SAN JOSE, Calif. — Remember when Patriots wide receiver Wes Welker was benched for an offensive series in a crushing playoff loss to the Jets for poking fun of Rex Ryan’s foot fetish?

Patriots outside linebackers coach Mike Smith does, and he’s got the backstory 15 years later.

Smith, who was an assistant coach with the Jets from 2010 to 2012, mentioned after the Patirots hired him in February that he and Ryan used to mess with Welker before games. Smith is still best friends with Welker, dating back to their first day as freshmen at Texas Tech.

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Smith, Ryan and then-Jets defensive coordinator Mike Pettine would call Welker and put him on speaker phone when they were putting together defensive game plans against the Patriots. The most memorable time came before the Patriots’ divisional-round playoff game against the Jets after the 2010 regular season.

“I remember we were (messing) with Wes: ‘Hey, we’re going to put Bart Scott out on you, man. We’re not even worried about you as part of our game plan,’” Smith said.

Welker shot back at the Jets head coach over his foot fetish, which had recently made headlines.

“They were going back and forth. So, Wes said, ‘Wait until my next interview.’ And Rex was like, ‘You’re not going to do anything. You’re too scared of Belichick. You’re not going to do nothing.’ And that’s how it started,” Smith said.

In Welker’s next press conference, he made 10 foot references.

Welker said the phrase “best foot forward” three times. He said three different players have either “good feet” or “great feet.” He said, “Can’t just stick your toe in the water” and “you have to be on your toes.” And he said the phrases, “you got your foot in the air,” and “just go out there and being good little foot soldiers.”

Then-Patriots head coach Bill Belichick did not find this particularly funny and benched Welker for their first offensive series. Julian Edelman, who had seven catches for 86 yards that entire season, his second in the NFL, started and played in place of Welker.

Ryan thought it was hilarious, though.

The kicker: “When Wes got married, I was one of Wes’s groomsmen, and Rex gave me a gift to give to Wes, and it was a pair of, like, rubber feet,” Smith said. “And it had a personal note, whatever, ‘Love your wife’s feet — Rex Ryan.’

“It’s funny, about a year ago, Wes came across those feet and that note. He had saved it.”

Clearly, Welker’s joke didn’t cause any hard feelings with Ryan.

“They’re both a lot like the same. They love pranks, joking,” Smith said. “He just couldn’t believe he did it. That actually helped us that game.”

Still, Welker apologized after the game in comments to the Herald’s Karen Guregian.

“I’m not going to get into any details about it, but I don’t think it’s worth putting coach (Belichick) in that situation,” Welker said. “So in a sense, I do regret it. … As much as you might want to get enticed into that stuff, at the end of the day, it’s just not worth it.”

Ryan joked at the NFL Annual Meeting in 2011 that he wished the Patriots had benched Welker for the entire game.

The Jets beat the Patriots 28-21 in that game, and Welker elected to dip his toe in the water in free agency, signing with the Broncos. He put his best foot forward, beating the Patriots in the playoffs that season.