Jon Ryan fulfils a lifelong dream

Jon Ryan’s childhood dream has come true.

The CFL’s Saskatchewan Roughriders officially announced Tuesday that they had signed Ryan, a 37-year-old Regina product who grew up cheering for the team and who hoped someday to play for the squad. The news of the punter’s signing initially broke Monday evening.

“Growing up in Regina, as a seven-year-old, I wasn’t dreaming of playing in the NFL or going to the Super Bowl, I was dreaming of playing for the Riders,” Ryan said during a media conference at Mosaic Stadium. “Even though my career kind of went in a different direction than that dream when I was seven, I never really forgot about that dream – and it’s coming true today.”

He said he always was a fan of the Roughriders, but the fact that the 1989 Grey Cup game — in which Saskatchewan defeated the Hamilton Tiger-Cats 43-40 — was played on his eighth birthday.

“I was a Rider fan from the day I was born,” Ryan said, “but that (game) was really kind of what took it to the next level.”

🗣 “It was never my dream to play in the NFL. It was always my dream to play for the #Riders.”#UniteInGreen | #CFL pic.twitter.com/8u5C6iMCxx

— Saskatchewan Roughriders (@sskroughriders) May 14, 2019

Ryan played high school football with the Sheldon-Williams Spartans before moving on to the University of Regina Rams. He was selected by the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the third round (24th overall) of the 2004 CFL draft.

After two seasons with the Bombers, Ryan signed as a free agent with the NFL’s Green Bay Packers. He was released by the Packers in September of 2008 and signed with the Seattle Seahawks, with whom he spent 10 seasons.

Ryan became the first Saskatchewan-born player to win a Super Bowl when the Seahawks claimed the NFL title in 2014. Seattle released him prior to the 2018 season and he signed with the Buffalo Bills, but didn’t stick with them.

In 191 career regular-season games in the NFL, Ryan punted 914 times for 40,985 yards for an average of 44.7 yards.

He admitted Tuesday that he watched NFL games last season hoping that other punters would struggle, which perhaps would open doors for him to get back into that league.

“It was just a terrible way to have to watch football (and) I didn’t like it,” Ryan said. “Now I’m happy to be here.”

About a month and a half ago, Ryan decided that the NFL was not in his future anymore and he decided to return to the CFL. His reasoning was simple.

“At the end of the day, it was just time to come home,” said Ryan, who had tryouts with a couple of CFL teams before signing with Saskatchewan. “I’m happy to be here. There were some other options, but in my head, this was really the only one I wanted to do.”

Despite heading south of the border, Ryan has always been a Saskatchewan kid. He was wearing a Humboldt Strong T-shirt at his introductory media conference.

Ryan had a large contingent of family members on hand for the media conference and the news of his signing drew a lot of interest on social media. That wasn’t anything new for Ryan.

“It’s pretty special, honestly, just coming home,” he said. “I got to play in Seattle for the last 10 years and the way those people treated me — treated a pale-skinned, freckle-faced, redheaded kid from Canada with a speech impediment — they made me feel like a superhero, an all-star. They just embraced me.

“I’ve been very spoiled in my career with the fans. I got to play in front of the 12s (the nickname for Seattle fans) for a decade and now I get to play in front of the 13s (the Roughriders’ supporters), so I’m pretty pumped.”

Ryan said his deal is only for a season, but Roughriders fans should get used to seeing his face around the stadium for a while.

“It’s not a one-and-done situation,” he said. “I think a lot of people think that I’m just coming back here to end my career. I would like to end my career with the Riders someday. I’m not here for a year, I’m here for hopefully many years and many Grey Cups.”

The Roughriders also confirmed they had released punter Josh Bartel, who spent four seasons with the team.