Logan Ryan, the versatile defensive back who won a pair of Super Bowls with the New England Patriots, announced on Tuesday that he is retiring from the NFL after spending 11 seasons in the league.
Ryan was a third-round pick of the Patriots out of Rutgers back in 2013, and he quickly emerged as a starter and one of the team's best defensive backs. The Pats won Super Bowls during his second and fourth NFL seasons, and Ryan then moved on to play three years for the Tennessee Titans, two for the New York Giants and one each with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and San Francisco 49ers. He totaled 19 interceptions, 98 passes defended, 15 forced fumbles, and even 13 sacks and 26 QB hits as a blitzer off the edge.
Ryan released a video on Twitter making the formal announcement and detailing both his career and why he is thankful to each of the five organizations for which he played.
"Man, what a great career, what a ride it was. Beautiful journey of highs and lows ... Shout out to my friends, my family, my teammates, all those who supported me. I try to play the right way, I try to play my hardest at all times.
"Shout out to the New England Patriots. Thank you for drafting me, believing in me, making me a two-time Super Bowl champion. Thank you to the Tennessee Titans for bringing me down there, becoming a franchise player, and supporting RARF -- my animal foundation was birthed there and you guys took that in. We did so much on and off the field with the playoff runs.
"The New York Giants, bringing me home back to New Jersey during the COVID years. Literally saving my wife's life. Thank you so much to the training staff and organization for saving my wife, Ashley. Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I found my forever home here. My kids are raised, growing up in Florida. They have stability, which meant so much to me as a father.
"And finally, the San Francisco 49ers for bringing me off the cruise last season, joining a great organization and a great coaching staff and a great locker room, to go on the run that we had. 11 seasons, six championship games, three Super Bowl appearances, and ultimately, two Super Bowl rings is what we do it for.
"I'm so blessed and I wouldn't want to change it for the world. Thank you once again. Logan Ryan, two-time Super Bowl champ, is out. But stay tuned, we got a lot in store."
Back in 2021, Ryan detailed how a Giants trainer's suggestion that his wife needed to go to the hospital saved her life as she was dealing with an ectopic pregnancy and needed emergency surgery.
"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 at the time.
Ryan missed the next two games before returning to the Giants and then playing two more seasons, first with the Buccaneers and then this past season, signing with the Niners down the stretch and helping them make a run to the Super Bowl. The 33-year-old hinted at more things to come in his post-playing career, and has long been thought of as someone who could have a future in the media, so there could be an announcement on that front in the coming weeks or months.
