Logan Ryan, 49ers Defensive Back

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Just use Instacart, Brian. I saw the video of you and your family, Logan Ryan here with us from the San Francisco 49ers, celebrating after the game. That must have just been, I know you've won a Super Bowl before, I know you've played in a few Super Bowls, but to be in that NFC title game and celebrating with your family after the game, that just seemed awesome. Yeah, man, it was amazing.

Truly. A great feeling, and I think more because my kids are at an age, I have an eight-year-old daughter and a five-year-old son. The two Super Bowls I played in and won, Super Bowl 49 and 51, my daughter was in my wife's belly in one of them, and she was just 18 months, so she has very little memory.

But now, my son who wants to be just like me and my daughter who is taking it all in, I mean, I felt they're involved. They saw every single play and they were nervous, so I was happy we were able to pull it out for them and all the Niners fans. For you personally, I know the family component is so big, but you've played football your entire life to basically be out for most of this season and then get that call in December, and you join the 49ers, and now you're 60 minutes away from winning another Super Bowl individually, with it looking like football was maybe over and now being on the highest stage in two weeks. How do you kind of put that into perspective with the emotions of it?

It's a crazy story, a crazy situation. I've obviously been through a lot in my career. I've won a lot in my career. I've prepared a lot in my career, but this was a different experience of really being at peace if I didn't play again. I wasn't necessarily looking to play. I wasn't trying out for teams. I told a couple of teams I'm not interested in playing for them this year just because of my family, and I didn't necessarily need to to feel accomplished, to feel any more whole.

I was at peace where I was at with my career, and I wanted to have some stability with my kids and stay in the same school multiple years in a row. When I wasn't looking for it, that call came. Obviously, I was on a cruise when that call came.

That story has been told. I was like, okay, let's go. Let's do it if we're going to do it.

My family was all in. My son started training with me and got in good enough shape, got on the team. The challenge of picking up mid-season, a little different. Here we are, good enough to get on the field, good enough to help the team out. We're the best team in football, so two best teams left.

We're one of them. To be able to join that roster mid-season is pretty cool, something to talk about later. One of my best friends is Logan Ryan. He's here with us, defensive back for the 49ers. He works for Royal Caribbean, so I've been able to go on a cruise with him and a bunch of friends, and we got the drink package, and we're hitting up all the buffets. I can't imagine going from the cruise mindset to then the NFL mindset. That must have been wild for you.

Yeah, it was a really critical time there as I was debarking the ship, or the ship was about to debark. John Lynch, you know, my agent had called me that John Lynch wants to reach out about joining the 49ers, and I honestly said, well, this ship's going to take off in about an hour, and I'm probably not going to have cell service. So if he doesn't call me in an hour, I'm not going to be in good enough shape to play football this year because I plan on having a drink package on this cruise. Luckily, John called me in time, and my mindset, I didn't have one drink yet, so my mindset shifted to the gym. The Disney cruise had a great gym. I was on the treadmill every morning and night.

I was able to run a lot, lift some weights on there, and transition that into playing in a game two weeks later, and here we are. Logan Ryan here with us getting set to play in another Super Bowl with the 49ers. When you first walked into that Niners locker room, and you've been around championship teams and you've been on them before, we know that this is Super Bowl or bus this year for the 49ers. What did you sense was special about this group being an outsider walking in for the first time? It's a championship team already. Just the talent, the organization, Jed York, the DiBartello family just do a great job giving everything they can for their players to be from nutrition to recovery.

It's all there from an organizational standpoint. I remember I came in on a Tuesday to do a little tryout to see what shape I was in for the team wanting to see where I was. On that Tuesday, in the weight room walking out to the field, I saw Brock Purdy in there. I saw Fred Warner.

I saw Bosa. For the NFL fans, Tuesdays are off day. That's the one day a week we're not in office. Great players usually come in even on their off day to get some recovery in, to get a lift in, whatever. I would say 75% of the team was in there on a Tuesday. I was blown away by that. Fast forward to after practice Wednesday, Fred Warner, Nick Bosa back in the weight room, Chris McCaffrey back in the weight room. These guys are lifting every day.

You don't have to do that to necessarily do our job. I saw a lot of like-minded individuals. I saw a lot of people that are saying, man, we won it this year. We're not waiting. We're signing guys like Lo and Ryan to go win it this year. I knew right then and there, yeah, this reminds you of those Patriots teams. This reminds me of a championship locker room. We just got to go finish the job.

We got to go do it. But all the pieces are in play. And you know the daily grind of what it takes to win a Super Bowl. And when you're a team like the 49ers, no one's going to really praise you until you hoist that Lombardi trophy. I think the coverage of Brock Purdy, even though there's been some positive and some negative coverage of him, it's really galvanized that locker room. Because I don't care how you refer to Brock Purdy, it doesn't matter to me.

As long as he keeps on winning, you know that's the only thing that matters. But it seems like the way that people have gone after Brock, that has brought out even a different version of the 49ers. Yeah, I think everyone has his back. And I think there's a lot of great players in this locker room. I think there's future Hall of Famers in this locker room.

There's all pros in this locker room. And everyone is unanimously saying, this is our quarterback. Better than the previous quarterback, better than the draft pick, the first round pick that they traded up. This guy is unanimously our quarterback. And we got his back. And he does a great job of winning games, period. And we're about winning. We just want to win.

It doesn't matter who gets the credit. You know, that's one thing I remember about Tom Brady. He literally, you know, a game plan would be Tom Brady's going for six touchdowns and 400 yards. And then in the AFC Championship game the next week, LeGarrette Blount has 40 carries.

And we run the ball for 400 yards. Whatever it takes to win, you know, he was willing to do. And I feel like Brock's the same way. Brock, if you're going to give Christian and Deebo and these guys the credit, they are great players.

Brock doesn't care. Give him the credit. I just want to win. And I think us players respect that. Because the system is to spread the ball around. The systems have great players. John Lynch and them are trying to get the best football players.

You can't blame them for having too many great players around them. So he's doing everything he's asked to do. And ultimately his job is to be a leader, be accountable, and to win games. Take care of the football and to win games.

And he does that every single week. Logan Ryan here with us. What was the scene like in the locker room at halftime? You guys didn't have your best effort in the first half up against the Lions. You're at home. You know that there's 30 minutes until a trip to the Super Bowl is going to be handed out.

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A peanut butter M&M's production. In a world where Super Bowl winners get the world's admiration and a fancy ring, but the runners-up get nothing, one retired cop returns. That's one retired quarterback. Read the script.

Oh, sorry. One retired quarterback returns to claim what's his. Um, that's claim a ring with diamonds made from M&M's peanut butter.

But you're on a roll. The Ring of Comfort, coming soon to a Super Bowl new you. It wasn't, it wasn't movie-like. There was no screaming, no yelling. I think it was just talking like, man, we got to play better. We got to do, we got to step it up. Defensively, I felt like we got to get some stops. We're not even giving our team a chance to compete. We got to get some stops for our offense. Our offense obviously said they got to get going.

They wanted us to change some things up. And I remember being in locker room, 20 to three in the Super Bowl or 25 to three in the Super Bowl. And it was the same way. We got that question.

What was it like? There was no big speech. Guys like, man, we just got to start playing better. We're not even playing well. Credit to Detroit. They played great, but we just, we weren't even doing things we were trying to do.

The things we've been doing all year. So I remember walking out of that, you know, New England locker room and someone said, it's going to be the greatest comeback of all time. Daron Harmon says it's going to be the greatest comeback of all time, another Rutgers guy. And I remember being like, he had the confidence to say that in that moment. So I remember I was telling guys, you know, it's going to be the greatest, it's going to be the greatest comeback of this team all time. It's going to be the greatest championship comeback of all time. And nobody blinked about that.

You know, no one laughed about it. And that comeback came, happened in the third quarter. By the fourth quarter, we were back in the game. So I think it shows you what this team is capable of, and we're all doing our jobs. And hats off to Detroit, though. They brought it, man. They brought it. Their fan base brought it.

That team brought it to us. That was a good game. That was one of the funnest, most electric environments. I've been in six championship games going on my third Super Bowl.

I think I arguably played in the two best Super Bowls of all time. We had a Titans game in Arrowhead where Mariota threw a ball to himself. We came back and won. That was a pretty cool environment. But this game was one of the most electric environments for Detroit's fan base traveling and showing up.

And it just was a beautiful night. I know your role changed because of an injury during the game, and you got on the field a little bit more. Just how about what you were able to give the team individually and step up in a big moment?

Yeah, you know, that's just part of my job is be ready at all times. And I play multiple positions. You know, last last game started safety.

And, you know, we had an idea of, you know, why don't you start, you know, repping at nickel corner? You've played it early in your career. Why don't you start learning our defense in that position? I haven't played that position at all in practice or anything. I was all either safety position. So if something were to happen, we probably want you on the field there, too. So, you know, something I took, I was like, you know what, if that's best for the team, I'll do it. So I learned a position this week. Just like you would have it, an opportunity came.

I end up getting in the game, very end of the game. And that position was, you know, ready and prepared. Hats off to Kyle Shanahan. These guys thinking ahead of every situation that can happen in a game to have me prepared to go play it. And, you know, was able to make some plays to close the game out there.

Talking to Logan Ryan right now, we know next week he's going to be playing in a Super Bowl with the 49ers trying to win his third Lombardi trophy and his illustrious career. When we get to the decision making by Dan Campbell, you guys made the plays, you guys benefited from it. But were you just shocked how aggressive he was with some of those fourth down decisions not to put his field goal kicker out there? You know, it's funny, when I wasn't playing earlier this year, I was doing some broadcasting, doing some media, starting to look at the game, I guess, a little bit from that side of things. As a player, I never really, you know, thought too much about what the other coaches, you know, oh, that was a bad call, that was a good call. It's kind of like, hey, whatever.

But I remember shaking my head, like, why are they doing that? Like, this is going to hurt them. You know, I felt like their opportunity, obviously we came back with a lot of momentum in the third quarter there.

And we're storming back here. And I think they had an opportunity to kick a field goal maybe, almost like a basketball game, when the other team gets hot, call a timeout. I feel like they had an opportunity to call a timeout, kick a field goal, right, get a small win there. But they were going for the jugular. They were going for the jugular in the third quarter, early fourth quarter, whatever that was. They were trying to essentially, in their words, probably end the game if they get some of those fourth downs.

But it just was too soon, I think, to make that move. And when you don't get it, right, whatever analytics say, when you don't get it, the momentum in that stadium was nuts. Like I said, the crowd was rocking. So that's a stop. That's a win. That's a turnover on downs for us. Our offense is already humming.

And our offense scored every possession they had the ball. So I think it's not the right move. Obviously, in the end, it's not the right move. But I just think that, you know, in a playoff game, it doesn't matter what you did all season. A playoff game, you had to make the best decision in those moments. I think Detroit got a little too eager there.

And I came back to bite them. Wrapping up with Logan Ryan, what is it like to prepare for Patrick Mahomes? Man, you just know that this game is going to go to the very end. You know, no lead is necessarily safe. I've been in game, championship games against them with a lead, and that's not necessarily safe. And you know, it's not a guy you want to get down 24 to 7 behind or whatever either. You don't want to have him too out of a start. And they're kind of rolling.

So, you know, it's the real deal. You've got to be on your game each and every play. Sometimes you've got to cover twice. Most times you've got to cover twice because even if you cover Kelsey, then Mahomes starts scrambling and the play starts over again. So, you know, that team goes as him and Travis Kelsey go. They're two Hall of Famers.

And it's easier said than done, but we're going to have to find a way to neutralize them or be ready to fight to the very end because we know he's not going nowhere. I know that you played with Tom Brady. You played against him. We all remember that interception that you had in that playoff game. I'm a Patriot fan.

I wasn't thrilled with that in the moment, but I always loved you as a player. Is it kind of crazy when people are already saying now that Mahomes is better than Brady when you hear that conversation a little bit the last 24, 48 hours? I think I think their careers are going to be a good comparison at the end.

I think you can't I mean, I think now is just is on now is way too soon. But I think I think there's no one else like them in terms of of just the amount of consistency of success, the amount of AFC Championship games every year, like Tom does, and the amount of Super Bowls and all the time. Tom Brady's in the Super Bowl all the time. Mahomes in the Super Bowl. So I obviously see the debate and it's a debate, but I don't think you could put Mahomes over Brady for what he's done. And I think Brady going to Tampa really solidified a lot of stuff right there, man, to go to a new organization, win a Super Bowl in one year.

That's unheard of. And obviously, I think what Mahomes going to get with Andy Reid stuff, you have a great coach, too. It's with Belichick. Well, who is it? You know, who is it?

Who is it? I think Tom kind of answer those questions when he left New England. Mahomes might not have to answer those questions or might not be able to answer those questions because him and Andy Reid are so dang good together.

Why would they leave? So it's a great debate, but I don't think you could put Mahomes above Brady yet. Is it crazy to you with only two jobs left, Logan Ryan, that it looks like Belichick and Vrabel are going to be shut out of this hiring cycle?

Yeah, I'm really surprised by that. I know I know Belichick is one of the best coaches. I mean, he's I think he's the greatest coach of all time. I know he's one of the best coaches available. But, you know, I don't know if it has to do with what his staff would look like or what's his plans. Obviously, he's a defensive minded guy.

So what's his offensive plans look like? You know, who how much control and roster control and some of those things. I think that Vrabel and Belichick are both accustomed to having some want some control of the roster.

And I think that might be what this is about. I don't think it's about their coaching ability because those are two of the best coaches I played for. And I was fortunate to play for a lot of great coaches. Last thing I'll ask you. So you're on the cruise ship. You had other opportunities like you were saying.

And you ended up taking this one and joining the 49ers. Do you think Super Bowl 58 is going to be your final game as a pro? Oh, that's a good question. Great question, man. You know, we'll see. I don't know the emotions. It's going to be emotional either way. Right. So I don't want to make that decision.

The emotions. But it could be a chance there. There could be a chance. And going out on top is a way to dream it. If you could, skip the whole training camp, skip the whole beginning parts of the season, go on a cruise. And then, you know, show up after Thanksgiving when it really matters. I mean, there's no better way as a vet to write it off. So we'll see.

That'll be a good question for you to ask me after the game. Well, good luck. Always appreciate your time. Thanks so much for doing this. And we'll talk to you down the road. I really appreciate it.

Thanks so much. There he is. Logan Ryan joining us. Just what a story that is. He was a phenomenal player with New England. Had a bunch of other stops as well.

But to be on a cruise. And then you end up joining the 49ers and having a big role in the NFC title game. And now going to have a big role in the Super Bowl. Really a cool story. And just nothing but the best to his family.

That was such a cool video. After the game, seeing him, his wife and his kids just run around on the field. What a wild month, month and a half it's been.

A peanut butter M&M's production. In a world where Super Bowl winners get the world's admiration and a fancy ring. But the runners up get nothing. One retired cop returns. That's one retired quarterback. Read the script.

Oh, sorry. One retired quarterback returns to claim what's his. That's claim a ring with diamonds made from M&M's peanut butter.

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