Jon Ryan will sign a one-day contract with the Seattle Seahawks on Tuesday to officially retire as a member of the team, according to a report from the Seattle Times.
The 42-year-old spent 10 seasons as Seattle’s punter from 2008 to 2017, helping the team win Super Bowl XLVIII. He dressed for 159 regular season games with the Seahawks, punting 770 times for a gross average of 44.8 yards and a net average of 38.7 yards.
Ryan’s most memorable play came in January 2015 when he threw a touchdown pass on a fake field goal in the third quarter of the NFC Championship Game to spark a comeback against the Green Bay Packers. He became the first punter ever to throw a touchdown in an NFL playoff game and the first Canadian to do so since Mark Rypien in 1993.
The native of Regina, Sask. was originally selected in the third round of the 2004 CFL Draft by the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and spent two years in the Manitoba capital, earning a league all-star selection in his second season. He signed with the Green Bay Packers in 2006 and spent two seasons with the team, dressing for 32 games.
After a brief stint with the Buffalo Bills in 2018, Ryan returned to CFL in 2019 with his hometown Saskatchewan Roughriders. He played two seasons with the club and earned a West Division all-star selection in his first year. He suffered a serious foot injury toward the end of the 2021 season and wasn’t retained in free agency.
Ryan signed with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in 2022 but was traded to the Edmonton Elks shortly thereafter. He punted 62 times for an average of 43.2 yards over 11 games with the team as rumours of his impending retirement started to spread, which he later confirmed.
He is now the co-owner of the Portland Pickles of the West Coast League, the Cleburne Railroaders of the American Association of Professional Baseball, and the Lake County Captains of the Midwest League.
