20. Logan + Ashley Ryan - Mom behind the Man

things can change in the NFL. Never did I expect to see that coming or expect to see me playing for the Bucks this season, but that's just kind of how it shakes out. And was trying to make the best the situation that was put in, and that's football talk. That's what this podcast is about. But it's also about my journey and our journey of NFL players to show that we're more than just football players. And what makes this world go around is all the beautiful mother's out there.

And I have a special guest to guests that I know really well, and I better say it's my favorite guest, but my wife, Ashley Ryan is joining us today and she's gonna spend a couple of minutes with us, and we're gonna talk about what it's like to be married to me and when I'm like off the field and some of my quirks and not the well put together a professional that you guys might hear see all the time kind of with the real and cut wrong me is, So,

what's going on up? Yeah, there's there's a lot about logan you may not know, but we make it work and we're I'm happy to share. So me and you, we we met at Rutgers University. Ashley played short stop for the softball team. Can we hear a little bit about you know, your you were a highly talented player at Rutgers, I will say that. And you were a lot bigger deal than me at Rutgers when we first got there. So let's talk a little bit about your your softball journey and how you ended up getting the

Rutgers and how we are a world aligned. Yeah, for you to say a softball player is a big deal is pretty cool. You know you don't hear it often. Um, I didn't hear it often at Rutgers, but nonetheless, so yeah, I mean I played softball my whole life from the time I could, the same story as you. The time I could was old enough to pick up a ball, I did, and that was the sport I chose. My dad played baseball. I never really had a huge interest in other sports. That I was just what I always

wanted to do. Knew it early on, so played my whole life. I played baseball with the boys until they petitioned the league and told me I wasn't allowed to anymore, and switched over to softball. I think I think I was pretty good. How do you feel about that? How do you feel about when you're a girl and you're playing baseball with the boys and then they put a petition in the league to essentially kick you out of the league? Probably could you're kick in the boys? But

how does that make you feel? What do you think? Yeah, I mean nowadays you would never get away with that. It was something back in the day that maybe it wasn't a big deal. I don't really see. I don't think I was dominating. I was I'm still small. I was small. I was holding my own but I think it made me a lot better, and I enjoyed playing with the boys. But yeah, I don't I don't think you could get away with it. Now, I don't know why it happened. Back then, I was super upset at

the time. I remember crying to my parents, Um, this is kind of silly, but I didn't want to play softball because I saw how the pictures through and I thought that everybody had a throw like that underhand, underhand, So that was that was my idea of softball back then. So I fought it for as long as I could,

but I end up switching over. Um, I think baseball really prepared me to be one of the better softball players, and I stuck with it, played through high school, won a state championship, and then ended up, you know, on a on a pretty good travel team and committing to Rutgers my junior year in high school. Okay, so you you come from the dominant state of Delaware, which I which I joke on a lot, I'm from New Jersey. Sports are a lot better in Jersey than they are

in Delaware. Shout out Chris Godwin, shout out there on Harmon my boys, Shout out Della Don Darnell Savage. So you and Darnell Savas went to the same high school. We did not at the same time. But yeah, shout out. So you guys, Chris Godwin, you may not listen to this. You may be a guest probably in the future. Not you're my teammates. We should get them on here on your podcast. That's something. But you guys, are you guys are putting some respect on Delaware. I have been joke

on it for a lot of years. So let's just say we met at the age of one. It might have been twenty. Let's just say twenty one. Let's just say we were at a party and I might have snuck a cheap vodka into a expensive Great Goose bottle to try to do the best I can on my college budget. And we met at a party, we met in class that we met at a already. We ended up hitting it off um and been together ever since.

And that's ten years ago, right, ten years And then you know, I'm a red shirt junior and I decided I'm gonna go play pro football, and we're dating, and we had a decision to be made when I got drafted in New England Patriots, And it's kind of a decision of hey, we've been dating for a year or two, I'm going pro. Are you coming with me, are you not? I know you were a criminal justice major, So what were your plans in college? Yeah? You know, so I

did major in criminal justice and psychology. As many athletes feel, I didn't really know where I wanted to go with any of that. I had an interest in it, but I wasn't sure. But my plans pre logan were to go back to Delaware and my home state, and I was going to coach. I was gonna do some stuff with my high school. I had an outline of a plan. Nothing major, um, but I had a good little setup.

I had plans with the local software organization, and then you came into the picture and turned my my plans upside down. I throw a little wrench in it. I throw a little wrench in it, and we couldn't backtrack. When me and actually met, I was on the bench.

I might have talked about this many times in this podcast, but true story, I literally was like the sixth string corner on the bench and we started dating, and I wanted to transfer, and I actually stayed for the spring because of me dating actually meeting her and want to see where that went, and to say, you know, let me just stick to it. I'm not a quitter, and let me just see if I can make this work.

And we had a coach named Jeff Hapley who's the head coach at Boston College now come from pitt and he recently coached Derrell Reevers and that right there, you know, his coaching of Derrell Reeves and seeing what type of player Dearrell Revers was one of my favorite corners at the time. But this guy spoke so much positivity and confidence in me that I just didn't have. And I feel like I always had the work ethic and the drive, but I just didn't have the confidence at the time.

You really need that to play defensive back at a college level, at the NFL level, and him come and really changed my career. And I went from being on the bench talking to the shortstop on a full ride on the softball team to you know, declared for the

NFL Draft in a year or two. So it's a really a quick turnaround with Jeff Hafley gets a lot of credit, actually gets a ton of credit, a lot of tough nights talking to her figure out about this football journey, end up getting draft in New England Patriots in the third round. Actually makes a decision to come move up with your boy, and we ended up going to New England. And I know there was a tough time at first for you. It was very it was

two different stories, are two different chapters. I would think at that point. I think a lot of people don't understand, you know, the NFL journey. It's not all rainbows and unicorns, as we know about life, but so talk about you know, the two different chapters that we were on maybe trajectories or whatever that may be. Yeah, So we moved up to New England. It was it was exciting. I mean, it's a huge moment for the logan. Um. You know, I was on board. I was ready to, you know,

do what it took. I was gonna make my own way up there and figure it out. But what I didn't realize it was how tough the post athlete transition would be. Um. And I think that softball was my life for a really long time, and it's it was a lot of who I was, and I wasn't so sure who I was without it. So moving up there

and I'm watching you live your dream. You get to continue playing your sport, you get to potentially make millions playing your sport, and I was supportive and I was a little at the same time envious, like I wish I could do that, and I'm going to be here and support you through it. But I had to figure out what the heck I'm gonna do next. So I

dabbled in some things. I did some personal training. I settled in coaching and doing private lessons up there, and I really loved and enjoy did that, but it wasn't it, you know, it wasn't the It just didn't fulfill everything that I needed to fulfill at the time. So yeah, we were on really different paths, and eventually I was like, you know what I got I have to figure this out. And I ended up taking a job at Problems Animal Rescue League, and I didn't tell them who Logan was.

I didn't want to be Logan Ryan's girlfriend, no friends. I loved being Logan Ryan's girlfriend, but I didn't want that to define who I was. So I took that job. Nobody there really knew who you were an animal shelter. An animal shelter, yeah, what our life was like outside of that. So I was cleaning kennels and changing letter boxes and doing really the dirty work. To grunt work at the shelter, and what was your income? Oh, I mean, I want to say, like twelve to fifteen bucks an hour,

Like it was minimal, very minimal. And that's animal welfare. It's still the case that you don't make much in this field, but you do it because you love it. And I think I can hear and the viewer might not know this, but it's that's why I love you so much. As you said something how you refused to be just Logan Ryan's girlfriend and you took a job at an animal shelter at starting salary, not telling anybody who you were. Why that independence? Why the where does

that come from? Where you don't want to be defined as just my girlfriend? You know, I just always I wanted to make my own way, and I appreciated what you did and I was super proud of what you did and who you were. Um, but you know, actually is cool too, Actually works hard to you know, I have my own thing and I wanted it to stay that way, and that's something I want. I'm still in our kids and and anybody I'm around just that. Like you know, you are great as well. You can do

your own thing, You can make your own way. I don't need to rely on Logan being the superstar athletes still too, you know, carve my own path. So that's that's kind of what I was trying to do. And I don't know, it's just something that's been always been really important to me to know that I can rely on myself and have a supportive partner and have this relationship at the same time. But it wasn't everything. I paid the rent, but you paid all your own bills.

I know, we had separate, separate cell phone bills, separate that separate that car. I mean, she wouldn't take nothing from me, Honestly, she literally was going to pay our own way. We were like two individuals living together like roommates. We look and we were also not engaged. We're also not married. It was still you know, we've been together for a couple of years at the time, but we

still weren't exactly sure where. You know, we thought, we hey, we want to be together, we want to stay together, but we didn't know what our future was like. And with this huge change, I didn't want to be so stuck relying on your income and your career and who you are in my own life. That say, we decided to go separate paths. I had to be able to

make it on my own too. Now, did you feel like you, as a college athlete or a person who's very into pendant, doesn't want to live off of my name, doesn't want to tell people who we even date, kind of want to go onto the radar and just kind of go about life and and find your own path and your own reason. Did you find that tough getting into the world of NFL wives, the hierarchy of some

veterans and their wives. Tell me how that made you feel as a rookie girlfriend coming into the New England Patriots, the top of the top, um, you know, the NFL wide hierarchy, how that goes? Yeah, I can't lie. I had a hard time with it. Um. I think there was so much expectation from I don't know where it was from. You know. I think people hear NFL girlfriend, NFL wife, wag, all these titles, whatever you wanna call it, and expecting me to look and act a certain way,

and I did not look or act that way. You know, the stereotypes. I don't really believe in them, and I don't think I think some people love to do those things, but I didn't. And you know, if you want to dress in those and we're makeup and you know, care about these certain things, that's great and some people love it and and that's who they are, but it wasn't who I am, and it kind of felt like maybe that I didn't belong. So you come in, you don't really I feel like you fit in. You're in a

truly a slow moving place. Not slow moving, but I'm not a lot going on in Foxborough, mass a lot of grace. Guys. It's pretty gloomy, working at an animal slter, working at it, working on an animal shelter, chearing your boyfriends, starting on the New England Patriots on Sunday, that no one even knows you know who you did. So I kind of felt it was a very isolating time for you. Yeah, it was a transition. I just didn't know, you know.

I was going through my own transition of trying to figure out who I was, what I wanted to do, what our relationship was, where that was going, and you throw the NFL on top of that, and looking back on it, I think it was a little bit unfounded. I don't think I needed to feel those expectations so much, and all of those women from New England, I'm still friends with so many of them, people who were very much like me and people who are complete opposite of me.

So I think a lot of that expectation came from myself, and then I thought I had to be something, but that really probably wasn't the case. And I think that my first you know, two three years in the as an NFL girlfriend wife, would have been much easier if I just released that expectation and just would have been me. Yeah, you know, as we get into the next story here that we're gonna tell, and we fast forward, I'm a New York Johan and I signed up miss off training camp.

I signed a week of the season, and it wasn't playned. I wasn't trying to skip training camp or anything. He literally just they had a young safety's Aver McKinney, who was a stud end up breaking his foot during training camp and they needed another player, and Joe Judge brought me in and U and brought me into lead and brought me into show these guys what I can do. And I really had a good time in that role.

I really enjoyed that leadership position. I really enjoyed the young guys, and I think our world shifted upside down. It's Monday Night football. We're playing Tom Brady, my old friend from the Patriots. I intercepted him for Tennessee and beat the Patriots. He ends up going to Tampa. He's in Tampa. I'm in the Giants, and everything's completely different from our lass encounter. And I'm playing him on Monday Night Football and I'm part of the game planning. I'm

trying to run everything to make his life difficult. Um from everything I learned in practice, everything he taught me, I'm trying to use against him to the best of my ability. And it's a really tight game. It's a really close game. We have a very important vote in our country at that time, right and during COVID we hadn't moved to Florida because we knew we weren't coming back to Tennessee, and we bought this dream house in Florida in Tampa, and we really wanted to say, hey,

we're a tight unit. It's very tough leaven Nashville at the time. I don't know if I want to live here if not a tighten I'm really recognizable in the city. I get a lot of love, but it kind of hurts not playing here. Let's go somewhere fresh, Let's go somewhere together us. We picked Tampa, Florida. Plan was something unrelated, unrelated to football, which makes us a little ironic. Now wherever where I'm going to retire one day and and

live life after football, warm sunshine, tax free beaches. There's no beaches in Tennessee and close to Disney World. We're big Disney people, So that was all in it. Um so as she's down in Florida to go vote. And while I was important for you to go to Florida and vote, it, honestly, I wanted to vote in Florida. I know Florida was somewhat of a swing state at the time, and um, the election was really important to me, and I wanted to go vote in person and make

my vote count to the best of my ability. So I wanted to be there. I wanted to do it, and I wanted to check on our house and maybe get a little warm weather in the process. Right, So this is right around Halloween. I believe you're in Florida with your sister. You're going down at the check on our house to go vote. I'm gonna go play this game this Monday night football against Tom Brady. Our kids are down with my parents down in soft chairs. He's good.

Benefit of playing for the Jags. My parents are. I grew up an hour fifteen minutes from the stadium. She always, she always does this thing where I like, don't even he underestimated. Yeah, so it's not fifty minutes our She'll say, our thirties hour fifteen minutes. Um, So we're good. Our kids are here, she's there, I'm there. My parents gonna bring the kids to me. The day after the game. I'm gonna watch him, so she gets back cool. We're all good. So we remember we like trick or treated

all that. We go do our thing at the house because it was good, Yes, in house tricker treating, and I remember it's the it's the late night game. Tom Brady does the seam ball. I'm in cover three on the post SFET. I have a big hit with Tyler Johnson, I believe, and bam, I hit him. He hits me right down the scene and it's a tough spot for a city because I don't want to hit him in his head. Because that's appenalty. I don't want to cut his knees out because I'm just not that type of guy.

So I hit him right in his trunk, in his midsection where all his weight is, and I took the brunt of the hit. Honestly, I think I I got a knee to my thigh. I had the worst ive bruise. I went to the I went to the tent. They checked me for a concussion. I didn't have a concussion. I come back in the game. I'm literally playing on one leg. A couple of players on out. They score a touchdown. Mike Evans catches a touchdown and win the game on that play. We played him really well, we

played him really tight um, but we lost. I go back. I'm in the training room. It's again, it's probably midnight by the time the game gets done. I'm in the training room, and that's when I get a call from you. Yeah. So I was home. I think this was the day before I was going to vote UM, laying in bed and I had felt stomach pain. It felt like crampy at first, and it would come and go, and I wasn't I didn't think much of it. I took some

times and I was like, all right, I'm good. But by the time your game was over and it was time for us to talk, it had gotten really bad. And it was intermittent, so it will come and then it will go. But the pain had become closer together, and I was like, man, this doesn't feel right. I'm on web MD. I'm diagnosing myself with all kinds of stuff. But unlike most people who diagnosed themselves, I was kind of under diagnosing. I'm like, oh, I think I have

kidney stones. Like I had no idea, And it was one o'clock in the morning, probably by this point, and I didn't want to get up and go to the e R. I didn't feel that emergent until it did. And after both kids you had kidney stones, I didn't. So we were used to you having kidneys and it was painful and it was terrible, and you called me, you said, your stomach is killing me. I'm walking out of the park a lot with Justin meyern and who's a trainer for the Giants, and he had just take

care of my thigh Brews. He just took care of all my bumps and bruise. I'm the last player to leave the facility. I really stayed to get my body right to play in a short week. The next week, I get the call from Ashley that our stomach is killing her. I literally said, hey, let me call it just I was just with him my nose here, and he said, yeah, you know, women have a lot of different stuff going on down there than man, a lot more going on. And you know, I wouldn't take it lightly.

I would have her go to any er, have to get it checked out. I'm like, man, it's midnight, stomach pains. Can she just go to sleep? Can she just sleep on ship? Yeah? And he really advised not too. He's talking the phone. We had a decision. I said, ash you know he's advising just just go, like, just be safe, let's just go. So she ends up. Luckily, my sister was with me last minute. She decided to fly down with me, and so I call her in the middle

of night. She's upstairs and she's like, okay, I'm coming. We go to just the local urgent care because again I didn't think it was that serious, and they admit me, start running all the tests, go through all their questions. Um, it takes some blood work that was the first thing they feel around my Abdominalaria asked where the pain is, and you know, the one question he asked like, okay, well, is there any chance that you're pregnant? And I said

absolutely not. I'm you know, on a contraceptive. There's just that much of a chance. So he's like okay. So he's thinking about what it may be and he's like, all right, let's wait, get blood work back and we'll determine maybe why you're feeling this pain if whever it comes back. And he goes back in the room, he says, hey, can I talk to you in private? I thought we were in private. My sister was there. I'm like, no,

she's flying, she can hear anything. And he's like, okay, you're pregnant, which was shocked to the system because we didn't think that was possible. Um, well, yeah, definitely not planning actually planning not to be pregnant. We're taking the precautions not to be And it was less than one percent chance that I could be pregnant, was the iu D that I had, And there we were less than one percent. I get a call from her sister. Was it you? I got a call? Yeah, I get a

call from you. It's got to be one or two in the morning. At this point, I'm just winding down. It's really hard to fall asleep from me after games, just because you're so amped up. But I was really tired after this game. I'm laying down in bed, Uh mind you getting up early for my kids to come back home or whatever and and handle that. And I get a call, Hey, we're pregnant. I'm like, what what

do you mean we're pregnant. Yeah, we're pregnant. And I'm like, hey, okay, I'm at peace with it, like all right, at least we know the stomach pain is coming from. And she said, yeah, I'm gonna get out of here and I'm gonna call you in the morning and then we can, you know, tell people when it's time or whatever. But that's what it is. So I'm like going to bed. I think about what life's like with three gonna be with life's

like with three kids? Yeah, I think that we we weren't expecting it, but it was where we were good with it. It It was it was good news. That's you know, a child is generally not bad news. So we were excited. We went he went to bed happy, and it was all call in the morning, and then my brain started going like, wait a second, I've been pregnant. Pregnancy doesn't hurt like this, you know, like, Oh, We're just going to do an ultrasound check everything. And at that point

I kind of knew. Once I was in the ultrasound, I knew something was up. Um. The tech was very quiet. She I was asking the questions and she just kept saying, well, I can't you know, I can't answer that for you, you know, I'd wait for the doctor and uh. And when she was performing the ultrasound, it was very painful. So I was like, Okay, something's going on. By the time I got back to my room, I was in pretty much constant pain. All the time. They were giving

me some serious drugs. They were not touching the pain. And it turned out that the pregnancy was a topic. So it was in plants. It in the Filippian two. It wasn't viable and I needed emergency surgery. They said yesterday essentially as fast as possible to take care of it, because these things can go downhill very quickly, so they had to transmit over to the actual emergency room. I'm in an ambulance and that's when like everything kind of

went crazy. It was super painful, everything, every bump the ambulance hit, it was painful. I was begging the guy in the ambulance to give me something else. I'm like, plea, use it to start so bad. And by the time I got in the room at the emergency room, I could barely talk like it was. The pain was that bad. I asked my sister to help me stand up to go to the bathroom and I couldn't lean forward enough to go to the bathroom. Um, to even get up, And yeah, so they were right. It did go downhill

very quickly. It ended up that my tube had ruptured at some point from A to B and the surgery was super emergent at that point. And honestly, the rest is a blurb of pain and pain meds. And the next thing I know, I'm waking up from surgery and it was told it was a success, and um, I had to spend a good week or two recovering, but I was okay to fly home on Sunday and that was that. Yeah, So let mean rewind a little bit perspective and get my point of view again. This is

a crazy story because so many different perspectives. But I go to bed thinking that we're going to have our third kid, and I was very excited, um and it kind of took the pain away that I was feeling

from the bumps and brutis from the game. I get a call maybe an hour into my sleep, three three thirty from her sister, Hey lo Um Ashley is having a topic pregnancy and her Filipian two just ruptured and she's bleeding and she's going into emergency surgery and she's an ambulance and they got to do this procedure to save her life. And I'm like caught on what wait, wait, wait, And I'm literally like in the middle of a sleep

kind of trying to process everything. And it just went from a feeling of we're gonna have a baby too, We're not having a baby and my wife may die um very quickly, and I'm thinking worried about the kids, what about this? What about that? And what about my wife? And what about the season, and just so many thoughts

run to my head. And I said, all right, just keep me, like, keep me posted as fast as possible, let me know, And like she says, she gets she's In the end, she's in the back of an ambulance. Your stuff ruptures, right, what rupture for? Open to rupture? You're bleeding, internal bleeding. They go into emergency surgery. They end up saving your life. Obviously the baby was not salvageable. We lose the baby, and you make it through the night, and me and you don't talk maybe until because of

the surgery. So we probably don't talk until nine or ten the next morning. I don't sleep at all. From at three o'clock. I'm waiting to get the call her sister telling me everything went um. The doctor said a success. Around seven or eight, I can get to talk to her until later. You're kind of on pain meds. We're talking. I had to call my parents and say they have to watch the kids until I figure out what's going on. And me and you talk and I don't. I just

think we don't know how to feel. Honestly, I think I'm obviously very happy that I didn't lose you um, obviously was very sad that we lost a baby, and very very helpless that I can't not there. I end up calling Joe Judge that morning. Again, haven't slept more than one hour to the situation. Hey Joe, here's what's happening. Um, you know, I don't I think I have to go

with Florida. And I don't know if I go to Florida because what about the protocol in COVID And will I'll be able to return to this bubble that we kind of have to play And I might miss the next game and I'll see if I can come back for the second one. And and he's like, logan, logan, logan, wait wait wait, wait wait, He's like, your family comes first and you need to go be with your wife. And if you don't play another game this season, I will understand. And you got the permission from me to

do so. And that meant a lot. Man, I think we're still healing. I don't. I don't even think we're healed. I don't know. When you're ever held, it's a piece of you that's always missing. And that's the thing. And I really felt I think we really felt a lot of affects the following season. I think this past season we really felt that when things kind of got back to normal for us, it's and it's like, okay, well that was last year, Like you should be good now.

I can't always say that I felt there mentally at times because of what the trauma that we went through, and we realized we're running off a lot of adrenaline, you know, for months. Yeah, my wife is at a commission essension for four weeks in our house, four or five weeks with two surgeries back to back, trying to just get back to walking, trying to get back to you couldn't pick up our son for for two months,

my mom leaving her job. There were vocation of that household, her sister leaving work, everything that it took to support us just even play that season. I was exhausted, you know when the season got over, um, and kind of a little bit because of just everything we've been through and kind of just going back to reality. So it's definitely a process where I feel for everybody who's also a child. Um, it is not something that is that is just you get over. It's something that kind of

lives with you. And I think we're able to channel it to to do some good. Yeah, And I think in perspective shifts a little bit. You know, you we were, I mean, the gratitude was a real we were we were living differently after this happened, and you know, it's sad to think that something like this has to happen for you to live that way. But man, we still to this day, I think, are living very differently and see life very differently and appreciate so much the people

who were there for us to that process. And you know, your mom and well your dad, your family justed, my dad, my sister, Joe, Joe and Amber Judge and the way they handled that they didn't have to do they didn't have to do anything. And I didn't know any of the wives yet. It was COVID and we weren't even

allowed to associate with each other. And Amber, you know, was checking in on me constantly and sending things and do you need something, and we barely knew each other, and that has turned into a really great friend for me. And obviously you and Joe were close, and regardless of what happens on the football field, that was our experience with the Giants and I'm grateful for it. Look, man, it's it's This is obviously a shout out to the

Mother's and Mother's Day. And I've been with you so we were twenty years old, became parents together, we've had kids together. We had a kid born in Boston, had a kid born in Tennessee, and we lost a kid in Florida, New York. Um. We've lost them, we've had them, We've been through a lot. What's the overall perspective that you gained into being a mother and Mother's Day? I think for me especially, I mean, through all of that, it's just too you know, put your all into what

you're doing as a parent. And you know, we have two kids and we are what they rely on to learn, and we're we are the main teachers of these tiny little human beings who then get to go out into the world and navigate it the same way we were figuring out. So I think just preparing them the best we can and look, like you said, it's not rainbows and unicorns all the time. There's tough things. There's tough days.

There's some days where I don't want to fight outo to go to bed for an hour like we you know, did last and I don't want to have to do these things. We've got to do it anyway and do the best you can through it and just give your kids all the tools that they need to go navigate the same things that we've been through or you know, the things that they're going to go through in their lives. So whended like this, we obviously gave our daughter a bad rapple. This episode made it seem like she was

just a terrible baby. But she's awesome. She's playing softball now, so mom's coaching. Dad is in the stance hyping them up straight spirit squad, And it's kind of full circle. We met because we're both athletes. She was the baddest and at Rutgers and and and a stud and I wanted to see what that or was about and get around and see if I can talk my way into get a date with her, and I did, And now to have our daughter play, it's just surreal. Also actually

at me a picture of the day. I'm in Florida training during the during the week, she's up in New Jersey while the kids are in school again separated again. It's what this business brings sometimes and it is the hardest part for us as being a part um. But so you taught avery, so so you can explain it. What did you teach it? What was I think, in like teacher terms called regrouping in math, where you carry the number essentially UM. She was trying to learn how

to add to your number. She's in first grade, they hadn't learned it yet. So I taught her on a white board and she came back to Jersey and went to school and was the teacher sent me a picture of her in front of the class teaching them all how to do it. So that was that was a moment for all of us. And it's pretty awesome. And Avery is a little shy. She gets a little nervous to be in front. She couldn't do this right now. She's a little nervous talking in front of people and

even to her own classmates. So to see her doing that and be so confident in it was like a huge unting moment for us. And that's what that's what parent is about. Is is your your kids teacher, and you teach them ultimately how to be human beings. And I think we have each other lean on and hold each other accountable in terms of being good human beings,

but also our kids. And for you to teach her something um in one day and then her to stand in front of class and teach her whole classmates that I think it kind of brought it all full circle for us because we were kids when we met and clearly so. Uh but yeah, man, that's it. My favorite guest us far. Obviously we had some you know, intimate personal stories there of losing a child Azzy obviously and

um having children, UM, balancing the NFL with all that. Um, just a little perspective of how I operate as a player and as a human being out there, and hope you guys can see me more than just a player and just a safety for a team and how many Super Bowl rings I have, but also everything else that goes around it and what that takes and the sacrifice that takes day in and day out. Um, but the team that you need, and I have a great team. I got a great teammate with me. So this was

a fun one. I appreciate it. Appreciate it. Appreciate you guys for listening and stay tuned. We have a lot more good ones coming up. Great guest list, and I'm rejuvenate and I'm ready to keep going and keep knocking us a great episode, So appreciate it. Thanks for joining us on the NFL Players Podcast. Don't forget to subscribe and follow at NFL Players Podcast on Instagram for the latest players stories and to connect with the NFL Players community.