HarveyWallbangers
10-16-2006, 10:39 PM
Ryan returns to practice after visiting sick father
By CHRIS JENKINS, AP Sports Writer
GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) -- Jon Ryan's ailing father turned down the doctors' main treatment option, and now football is acting as a sort of medicine for the Packers' rookie punter and his family.
Ryan returned to practice with Green Bay on Monday after spending nearly a week in his native Canada with his father, Bob, who has been diagnosed with cancerous tumors in his abdomen and lungs.
Although Ryan's father now has considerable trouble getting around, he and the family were able to watch Ryan's brother, Steve, play defensive back for the University of Regina in Saskatchewan on Saturday.
"It was, quite honestly, one of the greatest days of my life," Jon Ryan said. "To be able to sit there with my whole family and him and watch my brother play -- and they were playing the third-ranked team and they won on the last play of the game by a point. And it was just really an unbelievable day and just really was great to be able to be home and see him again."
Ryan said his father was a Packers fan even before Ryan signed with Green Bay in the offseason after setting a punting record in the Canadian Football League. Bob Ryan was able to attend a preseason game at Lambeau Field in August.
"He said he kind of had a tear in his eye when he walked out into the stands there," Ryan said. "So it was great that he was able to watch one of those games."
And while things aren't particularly easy for his family right now, Ryan said they all, along with his father, encouraged him to return to Green Bay and keep playing.
"He tells me how proud he is of me," Ryan said. "And lately, sometimes when times have been tough it's been a bit of an escape to watch me play football and watch my brother play football. So football's kind of a medicine for my family right now, so I feel like I'm making him proud right now."
But Ryan acknowledged he's having a hard time focusing on football.
"All my strength and all my focus is to get there and get my head into it," Ryan said. "Usually, once I get on the field and start getting ready for the game it's, I don't think about cancer or death or anything like that. I just let all those thoughts come in after the game. Because it's a high-stress job, so you've got to kind of keep your head in it as best you can."
Going into their bye weekend, the Packers excused Ryan from practice last week to give him a full week with his family. Special teams coordinator Mike Stock said it was important to give Ryan some space.
"He's known about it for some time, it's just we haven't known about it for some time," Stock said. "He doesn't want to talk about it, and I understand that, so we give him his privacy, give him his space."
Doctors discovered Bob Ryan's cancer almost by accident after he tripped on some stairs and hurt his leg, tearing a piece of his hip flexor away from the bone.
He was trying to rehabilitate the injury, but it wasn't getting any better. Doctors diagnosed a tumor in his groin area about two months ago, and more recently found it had spread to his other hip and lungs.
Ryan said doctors offered his father the option of amputating his body from the waist down, waiting for that to heal, and then treating the cancer in his lungs.
"He said that, you know, cutting off half his body just wasn't any way to live. He said he wanted to live, not survive," Ryan said. "So we took him home, and he's just trying to make the best of the time that he's got left."
Bob Ryan, 53, went to school to be a psychologist and has spent more than 30 years working for the Ranch Ehrlo Society in Saskatchewan, a nonprofit group that works with at-risk children.
He planned to work at least another 10 years.
"He's now the vice president and he was going to move up to be the president of this nonprofit organization in a year or two's time," Ryan said. "So he's given back to the community tenfold from what the average person has. So he's lived a full life."
Ryan said he had a hard time saying goodbye to his father and flying back to Green Bay on Saturday night because he doesn't have any way of knowing if he is saying goodbye for good.
"It was very difficult because they don't know how much time he has left," Ryan said. "It could be a couple weeks, it could be possibly a year or two. It's kind of like goodbye."
By CHRIS JENKINS, AP Sports Writer
GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) -- Jon Ryan's ailing father turned down the doctors' main treatment option, and now football is acting as a sort of medicine for the Packers' rookie punter and his family.
Ryan returned to practice with Green Bay on Monday after spending nearly a week in his native Canada with his father, Bob, who has been diagnosed with cancerous tumors in his abdomen and lungs.
Although Ryan's father now has considerable trouble getting around, he and the family were able to watch Ryan's brother, Steve, play defensive back for the University of Regina in Saskatchewan on Saturday.
"It was, quite honestly, one of the greatest days of my life," Jon Ryan said. "To be able to sit there with my whole family and him and watch my brother play -- and they were playing the third-ranked team and they won on the last play of the game by a point. And it was just really an unbelievable day and just really was great to be able to be home and see him again."
Ryan said his father was a Packers fan even before Ryan signed with Green Bay in the offseason after setting a punting record in the Canadian Football League. Bob Ryan was able to attend a preseason game at Lambeau Field in August.
"He said he kind of had a tear in his eye when he walked out into the stands there," Ryan said. "So it was great that he was able to watch one of those games."
And while things aren't particularly easy for his family right now, Ryan said they all, along with his father, encouraged him to return to Green Bay and keep playing.
"He tells me how proud he is of me," Ryan said. "And lately, sometimes when times have been tough it's been a bit of an escape to watch me play football and watch my brother play football. So football's kind of a medicine for my family right now, so I feel like I'm making him proud right now."
But Ryan acknowledged he's having a hard time focusing on football.
"All my strength and all my focus is to get there and get my head into it," Ryan said. "Usually, once I get on the field and start getting ready for the game it's, I don't think about cancer or death or anything like that. I just let all those thoughts come in after the game. Because it's a high-stress job, so you've got to kind of keep your head in it as best you can."
Going into their bye weekend, the Packers excused Ryan from practice last week to give him a full week with his family. Special teams coordinator Mike Stock said it was important to give Ryan some space.
"He's known about it for some time, it's just we haven't known about it for some time," Stock said. "He doesn't want to talk about it, and I understand that, so we give him his privacy, give him his space."
Doctors discovered Bob Ryan's cancer almost by accident after he tripped on some stairs and hurt his leg, tearing a piece of his hip flexor away from the bone.
He was trying to rehabilitate the injury, but it wasn't getting any better. Doctors diagnosed a tumor in his groin area about two months ago, and more recently found it had spread to his other hip and lungs.
Ryan said doctors offered his father the option of amputating his body from the waist down, waiting for that to heal, and then treating the cancer in his lungs.
"He said that, you know, cutting off half his body just wasn't any way to live. He said he wanted to live, not survive," Ryan said. "So we took him home, and he's just trying to make the best of the time that he's got left."
Bob Ryan, 53, went to school to be a psychologist and has spent more than 30 years working for the Ranch Ehrlo Society in Saskatchewan, a nonprofit group that works with at-risk children.
He planned to work at least another 10 years.
"He's now the vice president and he was going to move up to be the president of this nonprofit organization in a year or two's time," Ryan said. "So he's given back to the community tenfold from what the average person has. So he's lived a full life."
Ryan said he had a hard time saying goodbye to his father and flying back to Green Bay on Saturday night because he doesn't have any way of knowing if he is saying goodbye for good.
"It was very difficult because they don't know how much time he has left," Ryan said. "It could be a couple weeks, it could be possibly a year or two. It's kind of like goodbye."