Happy retirement, Jon Ryan!

The CFL regular season just wrapped up, and with it so did the career of former Seattle Seahawks punter Jon Ryan.

Saskatchewan-native Ryan spent the 2022 season punting for the Edmonton Elks, who finished 4-14 and nowhere near the playoffs. For Ryan, this was the end of a 19-year career in professional football.

“I mean, you’ve got to hang them up eventually,” Ryan said to 630 CHED (via 3DownNation). “I tried to drag this out forever but Father Time finally got me after 19 years.”

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“Right now I look back and it seems like all a dream, to be honest with you. 19 years went bye-bye in the snap of a finger, really,” an emotional Ryan admitted.

“Obviously looking back at those 10 years in Seattle and all those playoff teams and the Super Bowls and all that, that’s one of the better memories of playing pro football. But I’ll always love the CFL. If not for the CFL, I would never have gotten to the NFL and the reason I came back to CFL after all that is I love it so much. I always say the CFL is the greatest sport in the world and I’m honoured to have played it.”

Ryan began his career with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in 2004, then jumped to the NFL’s Green Bay Packers from 2006 to 2007. It was in 2008 when the Seahawks moved on from Ryan Plackemeier and made Ryan their punter, a position he held until the end of the 2017 season. Ryan gave way to Michael Dickson in 2018 before returning to the CFL and his hometown Saskatchewan Roughriders in 2019.

The COVID-19 pandemic canceled the 2020 CFL season, and even preceding that Ryan was diagnosed with skin cancer. He has since had that growth removed and is currently cancer-free, thankfully.

Ryan is the Seahawks’ all-time leader in total punting yards, and he had a well-earned reputation for a ridiculously booming leg. Of course, the play that puts him in Seahawks lore forever is his fake field goal touchdown pass to Garry Gilliam, which kick started Seattle’s epic comeback over the Packers in the 2014 NFC Championship Game.

Thanks for everything Jon and enjoy your retirement!