It's been a frightening few days for defensive back Logan Ryan and it's made him all the more thankful to be a member of the New York Giants organization playing under coach Joe Judge.
When asked a question regarding Judge's philosophies being similar to that of Bill Belichick, who Ryan previously played for and Judge assisted, the eight-year veteran found his way to telling reporters that his wife had been hospitalized and were it not for his head coach and a Giants trainer, "I don't know if my wife would be here today."
According to Ryan, his wife Ashley, flew to their home in Florida following Monday's game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to vote and to check on their house. Ryan's wife experienced "extreme pain" in her stomach, but wanted to "sleep it off." But Giants team trainer Justin Maher advised Ashley to instead go to the emergency room, which she did and ultimately avoided a potentially massive medical issue.
"I talked to one of our trainers about the symptoms. He said, 'No, she needs to go to the ER.' My wife ended up going to the ER, and they ended up catching, I don't want to butcher the word, ectopic pregnancy, where the egg was in the wrong place in her fallopian tube and it was about to burst," Ryan said Wednesday, via team transcript. "She ended up going into emergency surgery, that's what I'm dealing with right now. They ended up saving her and ended up preventing a lot of what could have been done. That was a trainer on our team, Justin Maher, telling my wife to go to the ER at 1 a.m. and could have saved her life or saved a lot of internal bleeding there. That's the type of organization we have here."
Ryan said his wife and their children were "OK" and that the incident happened on Tuesday.
While thankful of Maher's quick thinking and advice, he was likewise appreciative of Judge's reaction to the ordeal.
"This happened all of yesterday, and Joe said, 'if you need to fly to Florida, don't worry about football.' That's who Joe is as a man and as a coach," Ryan said. "I know we care about X's and O's and winning and losing, but there are really good people here. That's why I came here. There are really good trainers here, there are really a lot of people behind the scenes that are working really hard for us to get wins. I'll do everything I can to play for a coach like that and play for an organization like this because if that wasn't the case, I don't know if my wife would be here today. Honestly, I'm extremely grateful for this organization and for Joe, and for everyone to understand that there are things bigger than football, especially this year."
Twice a Super Bowl winner with the Patriots, Ryan played four seasons with New England before moving on to the Titans for three years and finding his way to Judge's Giants for 2020.
New York has struggled to a 1-7 record and Judge and his old-school approach has drawn criticism. However, in anything but a conventional year and football season, a harrowing ordeal that could have been far worse compelled Ryan to let people know how highly he thinks of his coach and the organization he's playing for, never mind the struggles on the field.
"I just want to talk about something I don't think people really much know about Joe and this organization. I know we talk a lot about wins and losses," Ryan began before telling the aforementioned story.
In a season full of losses and a year full of tribulation, Ryan is thankful to be right where he is with the Giants and made sure to let it be known the character of people he's playing for.
