2 Expressions I don't understand
This is an excerpt of a book Shawshank Redemption
Warden Norton's famous "Inside-Out" program produced its share of escapees, too. They were the guys who decided they liked what lay to the right of the hyphen better than what lay to the left. And again, in most cases it was very casual kind of thing. Drop your blueberry rake and stroll into the bushes while one of the screws is having a glass of water at the truck or when a couple of them get too involved in arguing over yards passing or rushing on the old Boston Patriots.
※Inside-Out is a program where prisoners are out doing these activities such as cutting pulpwood, repairing bridges and causeways, constructing potato cellars.
Here are the two sentences I don't understand.
"what lay to the right of the hyphen better than what lay to the left"
"passing or rushing on the old Boston Patriots"