Inside the fire that keeps driving ‘Matty Ice’

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The question arrived early during Matt Ryan’s introductory press conference in Indianapolis: Can a veteran quarterback moving to a new home for the first time in their career conquer the National Football League for a third consecutive season? 

“It looks pretty good, the roadmap looks really good,” Ryan said confidently. “What Matthew Stafford did in Los Angeles last year, making that transition, playing so well and what Tom (Brady) did, I saw that firsthand in the division the year before. Hopefully, we bottle up some of that momentum, and we can make a push here. I really believe we can.” 

Stafford, who is one of Ryan’s closest friends, and Brady, who serves as a mentor from afar, benefited from the Buccaneers and Rams organizations placing heavy bets on the short-term to give aging, or in Brady’s case, ageless, gunslingers a chance at hoisting a Lombardi Trophy. In both cases, it worked. 

In January, Indianapolis Colts Owner & CEO Jim Irsay declared an “all chips in” approach throughout his organization for the upcoming 2022 season. Those words were taken out of context in some cases. Originally, they were intended to push a message of commitment and dedication to winning as opposed to an aggressive spending spree in free agency.  

This week Ryan settles into Indianapolis for the start of the team’s offseason program, and Colts General Manager Chris Ballard has shored up a list of major roster concerns through trades and free agency acquisitions. Prying Ryan from Atlanta was a lucky break for a franchise marred by bad bounces at the quarterback spot during Ballard’s tenure. 

Still, with the 2022 NFL Draft less than two weeks away, the Colts need to add playmakers at wide receiver and tight end for Ryan to vie for supremacy inside the loaded AFC.  

Behind the scenes the 2016 NFL Most Valuable Player, who turns 37 next month, is already fast at work.  

There is a new locker room to connect with, an offensive system to learn, and most importantly a story to finish. 

This story is filled with tests of toughness that date back to Ryan’s childhood. Examples, on and off the field, that quietly support this notion: Matt Ryan’s toughness is supremely underrated.   

Ryan never flaunts this fact, but those who know him best recently opened up about the Colts’ new quarterback and his infectious will to keep moving forward. Because, above everything, this is exactly what this franchise needs.

The day “Matty Ice” froze Death Valley

Holy lord, Matt Ryan took a shot.  

There was Boston College’s new starting quarterback laying on his side, right elbow leaning into Clemson’s Memorial Stadium grass, gasping for an ounce of air.  

Back home in Exton, Pa., Bernie Ryan ran out of the family’s living room.  

A lifelong Philadelphian, and competitive as all get out, Bernie couldn’t bear to watch what may have just happened to her son.

Broken ribs? A cracked sternum? Surely this hit would sideline the Eagles’ lanky 6-foot-5-inch sophomore indefinitely.  

Boston College Head Coach Tom O’Brien stood stoically on the sideline as the Tigers’ sellout home crowd let out a collective gasp while watching the replay. 

In late September of 2005, as Boston College migrated to the talented Atlantic Coast Conference for the first time, O’Brien and Eagles quarterbacks coach Dana Bible believed Ryan was made of the right stuff. 

Together, O’Brien and Bible developed a stable of quarterbacks during stops at Boston College and North Carolina State including Matt and Tim Hasselbeck, Paul Peterson and Russell Wilson.  

A former defensive end at Navy, O’Brien saw his fair share of gnarly hits over four-plus decades inside the game. But the one Ryan just took while throwing on the run, straight to the sternum from 225-pound Clemson linebacker David Dunham at full speed? Just nasty. 

Watch for yourself at the 01:04:29 mark of the old television broadcast. 

The commentator on the television broadcast couldn’t help himself, blurting out this cringe-worthy line during the replay, “Buddy, I don’t care if you are Evander Holyfield, you can’t survive that one.” 

On the sideline, O’Brien realized there were no penalty flags thrown on the play and received an unforgettable explanation from the ACC officiating crew.  

“I had this conversation with the official, and I talked about that being spearing,” O’Brien said. “He said, ‘No, we call that tackling in the south.’ (laughs). That was when we first joined the (ACC) league. It was like, ‘You northern boys don’t know what it is like to play football in the south.’ I go, ‘Holy crap.’” 

Then came the most stunning moment of the next decade of Ryan’s football career: He got up and kept playing. 

“Nobody knows how he got up,” O’Brien said. “He sat out one play. Then came back (in the game).” 

Ryan and Boston College won 16-13 in overtime on Brian Toal’s 1-yard touchdown run, giving the Eagles their first ACC victory in program history. 

O’Brien’s team was 3-1 on the season and the “Matty Ice” nickname that quietly followed Ryan from his high school days at Williams Penn Charter started to receive nods in the locker room. 

The Eagles ripped off three consecutive wins and quickly were ranked No. 13 in the country ahead of a Thursday night primetime showdown at No. 3 Virginia Tech. Hokies Quarterback Marcus Vick, the younger brother of Atlanta Falcons star Michael Vick, demolished O’Brien’s team 30-10. 

Ryan was injured during the blowout loss, and O’Brien marched into the locker room postgame looking for an update on his sophomore quarterback.  

“He was on the (training) table with our Orthopedic Surgeon Dr. Dianne English and his father Mike, and Dianne said, ‘I think the foot is broken, and we have two choices, we can fix it, or you can try to play with it.’ Matt instantly hopped off the table and said, ‘I’ll play.’ I looked at his dad and his dad just laughed. That is Matt.” 

Ryan practiced one day each week for the final four weeks of the regular season and played the rest of the way as the Eagles (9-3) finished ranked No. 18 in the country following their bowl victory over Boise State.  

“He wore a boot all week and then we basically put him in a cast, and he played through it,” O’Brien said. “He might be one of the most physically-tough players we (Boston College) ever had, or I have ever had.”

A reason to win

Matt Ryan’s toughest games growing up came against his cousins.

Each side of Ryan’s extended family is nearly a mirror image of one another: Irish-Catholic and competitive as all get out.

Ryan’s maternal grandfather, Sam Loughery, served in the Navy and although he didn’t play sports, he made sure his only son knew how to carry himself on the field.

The foundation passed down by Loughery to John Loughery, and his five sisters is simple: Be humble, support your family, and understand there is always a right and wrong way to act.

Loughery never played a football game where his father was absent from the stands. The stories of his quarterbacking career at Boston College, which concluded by handing the baton to an upstart named Doug Flutie in 1982, are still family treasures.

One generation later, Loughery watched his immediate family and extended Loughery crew break bread back at the epicenter of family fun: The Jersey Shore.

Wildwood, New Jersey is a quick escape from the summer heat for Philadelphians, and today the fourth generation of Lougherys still gather on the beach. It takes about one afternoon of peace and quiet for the competitive juices to start flowing.

“We are an Irish-Catholic family and we have a lot of Holy Communions,” Loughery said. “Every house has a hoop in the driveway, and typically the party ends up with the guys on the driveway. Scrapes, bruises, and when someone wins, they carry that on their chest to the next Holy Communion Day.”

It was around 8th or 9th grade when Loughery realized his sister Bernie’s son, Matt Ryan, absolutely hated to lose. At the time, Loughery coached Ryan’s youth football team and describes him as a tall mixture of athletic and awkward on the field. 

“Whether we were playing monopoly in the beach house with the whole family or we were down at the (Wildwood) basketball court, he was fiercely competitive and pretty good at an early age,” Loughery said. “I knew the competitiveness was there because he would question things of his coaches or his elders, and he was right most of the time, which pissed me off.” 

“A leader is willing to speak up and get teammates to follow. He did that.”  

Years later, another confident cousin from the Loughery clan would dwarf Matt Ryan. Standing at 6-foot-8-inches, and weighing 310 pounds, Michael McGlinchey currently suits up on Sundays with the San Francisco 49ers offensive line. Nine years younger than Ryan, McGlinchey is the son of Ryan’s mom’s youngest sister, and his prep career at William Penn Charter led to a standout collegiate career at the University of Notre Dame.  

Up until this season, the Loughery family game day ritual involved wearing Falcons jerseys for the early kickoff and switching over to 49ers gear in time for the west coast games. 

Imagine your cousins trying to beat this family in whiffle ball on the beach back in the day? They didn’t lose many games.  

Setting an example early for Matt Ryan was his older brother Michael. A standout athlete who wasn’t gifted the height of his younger brother, Michael went on to play quarterback at NCAA Division-III Widener College, which is located southwest of Philadelphia on the banks of Delaware River. 

While home on a college break, Michael and Matt, still in high school, left the family’s house for a Saturday afternoon round of golf. The drive to nearby Kimberton Golf Course changed both of their lives forever.  

In the blink of an eye, Matt Ryan found himself bloodied, and his ankle broken. For Michael, it was much worse, as their car had collided with a military convoy driving in the opposite direction at the time of the accident.  

Once Matt Ryan escaped the wreck, he climbed into the vehicle to get his older brother out. Michael was medically evacuated to a local hospital and suffered a fractured skull, multiple broken bones, and serious damage to his arm. The injuries from the accident ended Michael’s football career. 

“It was very traumatic for our family at the time,” Loughery said. “It was an awful accident. And Matt, I think he used that as motivation. He has never told me this, but I sense that he plays for his brother a lot, because he was a heck of an athlete too.” 

“I think Matt plays maybe through his brother at times. I would guess that is some of the fortitude that made him crawl back into the huddle during the Clemson game. I don’t think he has ever forgotten that (accident). I don’t know how you can. They are very close. That is there and it will always be there.”  

Today Michael remains Matt’s biggest supporter. The pair of brothers married a pair of sisters, and their growing families spend summer vacations together in addition to plenty of NFL gamedays.

23 seasons, three teams

A product of William Penn Charter, a Quaker college preparatory school just outside of Philadelphia with a high school enrollment of 425 students, Ryan operated a triple-option offense for Quakers Head Coach Brian McCloskey before arriving at Boston College.

Despite Ryan showing accuracy and downfield passing ability, McCloskey’s best chance to win games with a small roster was simple: Run the ball. 

“Since high school, it has never been about him,” McCloskey said. “Here is a kid with that much talent, you would think at some point during high school he would come to his coach and say, ‘Can we throw the ball a little more?’ Never. Never a word.” 

Ryan stayed the course at Penn Charter, commuting over 40 minutes each way to and from school, regularly organizing extra workouts despite teammates trekking from all over the Philadelphia and New Jersey area. 

As McCloskey explained, Penn Charter welcomes a diverse student body ranging from families with very, very wealthy backgrounds to blue-collar, and intercity families. Looking back, Ryan ultimately was just “one of the guys.” 

Yes, Ryan’s competitive nature was obvious, but the extra attention and special treatment that a typical star high school player garners was nonexistent. McCloskey started him at quarterback for three seasons, with Ryan at one point serving as captain of the Quakers football, basketball, and baseball teams.  

“He could have transferred to a school right downtown, a bigger public school, and probably would have received more notoriety,” McCloskey said. “Probably would have been recruited more throughout the country, but that isn’t what he is about.” 

Ryan emerged as one of the top quarterbacks in the Philadelphia area, earning All-City first-team recognition as a senior, and scholarship interest as far west, coincidently, as Purdue University.  

Boston College was a natural fit, with Ryan following in the footsteps of his uncle.

Ryan’s playing days at William Penn Charter (Provided Photo/William Penn Charter School)

Ryan’s first memorable performance at Boston College? Answering the bell as a redshirt freshman in a free throw shooting contest against rival Notre Dame.  

“When we would play in South Bend, Ind., our men’s hockey team goes out, they play Friday night against Notre Dame and then we play on Saturday,” former Boston College Football Coach Tom O’Brien said. “On Friday night, they wanted to have a free throw shooting contest in the auxiliary basketball gym between the football teams, and we had to pick a representative. So here is this redshirt freshman named ‘Ryan’, and he is going to shoot for us. That is where the legend of ‘Matty Ice’ started at Boston College because he nailed them all (laughs).” 

“The crowd, his teammates, the hockey guys, they were all egging him on. It was pressure-packed.” 

Over the next four seasons, Ryan’s name became synonymous with grit and clutch play around the program. 

A 3,000+ yard season and another win over Clemson as a junior set up Ryan for what still stands as the best individual season in Boston College football history. As a senior, behind a school-record 4,507 passing yards and 31 touchdown passes, Ryan became the first Eagle to win the ACC’s Player of the Year Award, as the team met Clemson in Death Valley for an ACC Atlantic Division winner-take-all showdown.  

Trailing 17-13 with 1:43 left in the game, Ryan rolled to his right and unleashed a 43-yard bomb deep down the left sideline to Eagles Wide Receiver Rich Gunnell. Touchdown.  

The kid who was speared to the bottom of the earth as a sophomore just beat the Tigers for the third time in three seasons to claim the ACC Atlantic crown. 

“He’s been like that ever since he was a sophomore, he’s always been cool and collected,” Gunnell told ESPN following the win. “It shows in the fourth quarter.” 

Florida’s Tim Tebow won the 2007 Heisman Trophy, but in April at the 2008 NFL Draft, Boston College’s Matt Ryan was the first quarterback off the board. It was off to Atlanta to lift a franchise marred in controversy following franchise quarterback Mike Vick’s dogfighting conviction, and Ryan, quietly, was ready to lead.  

Little did the No. 3 overall pick know, he was about to rewrite Atlanta’s record books and spend 14 seasons as the Falcons’ uncontested franchise quarterback. A football career from high school through the pros appeared destined for an incredibly rare three-stop journey. But, in late March of this year, the fire that drives ‘Matty Ice’ reignited, and a transition that just 12 months ago would have sounded preposterous was happening.

The fourth and final stop: Indianapolis

The decision to leave Atlanta was an incredibly tough one for the Ryan family. Team owner Arthur Blank was family. The city, which the Ryan’s poured their hearts into from start to finish, was home.  

Sarah Ryan, a former captain of the Boston College Women’s Basketball team, shares a competitive drive with her husband. Together, they decided this abrupt move was worth one final shot at winning big.  

The pair were friends at Boston College before they dated, as Matt eventually showed his hand by becoming a regular spectator at Eagles basketball games. 

The pair married in the spring of 2011 following Ryan’s fourth season in Atlanta, and welcomed twin boys, Marshall and Johnny, in 2018.  

During that time, Sarah publicly shared the frightening final stage of her pregnancy, which required six weeks of bed rest ahead of delivery. Each boy ultimately needed over one-month at a newborn intensive care unit before being able to come home.  

During Ryan’s introduction in Indianapolis this past month, Marshall and Johnny stole the show.  

In 2022, Ryan’s uniform now includes a shade of blue for the first time since his high school days at Penn Charter, once again with a chance to lead a team ready to win.  

Since the 2016 season, Ryan’s MVP year which sparked Atlanta to its first Super Bowl appearance in 18 years, the Falcons compiled just one playoff victory, missing the postseason altogether the past four seasons. 

In 2016 there simply was no bottling up Ryan’s passing attack under Falcons Offensive Coordinator Kyle Shanahan, Quarterbacks Coach Matt LaFleur, and Offensive Assistant Mike McDaniel. 

Recognize those three names? Today they are all NFL head coaches, and in Shanahan (San Francisco) and LaFleur’s (Green Bay) case, two of the most highly respected offensive minds in football. 

Ryan’s 2016 Falcons offense scored the most points (33.8) per game in the NFL, his passer rating (117.1) was nearly five points higher than the next closest quarterback, throwing for the most yards (4,944) and fewest interceptions (7) of his career. Week 4 against Carolina spurred Atlanta’s run to the NFC South Division Title, as Ryan threw for a franchise-best 503 yards, 300 of which went to star wide receiver Julio Jones. 

Atlanta finished the regular season 11-5 and promptly disposed of Russell Wilson and Seattle with a 36-20 win. The following week a 44-21 blowout of Aaron Rodgers and Green Bay punched their ticket to Super Bowl LI in Houston.

This is likely the part of this story where you know what happens next.

Leading 28-3 midway through the third quarter, New England rallies to stage the largest comeback in Super Bowl history, scoring 31 unanswered points for a 34-31 overtime victory over the shellshocked Falcons. One defensive stop or offensive scoring drive would have made it virtually impossible for the Patriots to force overtime.

Instead, after winning the coin toss in overtime, running back James White’s two-yard touchdown run won the Super Bowl for New England.

For the fifth time in the Bill Belichick – Tom Brady era, the Patriots hoisted the Lombardi Trophy, as Ryan and the Falcons retreated to their locker room at NRG Stadium. To this day, the second half of Super Bowl LI is not spoken about amongst Ryan’s family members. Period.

Head Coach Dan Quinn lasted three more seasons, before being fired during the 2020 campaign when Atlanta tied the low water mark of the Ryan era with a 4-12 record.

This past season behind first-year head coach Arthur Smith Atlanta finished 7-11 with an offense ranked 29th out of 32 teams in total yards. Ryan was knocked down a league-high 85 times, 13 more than any other quarterback. This comes after being sacked a career-high 48 times during the 2022 season.

Through it all, Ryan didn’t miss a game, and owns a career mark of 222 out of 225 possible starts since entering the league in 2008.

As he officially convenes with his Colts teammates for the first time at offseason workouts, Ryan’s vision isn’t much different than the one he laid out to his old high school teammates.

“Whatever I need to do to help the guys achieve whatever the goals are of the team,” Ryan said. “For me, that’s winning a championship and trying to do everything I can during my time left to go find a way to get that done.”