf course and building his massive White House ballroom and the arch.
Despite the midterm defeats by his party and the potential legal and legislative hurdles, the White House has continued to promote the arch project.
That includes a slick website unveiled last week which proclaimed that it'd be known as the United States Military Triumphal Arch and was “long overdue, and has been sought for many years, especially by the Military.”
The website prominently displays a picture of and quote from Trump. It also features the word “Triumph” in gold cursive script recalling the typeface used at the president's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida and similar flourishes that have been affixed to the White House as part of his overhaul of the Oval Office and West Wing.
The arch's plans call for its columns to store munitions and areas on the pedestal and observation deck to be set aside for a sniper's nest. Its base would be designed to launch drones, and the site says that the overall monument “will be Highly Secretive but, at the same time, a Top Level and Lethal structure, the likes of which has not been seen in this Country before.”
The website does not say how much the project will cost or how it will be paid for, although some estimates have reached as high as $100 million.
President Donald Trump speaks during an event to mark Veterans Day at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Washington commuters drive South over the Memorial Bridge that spans the Potomac River toward a traffic circle at the entrance of Arlington National Cemetery, the proposed site for President Donald Trump's Triumphal Arch, Friday, Nov. 6, 2026, as seen from the Washington Monument. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
A protest structure stands near Memorial Circle, the proposed site for a Triumphal Arch, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026, in Arlington, Va. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
President Donald Trump speaks during an event to mark Veterans Day at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
