Folks, Seattle Seahawks punter Jon Ryan isn't messing around. After his employer snagged a rookie punter in the fifth-round of the NFL Draft, Ryan made sure interesting things were said and noticed.
According to Jayson Jenks of The Athletic, Ryan explicitly told his boss, general manager John Schneider, his goal is to make him “look really dumb.”
“It's like when you have a grandparent who is sick for like eight years,” Ryan said. “You know they're going to die, but when they actually die, it doesn't make it easy.”
Ryan, 36, is no spring chicken. He's punted in Seattle for 10 seasons after spending his first two professional years with the Green Bay Packers.
His 2017 performance didn't dip at all at his advanced age. In fact, his 45-yard average is one yard better than his 2016 performance.
Still, Schneider selected Australian-born Michael Dickson in the fifth round. Ryan, who has a good relationship with the front office, sought out his boss in full transparency.
“He had that attitude almost like, ‘Sorry, but I had to do it…'” Ryan said relaying what Schneider told him of drafting Dickson. “And I was like, ‘Don't apologize! Do not apologize.' This is the business. If all the players got to pick who was on the team every year, we'd still have the Super Bowl team from five years ago.”
“If you let me, I'm going to compete my ass off, harder than you've ever seen,” Ryan remembered saying to Schneider. “I love you. I have so much respect for you. But one way or the other, I'm going to make you look really dumb.”
While we won't know who's going to take the job home this coming August, one thing's for sure: the elder-statesmen, Jon Ryan, isn't ready to concede his professional job just yet.
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