A little more than a year ago, New York Giants safety Logan Ryan was on the phone with his wife, Ashley, following a Monday night loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Ashley had headed down to Florida to vote in the 2020 Presidential Election and to check on their home when she began to experience severe stomach pains.

Since Ryan had just received postgame treatment, he gave a call to Giants trainer Justin Maher, who advised Ashley to head to the emergency room immediately.

After being tested at an UrgentCare facility, Ashley was sent to a local hospital and rushed into emergency surgery. She was dealing with an ectopic pregnancy, the baby was not viable and her life was suddenly on the line.

In a matter of moments, the Ryans went from learning a new baby, Ozzy, was on the way to dealing with the reality of loss and fighting for Ashley’s life.

Following the loss and during their mourning, Ryan returned to the team. He explained why the following week.

“I just want to talk about something I don’t think people really much know about Joe (Judge) and this organization. I know we talk a lot about wins and losses. I don’t want to take up too much of people’s time,” Ryan explained at the time. “But after the game, my wife flew down to Florida to go vote, a very important state for this vote. My wife actually flew down there to go vote and check on our house. We have a house in Florida. She was having some stomach pains. It was 1 a.m. and I was banged up after the game as well, and I was leaving the stadium at 1 a.m. She was telling me about some pain she had in her stomach. She wanted to sleep it off. She was in extreme pain, but she said she’ll wait until the morning.

“I talked to one of our trainers about the symptoms. He said ‘no, she needs to go to the ER.’ My wife ended up going to the ER, and they ended up catching ectopic pregnancy, where the egg was in the wrong place in her fallopian tube and it was about to burst. She ended up going into emergency surgery, that’s what I’m dealing with right now. They ended up saving her and ended up preventing a lot of what could have been done.”

Ultimately, Ryan said, he wanted to peel back the curtain in East Rutherford and show everyone who Joe Judge was and what the Giants organization stands for.

Ryan also wanted Justin Maher to know how grateful he was.

“That was a trainer on our team, Justin Maher, telling my wife to go to the ER at 1 a.m. and could have saved her life or saved a lot of internal bleeding there. That’s the type of organization we have here,” Ryan said. “Honestly, I wasn’t going to talk about that. My kids are okay, my wife is recovering well, she’s okay. This happened all , and Joe said ‘if you need to fly to Florida, don’t worry about football.’ That’s who Joe is as a man and as a coach.

“I know we care about X’s and O’s and winning and losing, but there are really good people here. That’s why I came here. There are really good trainers here, there are really a lot of people behind the scenes that are working really hard for us to get wins. I’ll do everything I can to play for a coach like that and play for an organization like this because if that wasn’t the case, I don’t know if my wife would be here today. Honestly, I’m extremely grateful for this organization and for Joe, and for everyone to understand that there are things bigger than football, especially this year.”

Judge wouldn’t talk much about the Ryans private life but made sure everyone knew that family comes first.

A year removed from those trials and tribulations, Logan and Ashley have decided to open up a bit more.

“He went to sleep thinking, ‘Wow, we’re pregnant. We’re going to have a baby.’ We have this baby that we’re both excited about and we’re a team,” Ashley recalled.

But Ashley recognized that something was off. And it wasn’t long after that realization that doctors sent her in for life-saving surgery.

The news took Logan by surprise.

“Like, what? Hold up. I thought we were pregnant,” Logan said. “Her fallopian tube ended up rupturing on her way to the surgery. They caught it right after it broke. That could have happened anywhere and she’s in an ambulance when it happened.”

Terrifyingly, it was that close.

“It was really miraculous for her to survive that night,” Logan said.

Despite the serious and traumatic nature of their situation and their loss, Ashley told Logan to return to the Giants and “go play” against the Washington Football Team. Logan agreed and promised to bring a football home for his wife.

Ashley asked for two — one for her and one for Ozzy.

“I spray-painted my cleats white and I wrote in marker, “Ash” on one cleat and “Ozzy” on the other cleat,” Logan said.

On the first play of the game, Logan forced a fumble that was recovered by Jabrill Peppers. Football No. 1 was in hand. Now it was time for football No. 2.

With under 2:00 remaining and Alex Smith in at quarterback for Washington, the Giants were nursing a short lead. They needed a defensive stop to secure the win and in an almost divine way, Logan came up with the game-sealing interception.

Football No. 2 secured.

“I ran to the camera and I rocked the (football) like a baby. I said, “this is for you and I love you,'” Logan said.

“I felt like his love and all of that. And it just felt like we’re going to be okay,” Ashley said.

Ashley admits that sometimes she feels like she’s at fault for the loss even though things were out of her control. But despite the emotional trauma, the Ryans pressed forward. They wear bracelets with the name “Ozzy” every single day and in the midst of continued mourning, are grateful for what they do have.

Logan was recently named the Giants’ nominee for the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award and credits Ashley, who is now completely healthy, will helping to inspire many of their charitable initiatives.

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