San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Ryans’ mom taught him success via sacrifice
He helped clean the family’s church with her.
He grew up, initially quiet and reserved, in Bessemer, Ala., with her.
And as DeMeco Ryans’ football life becomes bigger and bigger — Crimson Tide, Texans, Eagles, 49ers, Texans again — Martha Ryans is still near her son.
“I’m very proud of DeMeco. He’s become the man that he wanted to be. But I am proud of him to be the man that he is and being the Christian that he is,” Martha said minutes after
Ryans was introduced on Thursday at NRG Stadium as the sixth head coach in franchise history.
Former Texans greats Andre Johnson and Brian Cushing stood out in the second row of a packed auditorium on one of the best days on Kirby Drive in more than a decade.
Martha sat in the first row, listening to round after round of applause surround her youngest of four children.
“Very quiet. Very smart,” Martha said of Ryans as a child. “He was slow about talking when he was small, but he got to where if we would go to the grocery store, he knew what to pick up. He was just quiet.”
When Ryans stood between owner/CEO Cal McNair and general manager Nick Caserio, proudly holding up a familiar blue-and-red No. 59 jersey with COACH now listed on the back, that was really little ’Meco who will always be from Bessemer.
“Everywhere he’s been, he’s been a very successful young man that had his heart set on making Bessemer known,” Martha said. “As a young child, 7-8 years old, he said, ‘Mommy, if I ever make it, I’m going to put Bessemer on the map.’ And that’s what he did.”
When the new face of hope inside NRG kept mentioning positive energy and the inspiring power of hard work, that was really the baby boy of a mother who balanced three jobs at the same time while raising a family and sometimes walked to work so Ryans could drive to school.
“My mother taught me what hard work, what sacrifice looks like,” Ryans said. “My mother is, ‘We’re going to get it done no matter how hard it seems, no matter how far-fetched it may seem. We’re going to get it done.’”
The 38-year-old, first-time head coach with the security of a six-year contract declared on his first day that egos and “energy vampires” won’t be tolerated in the Texans’ new world.
Martha built that personal foundation, working with her hands and splitting time between a plastics plant, business offices and church.
“Thank you for being here today, mom,” said Ryans, who began his opening statement by turning the spotlight on his family.
Making automobile transmission parts: Martha did that.
Working at a nursing home:
Ryans’ mom also did that.
Her oldest son joined the Navy. Her daughter obtained a business degree.
Family and friends helped her take care of the younger children.
“His father would keep (Ryans) sometimes for me, and sometimes my neighbors would watch him for me when I had to work,” Martha said.
As her third child and Ryans grew older, she was able to keep them closer when daily work called.
“I cleaned up the church where we worshiped, and I would take them with me to help me clean up,” Martha said.
Ryans was asked question after question when he became a Texan again.
“J.J. Watt said the Texans got it right this time. What does that mean to you?”
“Will you call the defensive plays?”
“Why is this a dream job?” After all the answers, Martha had a question of her own.
Why didn’t they ask her son about religion?
God and family are what are truly important to 59 COACH, she insisted.
“He always has time for God,” Martha said. “When he calls me, we discuss different lessons that I’ve heard. And he says, ‘I heard that same lesson, mama. I listened to the same lesson.’”
The mother-son conversations are often on Tuesdays now. When the NFL season is rolling, that’s the quietest day of the week.
“If he’s at home playing, then he’ll call me on a Tuesday when he is off,” Martha said. “If he’s going out of town, when they get to the hotel — on the way to the hotel — he calls me. So I get to talk to him very often. But if I need something in between times, I text him and he’ll get back with me.”
A recent mother-son chat helped guide Ryans back to the team that drafted him.
Martha heard a commentator mention that Ryans becoming the next head coach for the rebuilding Texans made sense — before he was publicly linked to the Texans.
“I told him about it,” she said. “He didn’t even know that they were thinking about hiring him here. And he said, ‘Yeah, mama, that might be a good idea.’ It’s great. I am so happy.”
Her youngest son being named the new head coach of the Texans provides other benefits.
Bessemer has always been Martha’s home. But she loved Houston when Ryans was in red and blue from 2006-11.
“I wanted to move here, but nobody else in the family wanted to come,” Martha said with a laugh.
She worked three jobs to provide for her family.
She sacrificed for years and made sure that God was always in the middle of everything.
Now, her youngest son is a Texan again and leading everything.
When Ryans walks the sideline and inspires young men during wins and losses, Martha will watch the home games inside NRG Stadium in person.
And she will live the NFL life the right way.
“I’m going to fly,” Martha said. “I already told my family they better save their money because I’m flying. And they can drive. But that drive, I’ve gotten too old for that long drive.”