NFL veteran Logan Ryan was about to board a Disney Cruise over Thanksgiving when he was asked to make a shocking comeback to the league.
Logan Ryan had booked a Disney cruise for his family over Thanksgiving weekend, and while he knew this vacation would mean plenty of time with Mickey and Co. for his kids, he also wanted to relax.
That relaxation turned into business instead.
The two-time Super Bowl champion had not officially retired from the NFL at the time but he was enjoyng life outside of the league following a spell with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Prior to the cruise, 49ers general manager John Lynch called Ryan to see if he was interested in suiting up again to help fill a gap in the roster left by Talanoa Hufanga’s season-ending ACL injury. It was an opportunity he could not turn down.
Ryan and Lynch vowed to reconnect after the vacation, during which the NFL veteran swore off alcohol and studied 49ers video tape.
He signed a one-year contract on Dec. 5.
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“I was really at peace with what I’d done, and I wanted to just get stability for my family now,” Ryan told The Post. “I told a couple teams ‘no’ this year. But I have a lot of respect for how the 49ers play. I watched all their film while on the cruise, and I felt like I could fit into the defense. I told my wife, ‘It’s 68 days until the Super Bowl,’ and she was excited about it. There were only a few teams in the league I would do this for.”
“I appreciated it back then — those Patriots teams worked so hard — but what I really appreciate now is that my kids can enjoy and remember it,” Ryan said. “They don’t know anything about daddy and rings. They see the sacrifice, they see what hard work looks like, they see what chasing your dream looks like, they see what falling on your face looks like, but now they have these moments of being able to see true joy.”
Now the San Francisco 49ers safety is on the brink of saying, “I’m going to Disney World,” as a Super Bowl champion.