AP

Jets coach Rex Ryan was fined $100,000 by the NFL for using profanity toward an official. Ryan says the letter from the league office informing him of that fine took him by surprise.

“I was stunned by it to say the least,” Ryan said.

Reporters asked Ryan to clarify what he said to the officials, but Ryan declined to repeat it. Ryan did, however, say again that he was angry during the Jets’ win over the Steelers that he thought Ben Roethlisberger was getting more protection from the officials than Michael Vick was.

“I don’t want to get into it,” Ryan said. “We all know I thought, during the game, I mentioned before, I never thought our quarterback was as protected as I would have liked to have seen him, so that is a true statement. Really I would rather not get into exactly who I was talking too, but again I apologize if I offended somebody, it wasn’t my intention, it was meant to be a private conversation.”

If Ryan doesn’t want any more six-figure fines from the league, he needs to make his private conversations with the officials less profane.