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Logan Ryan

NFL Analyst

play_circle_outline Logan Ryan's NFL career, durability, teams, and two Super Bowl championships

play_circle_outline Played nickelback: covering receivers and run/short-pass responsibilities, linebacker-like role

play_circle_outline Retired on a Disney cruise; joined 49ers late and started in third Super Bowl

play_circle_outline Notable moment: intercepted Tom Brady's final Patriots pass for a pick-six

play_circle_outline Transition to media: CBS analyst, calling Giants-Titans game, leveraging football insight

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Logan Ryan, CBS NFL Analyst

Logan Ryan

NFL Analyst

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Logan Ryan

>> Palo Alto Studio Connection, Silicon Valley and Wall Street.

Dave Vellante

>> I'm John Furrier, co-hosting theCUBE here with Dave Vellante, my co-host. Hi everybody, I'm Dave Vellante. Welcome back to theCUBE's NYSE Wired Studio in the iconic Buttonwood podium high above the Options Exchange here at the NYSE. I'm with Logan Ryan. I want to tell you something about Logan. He's a 2-time Super Bowl champ. He's got a career spanning 11 years with my Patriots, the Titans. He was with the Giants, the Bucs, the 49ers. He was known for his pure instincts. He worked really hard, relentless preparation and durability. One of the most durable, frankly, defensive backs of his time. And today he's applying his elite skills off the field as one of the sharpest football analysts on television for CBS. But more relevant to our interest and our audience here at theCUBE, he's backing high-growth startups as a venture investor and running his own entrepreneurial ventures and an animal rescue foundation. Please welcome Super Bowl champ, analyst, and entrepreneur. And now I guess tech athlete.

Logan Ryan

>> Oh man.

Dave Vellante

>> Logan Ryan, welcome.

Logan Ryan

>> That is quite the introduction. I think I got to get some people to rewrite that and save that

Dave Vellante

>> for—Well deserved. We were talking off camera about your role as a defensive back.

Logan Ryan

>> Yeah.

Dave Vellante

>> Your durability was remarkable. I think when you played for the Patriots, you were— it was probably a 16-game season, at least a part of that, and you played every game.

Logan Ryan

>> I never missed a game, never missed a practice. And yeah, in 4 years there, we used to have something in the summertime called an Iron Man shirt you had to earn if you didn't miss one day of spring ball, one day of training camp. You're durable. So for 4 years in a row, I got that shirt. It was a big thing to me to be available to my team every single day and Yeah, I was telling you off air, there were some days it was hard to get up in the morning, feel like you're in a car crash. And I'm tackling people that weigh much more than me. I was 190, 195 pounds, which is big walking around New York, but in the NFL field, there's much bigger humans than that. So definitely took a beating, but gave out some beatings as well. So it's all

Dave Vellante

>> good.Well, as we were saying, you were put into a situation— I know, for instance, your last Super Bowl against Kansas City, Patrick was having at it, and their running game was going well. They were doing the short passing game. You were brought in to try to stop that. Yeah, and so you were almost in a way playing a linebacker position. Yeah, defensive back, right?

Logan Ryan

>> Yeah, I played that nickelback position, which is like an extra DB, but you take a linebacker off the field, so you have to be able to cover receivers well enough. So in that game, I had to cover Rashee Rice, who was at that time the Chiefs' number one receiver that year. So I had to cover their number one receiver while also having to get in the backfield and read and make plays in the run game and the short passing game. So it's a very unique position. It's hard to coach it. I think everyone kind of plays it differently. But from my years in New England and playing under Bill Belichick and then Mike Vrabel, I kind of developed my own style at it to be efficient. And, uh, San Francisco was looking for help for that, and I joined the team late in that year and ended up starting my third Super Bowl at 33 years old, playing against Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs.

Dave Vellante

>> And you played in three of the greatest Super Bowls

Logan Ryan

>> ever.Yeah, I think

Dave Vellante

>> so.I mean, Seattle, I think so, you know, run the damn ball, Malcolm, Malcolm

Logan Ryan

>> Butler.And then the 28-3, the 28-3, I think that's the greatest Super Bowl of all

Dave Vellante

>> time.I mean, the greatest comeback of all time. Of course I would say

Logan Ryan

>> that.They're all thrilling to the last

Dave Vellante

>> minute.I would say the game the Patriots lost to Philadelphia was also a fantastic game. Of course, the outcome wasn't what we wanted as fans, but then the San Francisco KC game, that went into overtime.

Logan Ryan

>> Yeah, it did. So I think if I'm not mistaken, only 2 Super Bowls ever went to overtime, and I was part of both of them. 28-3 was the first one. I think the Malcolm Butler interception's probably the greatest single play to flip a script of fortune, because it looked very likely that the Seahawks were going to win that Super Bowl if they scored. And for us to stop them, let alone get the ball and win it on our 1-yard line is the stereotypical mantra of defending every inch of grass. So I definitely put those 3 Super Bowls, even though the last one's not my favorite because I lost it, I think they're 3 of the top 5 Super Bowls for sure.

Dave Vellante

>> And you weren't playing that year, right? Most of the year you were—

Logan Ryan

>> yeah, I was on a Disney cruise.

Dave Vellante

>> Were you retired? Retired? Free agent?

Logan Ryan

>> I was retired.

Dave Vellante

>> So they had a bunch of injuries, San Francisco, and in the defensive backfield, correct?

Logan Ryan

>> They had one injury to an important starter, Talanoa Hufanga, who's an All-Pro.

Dave Vellante

>> Yes, right, right.

Logan Ryan

>> And I was— story goes I was retired on a Disney cruise because my wife and I never had a Thanksgiving tradition. I always played or had practice. So I said, hey, I'm retiring this year, so what do you want to do on Thanksgiving? And we didn't know if we want to go to her family in Delaware or my family in Jersey or bring both parents in. So we really didn't know how to do it. So we said, let's just go on a cruise. Why don't we just vacation over the holiday and see what it is? So we booked this Disney cruise to get away, don't have to cook a dinner. All right, we have two young kids, we love Disney. And as I was pulling up to the ship, essentially walking in, John Lynch from the 49ers called me And it felt like a John Wick movie. It was one last mission. The Niners are really good at the time. They lost a key starter and they didn't want to go get an unproven player. I think they were 12-1. And they heard that I stay in shape. They heard about how my work ethic is. And I don't know, I don't know if they spoke to Tom Brady or something, but they got a good report about me and they said, we need you to come off this cruise. And I said, I'm not leaving this cruise right now. My wife would divorce me. But give me a week and let me work on it. And I came off that Disney cruise. I had to put the beverages down, forget the drink package. I had to hit the Disney gym twice a day. Good gym on that cruise ship. And I ended up joining the 49ers 2 weeks later from Thanksgiving and ended up starting in my third Super Bowl pretty soon after

Dave Vellante

>> that.Amazing story. And then, of course, Brady's last game. I've been going to the Patriots games since they built that

Logan Ryan

>> stadium.We're not going to

Dave Vellante

>> Texas.And I said to my family, I said, listen, this could be Tom's last game. The guy changed. Changed our lives in New England. You guys are remarkable. Let's go. And that was a good game, actually. People don't realize, Tennessee, you guys were really solid that year, and Derrick Henry was just a beast. and you did a pick six, Tom Brady's last pass as a New England Patriot. Crazy. Logan Ryan picked it off and went for 6.

Logan Ryan

>> You can't make that story up. I just remember jogging on the field, and I think there's 40 seconds left or 30 seconds left, and it's Patriots down 1. Tom Brady has the ball, and I've been on his side quite some times where I've seen these comebacks happen all the time.

Dave Vellante

>> I said, we got this.

Logan Ryan

>> And this is what it's set up for. And when Mike Vrabel looked at us on the Titans and said, hey, one more stop. And I'm like, well, here we go. And fortunately the ball got tipped in my direction and I ended up picking it off and scoring and putting the game out of reach. And that ended up being Tom's last.

Dave Vellante

>> Well, there was a rare drop by Julian in that series. I don't know if you remember that. Yeah, and then that set up your pick-six. Yeah, yeah, it was amazing. What about Belichick versus Vrabel? It's like two polar opposites. What was it like playing for those guys?

Logan Ryan

>> I wouldn't say they're polar opposites. I would say that Vrabel went to the school of Belichick in the sense of how to learn. I think Bill Belichick's the greatest teacher of football ever. I think he's the greatest coach ever, and I got a master's degree in football from Bill Belichick because the way he taught us, and he taught us the history, to respect the history. Belichick used to have us watch black and white tape to watch stuff in the '50s and the '60s and learning the history of defense. And I think Mike Vrabel did a great job of being a star student learning that and then applying it to modern-day football, which has changed a little bit from even 10 years ago when I was a Patriot. So I think Belichick has— Vrabel, that is— does a great job relating to the modern-day players. They're different now. They're coming out of college, NIL, These young kids are different. So I think he does a good job relating to them, but still a lot of the same school of thought that I learned, that he learned. And he's a great natural leader of men. And anytime you're a former player coaching, you get a sense of credibility from the players in the locker room. And I think Vrabel earned his respect that way. And then obviously his football intelligence is through the roof.

Dave Vellante

>> So you think more similarities than differences then?

Logan Ryan

>> Yeah, there's a lot of similarities in how they— taking you behind the scenes of how they game plan And they really both believe in— was it Sun Tzu, Art of War?

Logan Ryan

>> Yeah.Taking away what your opponent wants to do best. Mm-hmm. there's not a style that they play like, this is what we do. It's like, no, we're going to take away what you do and we're both going to play left-handed and we'll see who's better left-handed. And I think you need a certain coach who's willing to coach differently every game. You need a certain type of player that's willing to say, hey, even though last week that worked, you got to do something completely different this week. And I really respect that because that's the best way to win.

Dave Vellante

>> It's a very situational—

Logan Ryan

>> very situational.

Dave Vellante

>> Is that, in your view, relatively unique in the NFL where people just say, hey, we do what we do well, we're just going to do it? Or is that sort of where the league is now—

Logan Ryan

>> look at it in life and look at it in business, how many people are willing to change what got them there? Yeah. So you can have success one week and you can take your investment a whole different direction. Like, whoa, whoa, whoa, history doesn't show— well, This is what we need to do to win this week. And I think you need a certain amount of moxie because if it doesn't work, who's it fall on? It falls on the coach. So I think they do a great job of coming up with game plans that they feel confident in.

Dave Vellante

>> I want to get into investing, but last question I have on football is I want you to explain how sophisticated and complicated it is. for those of us who played a little football.

Dave Vellante

>> Yeah.and just the NFL game seems to be just so technical, it's so deep, and you must have to really study hard. Yeah, to keep up.

Logan Ryan

>> So I would put it like this quite simply. My NFL day was typically a 12-hour workday. I would get in at 6 in the morning, a little earlier. I would leave around 6 PM. We only practice for maybe 90 minutes to 2 hours a day of actually on the field practicing, and that's only 4 days a week, 3 or 4 days a week. All the other time I'm in meetings, watching film, watching tape. I'm watching at least 4 hours of film a day, at least 16 hours, 20 hours of prep of film work alone before going into a game. I'm only practicing about 8 hours. So almost twice of what we think of when we play sports, go to practice. Imagine another double that. You're at home watching an iPad, you're watching plays over and over and over again. And I will say that football, unlike other sports, we say it's 11v11, but it's really 12v12 because every play is a dead ball. Your coach calls a play in the sand, my coach calls a play in the sand. Every play is designed to take away what you do well. There's— every play has a strength and a weakness. So it's a chess match. So the coaches are much more involved than other sports where basketball, the ball is in constant motion. Soccer, the players figure it out. It's in constant motion. There's some tactics, there's some formation, some out-of-bounds plays, but every play is out-of-bounds play in football. So there's a lot more strategy than people probably know, and that's the fun part on TV. Now I get to break that down for the fans.

Dave Vellante

>> Yeah, and you've got to— as a professional athlete, you have to have some level of skill, but physical skill. But the mental, yeah, must knock a lot of guys out of the league.

Logan Ryan

>> Just, that's the greatest separator as you go up in level from Little League to high school to college. It gets faster. The athletes. You get to the NFL, all the

Dave Vellante

>> at—

Logan Ryan

>> this—the best athletes. We're all fast, we're all big, we all were all-state in high school, we're all the best in our towns.

Dave Vellante

>> Yeah, right.

Logan Ryan

>> Now it's a mental game, and you got to be able to process faster because I'm playing at that level for 11, 12 years. Tom Brady's been quarterback for 20 years. It's not like you have 4 years and you go graduate. Tom Brady's the quarterback year 4, year 5, year 6. He's getting his mental process faster. So it's about the mental processing power.

Dave Vellante

>> I saw a video of you. I think you were on FOX Business talking about the way in which you, you were a serial saver, like you didn't blow all the dough that you made in the NFL. I thought that was fascinating. Tell us a little bit about that story, maybe your upbringing that got you to that point where you said, hey, I'm making big money now. But I'm going to think to the future. Yeah, somewhat

Logan Ryan

>> rare.I think that was on

Dave Vellante

>> CNBC.Was it? Yeah, yeah, sorry.

Logan Ryan

>> No, you're

Dave Vellante

>> fine.Apologies to my friends at

Logan Ryan

>> CNBC.You're fine, right next door, man. yeah, I was— I kind of was raised not to share, don't check other people's pockets, don't worry about what you put, mind your own business, you don't got to flaunt your money, don't show your money. But I see so many stories of athletes making bad financial decisions, or we love to run with the stereotype that all athletes go broke, all athletes make terrible decisions. And I wanted to share, my side of the story where I made some good decisions. And I set myself up to retire at 33 years old, essentially. So long story short, I got drafted in the third round of the NFL Draft out of Rutgers to the New England Patriots. I'm probably looking at a million-dollar signing bonus, right? And then I'm probably going to look at maybe a $2 million contract over 4 years. So that's $500,000 a year and then $1 million up front. So that's life-changing money. But, um,

Dave Vellante

>> for—but easy to

Logan Ryan

>> spend.But easy to spend. when you look at— you got to buy your mom and dad a house, you got to buy yourself a car, you got to pay off your wife's tuition, you got to do this, you got to do that. you could spend a million bucks pretty quick with cars and houses in the first year. And obviously there's taxes. So my million dollars is really $500,000, which we gotta learn about. So long story short, I went to my parents and I was feeling this pressure to buy them something because they were great parents. They drove me to every practice. We didn't grow up with the most, but they scraped up enough to get me cleats every year and sign me up for the team. And I knew how much hard work they put in, both from Camden, New Jersey, high school sweethearts, didn't come from a lot. So I remember thinking, what am I gonna buy my parents? What am I gonna buy my parents? And I remember talking to my dad who was a cop in Camden, New Jersey, retired. Retiring soon at that time. And I said, so what do you guys want? He basically said, we're not changing our lifestyle. I'm keeping my job, your mom's gonna keep her job, we're staying in this house. That's your money, you should do the same, do what you want to do, but we don't need anything from you. We're proud we raised you to chase your dreams, and you're doing that. And there's more to chase. And when I heard my parents weren't gonna change their house, they weren't gonna change their lifestyle, then I wasn't gonna change mine. So I just rented an apartment with the signing bonus, rented a car, put the rest up in savings, went to work. Well, I was at work 12 hours a day anyway. So it really, they set the tone where we don't need to change just because you fell into some money. You don't need to change who you are or what you do and what time you wake up and what car you drive all the time. It's nice, but I didn't have to. So I kind of took that approach from my parents. Yeah.

Dave Vellante

>> Inspiring ethos. How did you get into investing? When did you get into investing? What led you there?

Logan Ryan

>> Yeah, so I knew if I wasn't spending it, one of my first hires that I made was a financial advisor. And I hired a financial advisor and I had the fear, like anybody, of going broke. And I was pretty frugal by nature. So I started learning about investing. I started very conservative, probably stocks and bonds. I don't think bonds made me a lot the last 10 years, but stocks and bonds, what anybody would probably start with, basic portfolio. It taught me how much of a check to save, and I really started to challenge myself when I started to learn about compound interest, about my money growing, and if you don't touch it, it will grow, and let it work for you. And I started learning that, and as I was hitting these bonuses, as a player, you get a postseason bonus, right? So every playoff game, I'm getting $50,000. Okay, I can— that can cover me. I can use that over a year. I can use that over the summer for travel and whatever. And I challenged myself to not touch my salary, just live on my bonuses. you get a lot of free things when you're in the NFL. My food was free at the facility.

Dave Vellante

>> Yeah,

Logan Ryan

>> yeah.traveling with the team all the time, I get a lot of free clothes. So if people are sending me things for free, so I didn't need to spend a lot of money, honestly. I kind of was getting what was free for me. And, when I learned about compound interest, I made it a challenge to myself to not touch my salary and live off of the bonuses, live off the interest. And that's something I started doing as a rookie, second-year player, and then As the checks got bigger, it got easier to do. I'll tell you that.

Dave Vellante

>> That's remarkable. Okay. And so bring us into your investment world. What are you investing in? obviously real estate, stocks, bonds, et cetera, but what's your kind of investment thesis?

Logan Ryan

>> it was very, it had to be conservative for quite some time. I had to build the base that it wasn't sexy, wasn't, wouldn't get me on a show right now. Uh, but it built me a good understanding of how things are going up and down and selling and all those things. It was a very conservative portfolio for quite some time. And then I started to take some risk into venture capital. Then I started to really get into AI and really starting to dip into this. Obviously the Magnificent Seven, the Googles and Apples and the Teslas and the NVIDIA and Microsoft and wherever else I'm missing. Right. So that really started my dive into tech and AI and startups and venture capital and kind of putting some calculated risk out there, getting some boom, getting some of that chase. But I had such a built-in, I had a 6-year run where I was making $10 million a year in salary. So that's $60 million before tax I essentially wasn't touching. And that really allowed me to start getting some interest and getting some real share into some companies and really start to go for some of this stuff. So, like all the cool things we talk about, I invest pretty well diversified, but a lot more in venture capital recently.

Dave Vellante

>> And obviously AI is everything. You're too young to remember the dot-com. I remember, but you weren't investing. Yeah, and I wasn't investing, but it was really stupid and out of control, but it was a lot of fun. I have to say, I always tell people, enjoy bubbles, they're a gift. For sure, for sure. And we may be in one right now, who knows. But bubbles don't always burst, but By the way, I mean, look at pro sports. Yeah, we've been in a bubble for 30

Logan Ryan

>> years.Well, that's what I'm really— this is what I'm really here to talk about is my goal of really being in ownership in pro teams, and they're allowing former players to do that. I would love to own a— if you're an NFL team, you need somebody that's won some Super Bowls, you need some insight in there. I would love to get some stake in an NFL franchise. And my son's a soccer player, and my love of soccer— my 8-year-old— I've consumed the World

Dave Vellante

>> Cup.Great

Logan Ryan

>> sport.We all did. And the last 4 or 5 years I've been watching a lot of international soccer and getting ownership in a soccer— football club, I should call it— internationally is definitely another goal of mine. And I think I'm close. I don't want to talk about it today. I don't want to jinx anything today, but I think I'm close on finding the right team and the right partnership to grow somewhere overseas. And hopefully next time when I'm back, we could talk about it.

Dave Vellante

>> I would love that. And I think the NFL or whatever pro teamgets you, would be a welcome addition. What about your animal rescue foundation? I don't know much about that. Yeah, tell us about that.

Logan Ryan

>> My life's just filled with stories. I married, my wife was a former dog trainer. She worked in a shelter doing very, very thankless work, I would call it. And I would go visit and spend time in the animal shelter throughout my career on Tuesdays, my off days. And then I would start featuring animals, help them get adopted. I got a heart for animals. We have 3 rescues right now in our house. And long story short, when things catch wave and people are sending you money and some stories are blowing up, you're just doing things out of goodness of your heart. And some things take off when you have the platform that I was fortunate to have of winning Super Bowls, and you go to the animal shelter on Tuesdays, that's a story. How can we help you? So my wife and I started the Ryan Animal Rescue Foundation, RARF for short, rarf.org, in 2017 after a viral wedding story had taken off. We raised a lot of money for dogs in St. Lucia, the street dogs, they call them in St. Lucia. So I got all my rich NFL friends to donate to them and we raised like tens of thousands of dollars over there and helped pick up the stray animals for quite some time. They named a dog in my honor. That story went viral. We land from our honeymoon back in Nashville, Tennessee and started Animal Foundation the day we got back from our honeymoon almost 10 years ago.

Dave Vellante

>> Amazing. You're in town. You're going to the Meadowlands this weekend.

Dave Vellante

>> MetLife.MetLife.

Logan Ryan

>> Sorry.Yeah, I know the Meadowlands though.

Dave Vellante

>> We went to the World Cup down there. It was the New York New Jersey Stadium.

Logan Ryan

>> Yeah, New York New Jersey

Dave Vellante

>> Stadium.They didn't pay the vig. So yes, MetLife. What can we expect? Give us a little— show us a little preview.

Logan Ryan

>> Well, now I'm working on CBS as a sports analyst. Basically, you hear my voice during football games. Which is cool because I've been studying football for a long time. I told you, 4 hours a day for quite— for over a decade of my life I've been studying football. And I get to be on the call for this upcoming Giants-Titans game. And they're two of my former teams, so I was at both organizations. I was the captain for the Giants, and I was a part of some great teams there in Tennessee as well. So I'm excited to be on the call— it almost feels unfair I get to call the game. I'm retired from the NFL 2 years ago, so some of these guys are my age. Not a lot, but there are still some my age that are still playing. And now I'm on the other side of it. So I go to practice and I go to the meetings and I see these coaches. I've been coached by Daboll before, and he'll be there and he'll be making his return. Yeah, right, to New York. And it looks like Jameis Winston's gonna start for New York, because Jaxson Dart had an injury. And I picked off Jameis Winston, so I played against him, and I defended Odell Beckham. So I have different stories and different insight, I think, than some other analysts on air that I get to tell. So I'm excited to call the game. Two of my former teams going at it. Should be a great one.

Dave Vellante

>> I'm excited to see Jameis. He's got— I think he's got game, and he got kind of thrown

Logan Ryan

>> in.He's gonna put the ball in the air, I promise you

Dave Vellante

>> that.You know that.

Logan Ryan

>> When the backup quarterback comes in, sometimes points go down, sometimes offenses get conservative. But I think with a week of preparation, Jameis Winston is known for throwing the ball down the field, and that could be good for the offense or good for the defense.

Dave Vellante

>> Yeah,

Logan Ryan

>> right.But the ball's going up for sure.

Dave Vellante

>> Logan Ryan, thanks so much for coming.

Logan Ryan

>> Appreciate it.

Dave Vellante

>> Really a pleasure having you. Very inspirational story. And thank you for watching. This is Dave Vellante. Keep it right there. We're right back right after this short break.

Logan Ryan, CBS NFL Analyst

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Logan Ryan

>> Palo Alto Studio Connection, Silicon Valley and Wall Street.

Dave Vellante

>> I'm John Furrier, co-hosting theCUBE here with Dave Vellante, my co-host. Hi everybody, I'm Dave Vellante. Welcome back to theCUBE's NYSE Wired Studio in the iconic Buttonwood podium high above the Options Exchange here at the NYSE. I'm with Logan Ryan. I want to tell you something about Logan. He's a 2-time Super Bowl champ. He's got a career spanning 11 years with my Patriots, the Titans. He was with the Giants, the Bucs, the 49ers. He was known for his pure instincts. He worked really hard, relentless preparation and durability. One of the most durable, frankly, defensive backs of his time. And today he's applying his elite skills off the field as one of the sharpest football analysts on television for CBS. But more relevant to our interest and our audience here at theCUBE, he's backing high-growth startups as a venture investor and running his own entrepreneurial ventures and an animal rescue foundation. Please welcome Super Bowl champ, analyst, and entrepreneur. And now I guess tech athlete.

Logan Ryan

>> Oh man.

Dave Vellante

>> Logan Ryan, welcome.

Logan Ryan

>> That is quite the introduction. I think I got to get some people to rewrite that and save that

Dave Vellante

>> for—Well deserved. We were talking off camera about your role as a defensive back.

Logan Ryan

>> Yeah.

Dave Vellante

>> Your durability was remarkable. I think when you played for the Patriots, you were— it was probably a 16-game season, at least a part of that, and you played every game.

Logan Ryan

>> I never missed a game, never missed a practice. And yeah, in 4 years there, we used to have something in the summertime called an Iron Man shirt you had to earn if you didn't miss one day of spring ball, one day of training camp. You're durable. So for 4 years in a row, I got that shirt. It was a big thing to me to be available to my team every single day and Yeah, I was telling you off air, there were some days it was hard to get up in the morning, feel like you're in a car crash. And I'm tackling people that weigh much more than me. I was 190, 195 pounds, which is big walking around New York, but in the NFL field, there's much bigger humans than that. So definitely took a beating, but gave out some beatings as well. So it's all

Dave Vellante

>> good.Well, as we were saying, you were put into a situation— I know, for instance, your last Super Bowl against Kansas City, Patrick was having at it, and their running game was going well. They were doing the short passing game. You were brought in to try to stop that. Yeah, and so you were almost in a way playing a linebacker position. Yeah, defensive back, right?

Logan Ryan

>> Yeah, I played that nickelback position, which is like an extra DB, but you take a linebacker off the field, so you have to be able to cover receivers well enough. So in that game, I had to cover Rashee Rice, who was at that time the Chiefs' number one receiver that year. So I had to cover their number one receiver while also having to get in the backfield and read and make plays in the run game and the short passing game. So it's a very unique position. It's hard to coach it. I think everyone kind of plays it differently. But from my years in New England and playing under Bill Belichick and then Mike Vrabel, I kind of developed my own style at it to be efficient. And, uh, San Francisco was looking for help for that, and I joined the team late in that year and ended up starting my third Super Bowl at 33 years old, playing against Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs.

Dave Vellante

>> And you played in three of the greatest Super Bowls

Logan Ryan

>> ever.Yeah, I think

Dave Vellante

>> so.I mean, Seattle, I think so, you know, run the damn ball, Malcolm, Malcolm

Logan Ryan

>> Butler.And then the 28-3, the 28-3, I think that's the greatest Super Bowl of all

Dave Vellante

>> time.I mean, the greatest comeback of all time. Of course I would say

Logan Ryan

>> that.They're all thrilling to the last

Dave Vellante

>> minute.I would say the game the Patriots lost to Philadelphia was also a fantastic game. Of course, the outcome wasn't what we wanted as fans, but then the San Francisco KC game, that went into overtime.

Logan Ryan

>> Yeah, it did. So I think if I'm not mistaken, only 2 Super Bowls ever went to overtime, and I was part of both of them. 28-3 was the first one. I think the Malcolm Butler interception's probably the greatest single play to flip a script of fortune, because it looked very likely that the Seahawks were going to win that Super Bowl if they scored. And for us to stop them, let alone get the ball and win it on our 1-yard line is the stereotypical mantra of defending every inch of grass. So I definitely put those 3 Super Bowls, even though the last one's not my favorite because I lost it, I think they're 3 of the top 5 Super Bowls for sure.

Dave Vellante

>> And you weren't playing that year, right? Most of the year you were—

Logan Ryan

>> yeah, I was on a Disney cruise.

Dave Vellante

>> Were you retired? Retired? Free agent?

Logan Ryan

>> I was retired.

Dave Vellante

>> So they had a bunch of injuries, San Francisco, and in the defensive backfield, correct?

Logan Ryan

>> They had one injury to an important starter, Talanoa Hufanga, who's an All-Pro.

Dave Vellante

>> Yes, right, right.

Logan Ryan

>> And I was— story goes I was retired on a Disney cruise because my wife and I never had a Thanksgiving tradition. I always played or had practice. So I said, hey, I'm retiring this year, so what do you want to do on Thanksgiving? And we didn't know if we want to go to her family in Delaware or my family in Jersey or bring both parents in. So we really didn't know how to do it. So we said, let's just go on a cruise. Why don't we just vacation over the holiday and see what it is? So we booked this Disney cruise to get away, don't have to cook a dinner. All right, we have two young kids, we love Disney. And as I was pulling up to the ship, essentially walking in, John Lynch from the 49ers called me And it felt like a John Wick movie. It was one last mission. The Niners are really good at the time. They lost a key starter and they didn't want to go get an unproven player. I think they were 12-1. And they heard that I stay in shape. They heard about how my work ethic is. And I don't know, I don't know if they spoke to Tom Brady or something, but they got a good report about me and they said, we need you to come off this cruise. And I said, I'm not leaving this cruise right now. My wife would divorce me. But give me a week and let me work on it. And I came off that Disney cruise. I had to put the beverages down, forget the drink package. I had to hit the Disney gym twice a day. Good gym on that cruise ship. And I ended up joining the 49ers 2 weeks later from Thanksgiving and ended up starting in my third Super Bowl pretty soon after

Dave Vellante

>> that.Amazing story. And then, of course, Brady's last game. I've been going to the Patriots games since they built that

Logan Ryan

>> stadium.We're not going to

Dave Vellante

>> Texas.And I said to my family, I said, listen, this could be Tom's last game. The guy changed. Changed our lives in New England. You guys are remarkable. Let's go. And that was a good game, actually. People don't realize, Tennessee, you guys were really solid that year, and Derrick Henry was just a beast. and you did a pick six, Tom Brady's last pass as a New England Patriot. Crazy. Logan Ryan picked it off and went for 6.

Logan Ryan

>> You can't make that story up. I just remember jogging on the field, and I think there's 40 seconds left or 30 seconds left, and it's Patriots down 1. Tom Brady has the ball, and I've been on his side quite some times where I've seen these comebacks happen all the time.

Dave Vellante

>> I said, we got this.

Logan Ryan

>> And this is what it's set up for. And when Mike Vrabel looked at us on the Titans and said, hey, one more stop. And I'm like, well, here we go. And fortunately the ball got tipped in my direction and I ended up picking it off and scoring and putting the game out of reach. And that ended up being Tom's last.

Dave Vellante

>> Well, there was a rare drop by Julian in that series. I don't know if you remember that. Yeah, and then that set up your pick-six. Yeah, yeah, it was amazing. What about Belichick versus Vrabel? It's like two polar opposites. What was it like playing for those guys?

Logan Ryan

>> I wouldn't say they're polar opposites. I would say that Vrabel went to the school of Belichick in the sense of how to learn. I think Bill Belichick's the greatest teacher of football ever. I think he's the greatest coach ever, and I got a master's degree in football from Bill Belichick because the way he taught us, and he taught us the history, to respect the history. Belichick used to have us watch black and white tape to watch stuff in the '50s and the '60s and learning the history of defense. And I think Mike Vrabel did a great job of being a star student learning that and then applying it to modern-day football, which has changed a little bit from even 10 years ago when I was a Patriot. So I think Belichick has— Vrabel, that is— does a great job relating to the modern-day players. They're different now. They're coming out of college, NIL, These young kids are different. So I think he does a good job relating to them, but still a lot of the same school of thought that I learned, that he learned. And he's a great natural leader of men. And anytime you're a former player coaching, you get a sense of credibility from the players in the locker room. And I think Vrabel earned his respect that way. And then obviously his football intelligence is through the roof.

Dave Vellante

>> So you think more similarities than differences then?

Logan Ryan

>> Yeah, there's a lot of similarities in how they— taking you behind the scenes of how they game plan And they really both believe in— was it Sun Tzu, Art of War?

Logan Ryan

>> Yeah.Taking away what your opponent wants to do best. Mm-hmm. there's not a style that they play like, this is what we do. It's like, no, we're going to take away what you do and we're both going to play left-handed and we'll see who's better left-handed. And I think you need a certain coach who's willing to coach differently every game. You need a certain type of player that's willing to say, hey, even though last week that worked, you got to do something completely different this week. And I really respect that because that's the best way to win.

Dave Vellante

>> It's a very situational—

Logan Ryan

>> very situational.

Dave Vellante

>> Is that, in your view, relatively unique in the NFL where people just say, hey, we do what we do well, we're just going to do it? Or is that sort of where the league is now—

Logan Ryan

>> look at it in life and look at it in business, how many people are willing to change what got them there? Yeah. So you can have success one week and you can take your investment a whole different direction. Like, whoa, whoa, whoa, history doesn't show— well, This is what we need to do to win this week. And I think you need a certain amount of moxie because if it doesn't work, who's it fall on? It falls on the coach. So I think they do a great job of coming up with game plans that they feel confident in.

Dave Vellante

>> I want to get into investing, but last question I have on football is I want you to explain how sophisticated and complicated it is. for those of us who played a little football.

Dave Vellante

>> Yeah.and just the NFL game seems to be just so technical, it's so deep, and you must have to really study hard. Yeah, to keep up.

Logan Ryan

>> So I would put it like this quite simply. My NFL day was typically a 12-hour workday. I would get in at 6 in the morning, a little earlier. I would leave around 6 PM. We only practice for maybe 90 minutes to 2 hours a day of actually on the field practicing, and that's only 4 days a week, 3 or 4 days a week. All the other time I'm in meetings, watching film, watching tape. I'm watching at least 4 hours of film a day, at least 16 hours, 20 hours of prep of film work alone before going into a game. I'm only practicing about 8 hours. So almost twice of what we think of when we play sports, go to practice. Imagine another double that. You're at home watching an iPad, you're watching plays over and over and over again. And I will say that football, unlike other sports, we say it's 11v11, but it's really 12v12 because every play is a dead ball. Your coach calls a play in the sand, my coach calls a play in the sand. Every play is designed to take away what you do well. There's— every play has a strength and a weakness. So it's a chess match. So the coaches are much more involved than other sports where basketball, the ball is in constant motion. Soccer, the players figure it out. It's in constant motion. There's some tactics, there's some formation, some out-of-bounds plays, but every play is out-of-bounds play in football. So there's a lot more strategy than people probably know, and that's the fun part on TV. Now I get to break that down for the fans.

Dave Vellante

>> Yeah, and you've got to— as a professional athlete, you have to have some level of skill, but physical skill. But the mental, yeah, must knock a lot of guys out of the league.

Logan Ryan

>> Just, that's the greatest separator as you go up in level from Little League to high school to college. It gets faster. The athletes. You get to the NFL, all the

Dave Vellante

>> at—

Logan Ryan

>> this—the best athletes. We're all fast, we're all big, we all were all-state in high school, we're all the best in our towns.

Dave Vellante

>> Yeah, right.

Logan Ryan

>> Now it's a mental game, and you got to be able to process faster because I'm playing at that level for 11, 12 years. Tom Brady's been quarterback for 20 years. It's not like you have 4 years and you go graduate. Tom Brady's the quarterback year 4, year 5, year 6. He's getting his mental process faster. So it's about the mental processing power.

Dave Vellante

>> I saw a video of you. I think you were on FOX Business talking about the way in which you, you were a serial saver, like you didn't blow all the dough that you made in the NFL. I thought that was fascinating. Tell us a little bit about that story, maybe your upbringing that got you to that point where you said, hey, I'm making big money now. But I'm going to think to the future. Yeah, somewhat

Logan Ryan

>> rare.I think that was on

Dave Vellante

>> CNBC.Was it? Yeah, yeah, sorry.

Logan Ryan

>> No, you're

Dave Vellante

>> fine.Apologies to my friends at

Logan Ryan

>> CNBC.You're fine, right next door, man. yeah, I was— I kind of was raised not to share, don't check other people's pockets, don't worry about what you put, mind your own business, you don't got to flaunt your money, don't show your money. But I see so many stories of athletes making bad financial decisions, or we love to run with the stereotype that all athletes go broke, all athletes make terrible decisions. And I wanted to share, my side of the story where I made some good decisions. And I set myself up to retire at 33 years old, essentially. So long story short, I got drafted in the third round of the NFL Draft out of Rutgers to the New England Patriots. I'm probably looking at a million-dollar signing bonus, right? And then I'm probably going to look at maybe a $2 million contract over 4 years. So that's $500,000 a year and then $1 million up front. So that's life-changing money. But, um,

Dave Vellante

>> for—but easy to

Logan Ryan

>> spend.But easy to spend. when you look at— you got to buy your mom and dad a house, you got to buy yourself a car, you got to pay off your wife's tuition, you got to do this, you got to do that. you could spend a million bucks pretty quick with cars and houses in the first year. And obviously there's taxes. So my million dollars is really $500,000, which we gotta learn about. So long story short, I went to my parents and I was feeling this pressure to buy them something because they were great parents. They drove me to every practice. We didn't grow up with the most, but they scraped up enough to get me cleats every year and sign me up for the team. And I knew how much hard work they put in, both from Camden, New Jersey, high school sweethearts, didn't come from a lot. So I remember thinking, what am I gonna buy my parents? What am I gonna buy my parents? And I remember talking to my dad who was a cop in Camden, New Jersey, retired. Retiring soon at that time. And I said, so what do you guys want? He basically said, we're not changing our lifestyle. I'm keeping my job, your mom's gonna keep her job, we're staying in this house. That's your money, you should do the same, do what you want to do, but we don't need anything from you. We're proud we raised you to chase your dreams, and you're doing that. And there's more to chase. And when I heard my parents weren't gonna change their house, they weren't gonna change their lifestyle, then I wasn't gonna change mine. So I just rented an apartment with the signing bonus, rented a car, put the rest up in savings, went to work. Well, I was at work 12 hours a day anyway. So it really, they set the tone where we don't need to change just because you fell into some money. You don't need to change who you are or what you do and what time you wake up and what car you drive all the time. It's nice, but I didn't have to. So I kind of took that approach from my parents. Yeah.

Dave Vellante

>> Inspiring ethos. How did you get into investing? When did you get into investing? What led you there?

Logan Ryan

>> Yeah, so I knew if I wasn't spending it, one of my first hires that I made was a financial advisor. And I hired a financial advisor and I had the fear, like anybody, of going broke. And I was pretty frugal by nature. So I started learning about investing. I started very conservative, probably stocks and bonds. I don't think bonds made me a lot the last 10 years, but stocks and bonds, what anybody would probably start with, basic portfolio. It taught me how much of a check to save, and I really started to challenge myself when I started to learn about compound interest, about my money growing, and if you don't touch it, it will grow, and let it work for you. And I started learning that, and as I was hitting these bonuses, as a player, you get a postseason bonus, right? So every playoff game, I'm getting $50,000. Okay, I can— that can cover me. I can use that over a year. I can use that over the summer for travel and whatever. And I challenged myself to not touch my salary, just live on my bonuses. you get a lot of free things when you're in the NFL. My food was free at the facility.

Dave Vellante

>> Yeah,

Logan Ryan

>> yeah.traveling with the team all the time, I get a lot of free clothes. So if people are sending me things for free, so I didn't need to spend a lot of money, honestly. I kind of was getting what was free for me. And, when I learned about compound interest, I made it a challenge to myself to not touch my salary and live off of the bonuses, live off the interest. And that's something I started doing as a rookie, second-year player, and then As the checks got bigger, it got easier to do. I'll tell you that.

Dave Vellante

>> That's remarkable. Okay. And so bring us into your investment world. What are you investing in? obviously real estate, stocks, bonds, et cetera, but what's your kind of investment thesis?

Logan Ryan

>> it was very, it had to be conservative for quite some time. I had to build the base that it wasn't sexy, wasn't, wouldn't get me on a show right now. Uh, but it built me a good understanding of how things are going up and down and selling and all those things. It was a very conservative portfolio for quite some time. And then I started to take some risk into venture capital. Then I started to really get into AI and really starting to dip into this. Obviously the Magnificent Seven, the Googles and Apples and the Teslas and the NVIDIA and Microsoft and wherever else I'm missing. Right. So that really started my dive into tech and AI and startups and venture capital and kind of putting some calculated risk out there, getting some boom, getting some of that chase. But I had such a built-in, I had a 6-year run where I was making $10 million a year in salary. So that's $60 million before tax I essentially wasn't touching. And that really allowed me to start getting some interest and getting some real share into some companies and really start to go for some of this stuff. So, like all the cool things we talk about, I invest pretty well diversified, but a lot more in venture capital recently.

Dave Vellante

>> And obviously AI is everything. You're too young to remember the dot-com. I remember, but you weren't investing. Yeah, and I wasn't investing, but it was really stupid and out of control, but it was a lot of fun. I have to say, I always tell people, enjoy bubbles, they're a gift. For sure, for sure. And we may be in one right now, who knows. But bubbles don't always burst, but By the way, I mean, look at pro sports. Yeah, we've been in a bubble for 30

Logan Ryan

>> years.Well, that's what I'm really— this is what I'm really here to talk about is my goal of really being in ownership in pro teams, and they're allowing former players to do that. I would love to own a— if you're an NFL team, you need somebody that's won some Super Bowls, you need some insight in there. I would love to get some stake in an NFL franchise. And my son's a soccer player, and my love of soccer— my 8-year-old— I've consumed the World

Dave Vellante

>> Cup.Great

Logan Ryan

>> sport.We all did. And the last 4 or 5 years I've been watching a lot of international soccer and getting ownership in a soccer— football club, I should call it— internationally is definitely another goal of mine. And I think I'm close. I don't want to talk about it today. I don't want to jinx anything today, but I think I'm close on finding the right team and the right partnership to grow somewhere overseas. And hopefully next time when I'm back, we could talk about it.

Dave Vellante

>> I would love that. And I think the NFL or whatever pro teamgets you, would be a welcome addition. What about your animal rescue foundation? I don't know much about that. Yeah, tell us about that.

Logan Ryan

>> My life's just filled with stories. I married, my wife was a former dog trainer. She worked in a shelter doing very, very thankless work, I would call it. And I would go visit and spend time in the animal shelter throughout my career on Tuesdays, my off days. And then I would start featuring animals, help them get adopted. I got a heart for animals. We have 3 rescues right now in our house. And long story short, when things catch wave and people are sending you money and some stories are blowing up, you're just doing things out of goodness of your heart. And some things take off when you have the platform that I was fortunate to have of winning Super Bowls, and you go to the animal shelter on Tuesdays, that's a story. How can we help you? So my wife and I started the Ryan Animal Rescue Foundation, RARF for short, rarf.org, in 2017 after a viral wedding story had taken off. We raised a lot of money for dogs in St. Lucia, the street dogs, they call them in St. Lucia. So I got all my rich NFL friends to donate to them and we raised like tens of thousands of dollars over there and helped pick up the stray animals for quite some time. They named a dog in my honor. That story went viral. We land from our honeymoon back in Nashville, Tennessee and started Animal Foundation the day we got back from our honeymoon almost 10 years ago.

Dave Vellante

>> Amazing. You're in town. You're going to the Meadowlands this weekend.

Dave Vellante

>> MetLife.MetLife.

Logan Ryan

>> Sorry.Yeah, I know the Meadowlands though.

Dave Vellante

>> We went to the World Cup down there. It was the New York New Jersey Stadium.

Logan Ryan

>> Yeah, New York New Jersey

Dave Vellante

>> Stadium.They didn't pay the vig. So yes, MetLife. What can we expect? Give us a little— show us a little preview.

Logan Ryan

>> Well, now I'm working on CBS as a sports analyst. Basically, you hear my voice during football games. Which is cool because I've been studying football for a long time. I told you, 4 hours a day for quite— for over a decade of my life I've been studying football. And I get to be on the call for this upcoming Giants-Titans game. And they're two of my former teams, so I was at both organizations. I was the captain for the Giants, and I was a part of some great teams there in Tennessee as well. So I'm excited to be on the call— it almost feels unfair I get to call the game. I'm retired from the NFL 2 years ago, so some of these guys are my age. Not a lot, but there are still some my age that are still playing. And now I'm on the other side of it. So I go to practice and I go to the meetings and I see these coaches. I've been coached by Daboll before, and he'll be there and he'll be making his return. Yeah, right, to New York. And it looks like Jameis Winston's gonna start for New York, because Jaxson Dart had an injury. And I picked off Jameis Winston, so I played against him, and I defended Odell Beckham. So I have different stories and different insight, I think, than some other analysts on air that I get to tell. So I'm excited to call the game. Two of my former teams going at it. Should be a great one.

Dave Vellante

>> I'm excited to see Jameis. He's got— I think he's got game, and he got kind of thrown

Logan Ryan

>> in.He's gonna put the ball in the air, I promise you

Dave Vellante

>> that.You know that.

Logan Ryan

>> When the backup quarterback comes in, sometimes points go down, sometimes offenses get conservative. But I think with a week of preparation, Jameis Winston is known for throwing the ball down the field, and that could be good for the offense or good for the defense.

Dave Vellante

>> Yeah,

Logan Ryan

>> right.But the ball's going up for sure.

Dave Vellante

>> Logan Ryan, thanks so much for coming.

Logan Ryan

>> Appreciate it.

Dave Vellante

>> Really a pleasure having you. Very inspirational story. And thank you for watching. This is Dave Vellante. Keep it right there. We're right back right after this short break.