Play Like You Mean It: Passion, Laughs, and Leadership in the World's Most Beautiful Game by Rex Ryan, Don Yaeger Page B
Authors: Rex Ryan, Don Yaeger
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of hilarious to watch. I don’t know if that’s going to be a good thing, but I just want him to have fun and play. I do know one thing, though. He’s going to be a third-generation coach in the Ryan family, that’s for sure.
But until Seth is coaching a team of his own, he’s pretty possessive of mine, and everything that goes with it, including the little rituals. Of course, my wife and I and the kids have our own superstitions when it comes to our games. Each Friday night, we eat out at our favorite local Mexican restaurant. Michelle even has a lucky outfit she wears for the home games against New England.
Everyone is anxious and excited, and it’s neat that my family has been involved in this journey. I am so blessed, so thankful, and so appreciative to have such a wonderful wife and a wonderful family. I am also hopeful that Payton and Seth look up to me the same way I look up to my father to this very day. There’s nothing better than being a father of my own.
6. Tackling Dyslexia
W hen I said publicly in 2009 that I had dyslexia, my family was a little upset about it. My brother Rob said, “Why are you telling people about that? What’s it their business?” We’re twins, but lucky for him, he doesn’t have that problem. I understand why my family reacted that way to me talking about it—they were trying to protect me. Some people get embarrassed about this stuff and, trust me, when I was a kid and I didn’t know what was wrong, it made me embarrassed, too. I wanted to lash out when kids made fun of me for struggling with reading. And I really did struggle.
These days, I couldn’t care less. I’ve come to realize that one of the reasons I am where I am in my life is that I found a way to deal with dyslexia, even when I didn’t know I had it. In other words, in its own way, having to deal with it forced me to become who I am. I was unaware of being dyslexic for so long, that having this disability drove me to work harder, to use my strengths—and that led me down this path. It’s my own personal kind of meeting with Darwin, I suppose. Either you sink or you swim.
I’ve heard that somewhere between 5 and 17 percent of people have some form of dyslexia, which basically means that letters look jumbled as you read them and there’s kind of a disconnect between being able to read them and being able to pronounce them. It really screws up your ability to learn. A lot of dyslexic people will flunk out of school, even though they are intelligent. Doctors say there is absolutely no relationship between IQ and dyslexia. I’m not telling you I’m a genius, but the point is that just because I have dyslexia doesn’t mean I’m dumb. What it means, according to one doctor I met with, is that the people who actually find a way to make it have learned to adapt—and it’s unbelievable how high they can go.
As a kid I remember not having any problem with vision, which was why it seemed strange that I had problems seeing things on the page. Actually, I had great hand-eye coordination. I was a really good hitter when I played baseball in high school. Even as an adult, I could always hit. My brother Jim loves to tell the story about one time when we were in Mobile, Alabama, at the Senior Bowl. This was when Rob and I were just getting started as coaches, and Jim was pretty fresh out of law school and wanted to be an agent representing players. So we were all at the Senior Bowl at one of the little schools where the players used to practice (they practice at the stadium in town these days). We were leaving practice and we walked past the baseball field, where there was a kid pitching, working with the catcher. We chatted with him, trying to be friendly, but the pitcher started bragging on himself about how great he was and how he was getting ready for the draft, expecting to make it big. I was thinking to myself, “He’s not really that tough.” So I grabbed a bat, walked up to the plate, and said, “Okay,
But until Seth is coaching a team of his own, he’s pretty possessive of mine, and everything that goes with it, including the little rituals. Of course, my wife and I and the kids have our own superstitions when it comes to our games. Each Friday night, we eat out at our favorite local Mexican restaurant. Michelle even has a lucky outfit she wears for the home games against New England.
Everyone is anxious and excited, and it’s neat that my family has been involved in this journey. I am so blessed, so thankful, and so appreciative to have such a wonderful wife and a wonderful family. I am also hopeful that Payton and Seth look up to me the same way I look up to my father to this very day. There’s nothing better than being a father of my own.
6. Tackling Dyslexia
W hen I said publicly in 2009 that I had dyslexia, my family was a little upset about it. My brother Rob said, “Why are you telling people about that? What’s it their business?” We’re twins, but lucky for him, he doesn’t have that problem. I understand why my family reacted that way to me talking about it—they were trying to protect me. Some people get embarrassed about this stuff and, trust me, when I was a kid and I didn’t know what was wrong, it made me embarrassed, too. I wanted to lash out when kids made fun of me for struggling with reading. And I really did struggle.
These days, I couldn’t care less. I’ve come to realize that one of the reasons I am where I am in my life is that I found a way to deal with dyslexia, even when I didn’t know I had it. In other words, in its own way, having to deal with it forced me to become who I am. I was unaware of being dyslexic for so long, that having this disability drove me to work harder, to use my strengths—and that led me down this path. It’s my own personal kind of meeting with Darwin, I suppose. Either you sink or you swim.
I’ve heard that somewhere between 5 and 17 percent of people have some form of dyslexia, which basically means that letters look jumbled as you read them and there’s kind of a disconnect between being able to read them and being able to pronounce them. It really screws up your ability to learn. A lot of dyslexic people will flunk out of school, even though they are intelligent. Doctors say there is absolutely no relationship between IQ and dyslexia. I’m not telling you I’m a genius, but the point is that just because I have dyslexia doesn’t mean I’m dumb. What it means, according to one doctor I met with, is that the people who actually find a way to make it have learned to adapt—and it’s unbelievable how high they can go.
As a kid I remember not having any problem with vision, which was why it seemed strange that I had problems seeing things on the page. Actually, I had great hand-eye coordination. I was a really good hitter when I played baseball in high school. Even as an adult, I could always hit. My brother Jim loves to tell the story about one time when we were in Mobile, Alabama, at the Senior Bowl. This was when Rob and I were just getting started as coaches, and Jim was pretty fresh out of law school and wanted to be an agent representing players. So we were all at the Senior Bowl at one of the little schools where the players used to practice (they practice at the stadium in town these days). We were leaving practice and we walked past the baseball field, where there was a kid pitching, working with the catcher. We chatted with him, trying to be friendly, but the pitcher started bragging on himself about how great he was and how he was getting ready for the draft, expecting to make it big. I was thinking to myself, “He’s not really that tough.” So I grabbed a bat, walked up to the plate, and said, “Okay,
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