Phoenix Hires Ryan : Pro football: Combative former Oiler assistant gets four-year contract to take Cardinals to ‘next level.’

Desperate to end a tradition of dull futility, the Phoenix Cardinals Thursday ignored conventional wisdom and turned the franchise over to Buddy Ryan, one of the most combustible and charismatic coaches the NFL has ever seen.

Ryan, who has punched a fellow assistant coach and presided over some of the angriest defenses of recent times, became the team’s coach and general manager after two days of interviews with owner Bill Bidwill.

Ryan, 59, leaves the Houston Oilers after a tumultuous one-year term as defensive coordinator that produced a feud with offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride and a defense that helped fashion 11 consecutive victories at the end of the regular season.

Playing Ryan’s pressure defense, Houston led the league in interceptions (26) and sacks (52), but the Oilers were defeated by Joe Montana and the Kansas City Chiefs in the divisional round of the AFC playoffs.

Ryan was given a four-year, multimillion-dollar contract at Phoenix. Ryan replaces Joe Bugel, who was fired as coach on Jan. 24 after a 7-9 season in which he failed to deliver on an ultimatum by Bidwill to produce a winner, and former general manager Larry Wilson, who resigned in December.

In four years under Bugel, the Cardinals never won more than seven games and did not come close to reaching postseason play.

“You’ve got a winner in town,” Ryan said at a news conference.

For Bidwill, who has seen attendance at Sun Devil Stadium fall appreciably since moving the franchise there from St. Louis in 1988, it was the combination of Ryan’s trademark, attacking ‘46’ defense, his solid record as a personnel man and his ability to stir fan interest that proved decisive.

“I have said we want to reach the next level,” Bidwill said. “Buddy Ryan has been to the next level. I anticipate he will take us there.”

Previously, Ryan coached the Philadelphia Eagles from 1986-1991, and the Eagles made the playoffs in each of his last three seasons. But his stormy relationship with owner Norman Braman and the team’s inability to win a playoff game led to his firing after the ’91 season.

In Philadelphia, Ryan was unable to put together an offense that could be successful in the playoffs and never made an attempt to subordinate his ego to that of the strong-willed Braman, who considered Ryan’s outspokenness a form of mutiny.

The Eagles were 43-35-1 under Ryan, whose draft selections included Pro Bowlers Seth Joyner, Clyde Simmons, Fred Barnett and Eric Allen.

“If there are any real good football players here, they’re going to want to play for Buddy Ryan,” Ryan said in Phoenix.

In Houston, Ryan won raves for his sack-producing defense, but ignited controversy when his disgust at Gilbride’s run-and-shoot offense boiled over to a nationally televised Jan. 2 sideline incident in which Ryan threw a punch at Gilbride.

The Cardinals made their move after the Washington Redskins hired Dallas Cowboy offensive coordinator Norv Turner, who reportedly was offered the same Phoenix job of coach and general manager for $700,000 a year.

“I really didn’t know that they didn’t get him, and I don’t really care,” said Ryan, whose salary was not disclosed. “I mean, I knew Norv when he was a receivers coach with the Rams. I think I’ve got a better job than he’s got.”

Ryan first won fame--and made headlines for battling his fellow coaches and superiors--when he was defensive coordinator of the Chicago Bears under Mike Ditka.

With the ‘46’ defense outscoring opponents in two NFC playoff games, the Bears won the Super Bowl after the 1985 season. Ryan was hired by the Eagles after that.

* LASSOED

The Dallas Cowboys hire offensive coordinator Ernie Zampese of the Rams to replace Norv Turner, who left to coach the Washington Redskins. C4