30 Interesting Facts We Bet You Didn’t Know About Matt Ryan

26 January 2019, 2:38 pm EST By Ruby Karnick

Matt Ryan, often referred to with the nickname "Matty Ice," is currently the team Captain for the Atlanta Falcons of the National Football League (NFL). Here are some unknown facts about the American football quarterback:

Nicknamed ‘Matty Ice,’ Matthew Thomas Ryan, was born on May 17, 1985, in Exton, Pennsylvania.
He ranks fifth for the most consecutive starts by a National Football League quarterbacks with 147 games starting from December 2009.
He is third of Bernice and Michael Ryan’s four children. He attended William Penn Charter School, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and led his school in football, basketball and baseball.
Ryan earned scholarship to Boston College and was the starting quarterback of Eagles football team. He was awarded the ‘2004 Freshman Male Scholar-Athlete,’ and in 2016 they retired his jersey.
In 2006 season, he started in 11 of the 12 games and was named in All-ACC first team. He was named ‘ACC Offensive Back of the week’ three times and led the ACC in total offence with 245.5 yards per game and also in passing yards with 245.5 yards per game.
In his final season with Eagles, Ryan started in all 14 games, completing 388 of 654 passes for 4,507 yards and 31 touchdowns, both of these are single season records.
In his final year with the Eagles, he earned various accolades such as ‘2007 Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award,’ ‘2007 Manning Award,’ and ‘Eagle of the Year.’
On May 20, 2008, he was drafted third overall by the Atlanta Falcons in the 2008 NFL Draft. He signed a six-year contract worth $ 72 million with $ 34.75 million in guaranteed money apart from Nike and AirTran endorsement.
Ryan became the first rookie quarterback since 2001, tostart a season for Falcons and on October 30, he was honored as the ‘NFC Rookie of the Month for October,’ for his strings of impressive games for another first to his names.
With 3,440 passing yards, 17 touchdowns and 11 interceptions in 2008 season, he was named the ‘AP NFL Rookie of the Year,’ in addition to being named to the ‘All-Rookie Team’ for the season.

In 2010, he led Falcons to an NFC best 13-3 record and was invited to the 2011 Pro Bowl, for the first time of his career. His performance earned him the 52nd position on the NFL’s top 100 players of 2011.
Falcon had the best start of 8-0, in 2012 season with Ryan setting personal record of passing for 4,719, and 32 touchdowns with 14 interceptions. He improved his ranking to 17th on the ‘NFL Top 100 Players of 2013.’
On July 25, 2013, Ryan took a giant leap up the quarterback pay scale, with five year contract extension worth $ 103.75 million, in the process became NFL’s second highest paid player.
In the game against ‘TambaBay Buccaneers, on September 18, 2014, Ryan led Flacon to victory with 21 of 24 for 286 yards and three touchdowns. He was named ‘NFC Offensive Player of the Week.’
In the 2015 season he showed an indifferent form with 21 touchdown passes, the second lowest of his career, 16 interceptions, the second highest of his career. He also had career high fumbles of 12, losing 5 of them.
On October 23, 2016, Ryan set a record for most consecutive games with at least 200 passing yards. He passed for 273 yards against Chargers, for his 46 straight games with over 200 yards, the longest streak in ‘NFL’ history.
In a winning cause against Carolina Panthers, on October 02, 2016, Ryan and Julio Jones made Falcons team history as Ryan threw for 503 passing yards and Jones caught twelve passes for 300 yards and a touchdown. They are first quarterback-receiver duo to break 500 yards and 300 receiving yards in the same game.
In a yet another record in 2016, he threw a pass to 13 different receivers and threw touchdown passes to 13 different receivers an NFL record.
At the end of 2016 regular season, he was named the ‘NFL Offensive Player of the Year,’ and ‘NFL Most Valuable Player’ for the season. He was also recognized by the ‘Pro Football Writers Association’ as most valuable player.
Ryan became broke Drew Brees’ record for the fastest to throw for 40,000 passing yards. He achieved this in his 151 career game on November 12, 2017, against Dallas Cowboys. He is the 19th quarterback to reach landmark in league history.

He has more passing yards through 10 seasons than any quarterback in the NFL history. He finished the day with 317 yards in the game against Carolina Panthers, on December 31, 2017, to aggregated 41,796 passing yards surpassing Peyton Manning’s 41, 626 yards.
He signed a contract extension with Falcons, for five years, worth $ 150 million on May 03, 2018. The new deal will make him the first player to average at least $ 30 million per year.
In the game against ‘Tampa Bay Buccaneers,’ Ryan recorded his first career reception on a 5-yard touchdown from wide receiver Mohamed Sanu.
He finished the 2018 season with 35 passing touchdowns, 3 rushing touchdowns and one receiving touchdown, making it career high 39 total touchdowns.
He is an avid golfer and has participated in tournament such as ‘American Century Celebrity Golf Classic.
Ryan is married to Sarah Marshall since April 2, 2011 and they announced on April 08, 2018, the birth of twins, Marshal and Johnny. Sara has three other siblings one of which is also married to Ryan’s brother.
He created an activity named ‘Folleyball’ for NFL Play 60 at NFL Rush.com.
During his senior year at Boston College, he launched a website called ‘Mattyice.com,’ where fans and media have access to video highlight around the clock.
Ryan is part of the Falcons’ online reading program, ‘Read with a Falcon.’
He has love for luxury things and has houses in area like Buckhead, Exton, Duluth, Chestnut Hill and Tuxedo Road. His net worth is estimated to be about $ 85 million in 2018.