Patrick Lee Ryan (born September 16, 1955) is a former professional

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

and is currently the football

color analyst A color commentator or expert commentator is a sports commentator who assists the main (play-by-play) commentator, typically by filling in when play is not in progress. The phrase "colour commentator" is primarily used in Canadian English and the ...

on the Vol Radio Network, broadcasting games for his alma mater, the

University of Tennessee The University of Tennessee (officially The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; or UT Knoxville; UTK; or UT) is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th state, ...

. He played 14 seasons in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

for the

New York Jets The New York Jets are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Jets compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) East division. The J ...

and the

Philadelphia Eagles The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia. The Eagles compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. The team plays ...

Biography

Ryan was born in

Hutchinson, Kansas Hutchinson is the largest city and county seat in Reno County, Kansas, United States, and located on the Arkansas River. It has been home to salt mines since 1887, thus its nickname of "Salt City", but locals call it "Hutch". As of the 2020 cen ...

and attended Putnam High School in

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, it ranks 20th among United States cities in population, and ...

. He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

at the

. Ryan was drafted in the eleventh round of the

1978 NFL Draft The 1978 NFL draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held May 2–3, 1978, at the Roosevelt Hote ...

by the New York Jets. He played professionally for thirteen seasons, twelve seasons with the New York Jets and one season with the Philadelphia Eagles. Ryan was primarily a backup, seeing just fifteen snaps in his first four years. His one significant season was in 1984, when he started eleven games for the Jets. He went 6-5 while throwing fourteen touchdowns and fourteen interceptions for 1,939 yards. During the 1986-87 NFL playoffs, Ryan was the starting quarterback for the Jets against the

Kansas City Chiefs The Kansas City Chiefs are a professional American football team based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Chiefs compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) West division. The tea ...

in the Wild Card Round. Throwing three touchdown passes in the game, the Jets won 35-15 for their first playoff win in four years. The following week during the Divisional Round against the

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference ( ...

, Ryan threw a 42-yard touchdown on a

flea-flicker A flea flicker is an unorthodox play, often called a "trick play", in American football which is designed to fool the defensive team into thinking that a play is a run instead of a pass. It can be considered an extreme variant of the play actio ...

to give the Jets a 7-0 1st quarter lead. However, he suffered an injury that knocked him out in the second quarter (leading to the return of

Ken O'Brien Kenneth John O'Brien Jr. (born November 27, 1960) is a former American football quarterback who played in the National Football League for the New York Jets and Philadelphia Eagles. When he retired he was the only Jets quarterback to have ever ...

, who had started the regular season as quarterback), and the Jets would ultimately lose this game 23-20 in double overtime, the third longest playoff game in NFL history at that time.

Life after the NFL

Ryan was employed as a

Tennessee Titans The Tennessee Titans are a professional American football team based in Nashville, Tennessee. The Titans compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) South division, and play their h ...

radio broadcasts from 1999 to 2004. He is now a home builder in

Knoxville, Tennessee Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County, Tennessee, Knox County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, Knoxville's population was 190,740, making it the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Di ...

. He later worked as a football analyst for the University of Tennessee's Vol Radio Network, cohosting the weekly "Big Orange Hotline," and joining Bob Kesling, Tim Priest, and John Wilkerson on the "Kickoff Call-In Show" prior to UT football games.Vol Network Additions for 2015
" UTSports.com, September 2, 2015. In June 2021, Ryan became the color analyst for Tennessee Volunteers football following the announcement that Tim Priest would be retiring.

References

External links

databasefootball.com

NFL Enterprises LLC

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ryan, Pat 1955 births Living people American football quarterbacks National Football League announcers New York Jets players Sportspeople from Hutchinson, Kansas Philadelphia Eagles players Players of American football from Kansas Tennessee Titans announcers Tennessee Volunteers football players