Jon Ryan soaks up Super Bowl experience
REGINA — The slavering media mob swarmed the players Tuesday as part of the preamble to Super Bowl XLVIII.
For the bottomless buffet that is Media Day, podiums were reserved for Peyton Manning, Russell Wilson, Richard Sherman et al.
Somewhat bemusedly, Regina-born Seattle Seahawks punter Jon Ryan also immersed himself in the fray.
“It was an absolute zoo,’’ Ryan told the Leader-Post on Tuesday afternoon while he was a passenger in a vehicle in the midst of New York’s Times Square, destined for an interview with Regis Philbin. “I thought I’d do two or three interviews and be done with it. I didn’t think I’d be a high-priority player, but I was there for an hour straight. I wasn’t on a podium, but I was on the side. The questions came one after another.”
The best one? Well, that was the worst one. One inquisitor asked Ryan what advice he had for troubled Canadian teen idol Justin Bieber.
“I just said he needs to start making better decisions,” said Ryan, 32, who is preparing for Sunday’s NFL championship game at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.
Many of the questions posed to Ryan pertained to his Canadian citizenship, the mechanics of punting, and the maintenance of the kicking leg.
To his relief, he did not face the gonzo question of the day. One enterprising journalist asked Denver Broncos defensive end Shaun Phillips if the 48th Super Bowl was a “mustwin game.’’
Due to time constraints — Ryan was being whisked from Media Day, held at the Prudential Centre in Newark, N.J., to the Manhattan studios of Fox Sports 1’s Crowd Goes Wild, starring Philbin — I did not have a chance to ask the “mustwin” question. Maybe next time.
Sure, the questions can be goofy, the pace can be frenetic, and the ordinary pre-game regimen can be disrupted.
But Ryan would not change a thing. After all, the eighth-year NFLer is a first-time participant in the spectacle that is the Super Bowl, so he plans to savour it all.
“I was sitting in the green room (before Media Day) and I saw a Super Bowl sign,” he said. “I thought, ‘Is this real?’ It’s almost too much at times. It could be once in a lifetime, or once in however many lifetimes. I’m trying to take it all in.”
That has been his approach since Sunday, when the Seahawks arrived in New York.
Today, however, the focus will change as the extraneous activities are reduced and the team zeros in on preparing for the Broncos and the Super Bowl.
“It has been crazy,” Ryan said. “There has been a lot going on the last two or three days. It has been almost surreal.
“I’m kind of looking forward to (today), when we get back to a normal schedule with practices and meetings. I knew there would be a lot of hoopla, but a lot of it is behind us now.”
The same could be said of Tuesday’s phone interview with a scribbler from the hometown. As Ryan discussed an anticipated return to normalcy, the vehicle arrived at the Fox Sports 1 studio. Your turn, Regis.