Brothers land on opposite sides of final
ATLANTA — Riley Ridley will not pick up the phone. Calvin Ridley refuses to make the first call.
Normally, the brothers speak every day, but the wide receivers — Alabama’s Calvin, and Georgia’s Riley — haven’t communicated since their respective semifinal wins last week, and won’t talk again until one is miserable, and one is ecstatic.
“We’re gonna wait until after the [national championship] game to talk,” Riley said Saturday. “It’s coming between what we got going on now … I don’t want to talk to him right now, and I don’t have to. “It’s a work week.” Separated by less than two years in age, Calvin and Riley grew up in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., first playing football as kids on the patio of their apartment building. At Monarch High School, together they led their team to the state playoffs for its first time ever.
Calvin was the deep threat. Riley was the possession receiver. Calvin was a five-star recruit. Riley was a four-star prospect. Calvin was older, and faster. Riley was younger, and bigger. Calvin was the better route-runner. Riley was the better trash-talker.
They worked in balance, and worked together for what they always wanted.
“This was always our dream,” Riley said. “We’ve always talked about these kinds of things, and to see them happen is crazy.”
In his third season at Alabama, Calvin has led the Crimson Tide in receiving each year, and already played in two national title games. The 6-foot-1 junior is ex- pected to be the first receiver selected in this year’s NFL draft.
The receivers could have played together in Tuscaloosa, but when Alabama defensive coordinator Kirby Smart became the head coach at Georgia, Calvin recommended considering the Bulldogs, partly so he wouldn’t be in his older brother’s shadow.
“That’s what he wanted to do from the get go,” Calvin said. “With Kirby going over there, I said you should check it out.”
Riley’s decision created this beautiful, and difficult, scenario for their mother, Kay Daniels, who raised them, and their two other younger brothers, on her own. She will likely be the only person in Mercedes-Benz Stadium wearing a split jersey, featuring both schools.