Page 15 - Sports Illustrated Kids (October 2018)
P. 15

SPARE TIME


















                                                                                                                          FOOD
                                                                                                                         Mexican




                                                                                                                     SPORT OTHER
                                                                                                                    THAN BASEBALL
                                                                                                                          Football



                                                                                                                        CARTOON
    JONATHAN HOUSE (RYAN WITH PICKLE MASCOT); OTTO GREULE JR/GETTY IMAGES (RYAN ACTION); ALEX TRAUTWIG/MLB PHOTOS/GETTY IMAGES (STANTON); ISTOCKPHOTO/GETTY IMAGES
                                                                                                                        SpongeBob
                                                                                                                      SquarePants
                                   THEREAL DILL                                                                      BOOK AS A KID


      (TACOS, ICE CREAM, MODEL); NICKELODEON NETWORK/EVERETT COLLECTION (SPONGEBOB); HARPERCOLLINS (BOOK); GABE GINSBERG/GETTY IMAGES (DICAPRIO)
                                                                                                                     Where the Wild
                                    Baseball-loving NFL punter JON RYAN has                                            Things Are

                                    embarked on what he hopes will be a
                                    second career as a team owner.

                                    By Matt Weyrich


          GROWING UP IN Regina,                          Colonna, so it is perhaps unsurprising

          Saskatchewan, Jon Ryan didn’t get              that the team has come up with a
                                                                                                                       ICE CREAM
          many channels on his TV. There was,            few wacky promotional ideas.                               Cookies ’n’ Cream
          however, one program he could rely             From Jurassic Park Night to the
          on airing almost every night:                  wildly popular Tackle Jon Ryan Night
          Toronto Blue Jays games.                       (a bunch of kids literally tried to bring                    SUBJECT IN
                                                                                                                    MIDDLE SCHOOL
             Ryan may have followed a path that          him down on the field, and they
                                                                                                                         Science
          led him from Canada to the NFL,                caught him!), he’s not afraid to rack
          but he always dreamed of owning a              his brain for new ways to lure people
          baseball team. In April of last year,          to the ballpark.                                               ATHLETE
          that fantasy came true when the punter            Ryan and business partner Alan                            GROWING UP
          purchased a collegiate summer league           Miller thought the Pickles were the                         Mark McGwire
          team called the Portland Pickles.              perfect team with which to kick-start
             Says Ryan, who played for the               their “baseball empire.” After all, the                          EMOJI
          nearby Seattle Seahawks from 2008              36-year-old Ryan knows he’s nearing
          through ’17, “As I got older and [have]        the end of his football career.
          been able to play in the NFL for as               “Right now, we’re concentrating
          long  as  I  have . . . it  seemed  like  a    on Portland,” Ryan says. “[But] my                              ACTOR
          reality, like something I might be             partner and I want to branch out,                         Leonardo DiCaprio
          able to actually do.”                          maybe purchase a couple more teams
                                                                                                                  Interview by Matt Weyrich
             Ryan is married to comedian Sarah           and go from there.”



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