Add in the fact that the three-time Pro Bowl honoree hasn’t missed
a game since he was chosen as a first-round draft pick by the Skins in
2011 while stepping into the NFL spotlight as a rookie starter that year,
and it seems as though Kerrigan really is wearing a blue cape under his
burgundy and gold uniform. He did all of this despite having off-season
surgery twice (knee and elbow), which didn’t seem to slow him down
for a moment.
That’s actually a key part of Kerrigan’s plan: to make every day count,
both professionally and personally. And he does it with a discipline that
others only marvel at.
“You’ve got to do the little things that others aren’t willing to do if
you want to separate yourself,” Kerrigan told us during a recent chat
in D.C. “You’ve got to figure out new ways to take care of your body,
to not only allow you to perform on Sunday, but allow you to be able
to practice each day. So there’s a lot that goes into it, a lot of body
maintenance, a lot of preparation.”
Keeping his body to those Superman standards means Kerrigan
isn’t like most normal human beings; in fact, he really is superhuman
when it comes to discipline. “My diet is… where I feel like I make my
difference,” he muses. “Because everybody works out, everybody lifts,
everybody runs. But where I make my difference is how I eat and how
consistently healthy I eat. I eat a lot of protein, a lot of good carbs and
a lot of vegetables. And I feel like that really helps me feel good from
week 1 to week 17.”
And for as long as he’s playing as a linebacker in the NFL, he’s not
going to budge on that diet.
“I have a cheat week, and that’s in the off season. It’s [always] the first
week after the season, whenever the season’s done. I’ll kind of allow
myself to eat whatever. Usually a lot of pizza that week, some beer,”
he says with a grin. “That’s it. Every other week it’s pretty restrictive.”
Being ready to play both mentally and physically is key to Kerrigan’s
personal success as a player; and in the 2018 season, he’s confident
that his whole team is ready, too, to make a real run at a Super Bowl
victory. It’s been decades since the team accomplished that elusive
goal — the last time being in 1991 — when Ryan Kerrigan was a
toddler, but with a new, experienced quarterback at the helm, Kerrigan
feels confident that this just might be the year the Redskins hoist the
Lombardi trophy for the fourth time in the team’s history.
“Alex Smith has really adapted to the leadership [of the team] very
well. I mean, it’s been really impressive how quickly he’s kind of taken
command of the team, and taken command of the offense. So we’re
excited to have him,” Kerrigan says.
“I think everyone feels that [we can go all the way] at this point in
the year, but we [really] know what we’re capable of,” he adds. “It’s
all about us executing, bringing it, preparing each week, and staying
healthy. That’s a big thing. We had a lot of injuries last year, so hopefully
those guys that have come back from an injury can stay healthy.”
Good health is a league-wide focus, with the NFL putting in numerous
protocols in recent years to protect players from concussions as well as
continuing its annual October spotlight on the need for cancer cures.
The Think Pink! Breast Cancer initiative that began with the Washingt on
Redskins’ pink ribbon campaign 20 years ago and has continued with
Tanya Snyder, the wife of team owner Dan Snyder, who became a
leading advocate for awareness about breast cancer after her own
diagnosis of the disease. Along with the American Cancer Society, the
league is still putting the spotlight on breast cancer, and also a variety of
other cancers that can be managed with early detection.
For Kerrigan personally, the program has helped him to understand
what a powerful platform for good is available not only for each NFL
team, but for him as a player, assisting him with another part of his
life plan — to use his fame and fortune to help make a difference in
peoples’ lives. “I think it’s provided a lot of awareness and it makes
people realize the urgency in providing funding to find a cure. And the
more you learn about it, the more it serves as a good motivational tool
to make people be aware,” he reflects.
Kerrigan was motivated to create his own charitable organization,
the Blitz for the Better Foundation, in 2013, specifically to help kids in
need in his adopted home of Washington, D.C. “Our goal is to provide
opportunities and resources for physically challenged, mentally
challenged kids in the [D.C.] area, kids with chronic illness; and just
give them opportunities, give them resources,” the Reston, Virginia,
resident explains.
“Whether that’s financial grants or whether that’s our eight Kerrigan’s
Korners in the hospitals that serve as an escape for kids who have an
extended stay in the hospital. We just want to make these kids’ lives,
and their family’s lives, a little better.”
“
You’ve got to do the little
things that others aren’t willing
to do if you want to separate
yourself . . .
”
Kerrigan, who himself knows about being ill as a child, (he lost the
hearing in his left ear at age eight due to an ear infection) established
the foundation when he was just 25. That was two years after
signing his rookie contract with the Redskins which made him a
multimillionaire, enabling him to financially back the initiative, which
has now grown even bigger.
“We recently launched the Positive IMPACT Fund, which allows us to
provide financial grants to families that have come on hard times with
medical bills and such,” Kerrigan reveals. That’s another part of his
plan to keep helping needy children, something the famously frugal
star athlete (who in 2015 signed a five-year contract extension worth
$57.5 million with the team) intends to continue to support.
He just might be supporting some children of his own, too, in the
coming years, as Ryan Kerrigan recently said, “I do” to Jessica
Mazura in a March 2018 wedding ceremony held in Huntington Beach,
California, near the bride’s hometown of Newport Beach. That’s where
the newlyweds recently bought a house, too, but Ryan, who hails
originally from Indiana, insists that “D.C. is home.”
CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE
AUTUMN 2018
7 FLYWASHINGTON.COM