Years later, Ryan still having a ball with Brady
The man who caught Tom Brady’s last pass as a Patriot won’t be at Gillette Stadium on Sunday, unable to make it for the halftime ceremony honoring Brady’s transcendent career in New England.
But maybe that’s OK, considering the man who caught Brady’s last pass as a Patriot wasn’t playing for New England at the time. Logan Ryan was a safety with the Tennessee Titans when he took Brady’s final Patriot throw into the end zone, a pick-6 that marked the final insult of Tennessee’s 20-13 wild-card playoff win, Jan. 4, 2020.
Yet rather than linger as something negative, the memorable moment between Ryan and Brady has come to mean so much more, as defining a play as Ryan made in his career, and so telling of Brady’s enduring connection to former teammates. As the 46-year-old Brady makes his emotional — and triumphant — return to New England for Sunday’s season opener against Philadelphia, a conversation this week with Ryan, which was prompted by the memory of that play, shed light on what has helped make Brady so special, both on and off the field.
For teammates turned foes turned teammates once more, that play, the ball from it, a Sharpie, and a social media post combined to cement their friendship with some fun and a good laugh.
First, its legacy.
“I think that play does define my career, because it probably would define anyone’s career, and I embrace that,” Ryan said from Florida, where he lives with his wife and two children, and where his status as a veteran free agent gives him the luxury of being picky about where, or even whether, he plays this season.
“I had a lot of friends on the other side in that game. At that time I really felt like I was playing my best ball of my career, our team was playing great ball, and Tom and New England were at the end of their era, an era I was part of. I was covering [Julian] Edelman, who I loved and hated to play against, had so much respect for. The game was personal for so many reasons — our coach [former Patriot Mike] Vrabel. It was cool to be on the receiving end of that, moving us on, a huge win for that Titans organization. And then sending Tom to Tampa, him making the decision at that point to make a change.
“It changed a lot in a lot of our lives.” Ryan’s professional football life started in the shadow of Brady’s established greatness. Brady was a three-time champ when Ryan broke in as a 2013 third-round draft pick for the Patriots, and their relationship, as Ryan reflected, began when he was just a kid with a dog. Over time, in those years before Ryan left to sign with the Titans, their relationship matured, Ryan starting his own family, winning two titles with Brady. Then, after a stop with the Giants, the two became teammates again last year, when Ryan’s one season with Tampa Bay coincided with Brady’s last in the NFL. By then, their children were volunteering together at a local animal shelter.
“I played with Tom in three different eras,” Ryan said. “I looked up to him, I played against him, and we ended up as leaders on the same team. It was cool to grow up in his eyes. I went from a friend as a young teammate to someone he respects and leans on as a peer and veteran together.”
Which brings us back to the ball. As last season was winding down, there were so many questions, not only about Brady’s future, but around a Buccaneers roster that was built to win and faced many other consequential changes. With that in mind, toward season’s end, Ryan dug out the pick-6 ball. Not usually prone to sentiment — more likely to give away mementos to friends and family — Ryan decided to ask Brady if he’d sign it. Using Brady confidant Alex Guerrero as the go-between, Ryan sneaked the ball into a small collection of items.
“I told Alex I wanted to bring some jerseys, a ball, and he said, ‘No problem,’ ” Ryan said. “I didn’t tell him it was that football. Put the score on it, waited to see what Tom would do. I wasn’t in the room when he did it, but he not only signed it, but played along with it, made an Instagram story about it. He sold it.
“He can laugh at himself, that personality really came out in Tampa. He can laugh on it now. I kind of tricked him, throwing it in with other footballs, ‘This one is for my dad, this one is for something else, this is your last pass, this one for my mom.’ I thought it was awesome. He sold it up, I sold it up.”
Brady’s tweet about it garnered more than 9 million views.
On the night it happened, the emotion inside Foxborough was so far from the celebration that will ensue this weekend, subdued as it was becoming increasingly clear Brady and the Patriots were headed for divorce.
After six Super Bowl titles together, after redefining an ideal coach-quarterback connection, the emotional wear and tear on both Brady and Bill Belichick was evident, and the unceremonious playoff exit left everyone somewhat hollow.
But over time, that changed, and it’s more joyfully remembered, linking two former teammates turned forever friends.