A Closer Look: Bobby Ryan

While I am always rooting for Team USA, in a Team USA devoid of Flyers and filled with Devils, I'll admit it is kind of hard to find individual players to root for. Sure I could hop on the David Backes Bandwagon, but I am pretty sure every USA fan has done that now (at least all Team USA Puck Daddy readers). It has been mentioned countless times by Doc and Edzo that Bobby Ryan is from Cherry Hill, New Jersey (which is near Philly in Southern Jersey; a.k.a. the good part of NJ), but if you couple that with his incredible story, then it is difficult to not root for him, regardless of what team you are a fan of, let alone if you are a passionate Flyers fan. The Star Ledger has the incredible background story of the American Olympian. It is a long story, but take the time to read it, as you won't soon forget it.

Bobby Shane Stevenson awoke to a nightmare on Oct. 30, 1997.

The 10-year-old had fallen asleep shortly after returning from attending a Philadelphia Flyers game the night before. He went to bed upstairs not knowing his life would change forever in the next few hours.

He didn’t hear his dad — insurance company owner Robert Stevenson — storm into the family home in Cherry Hill, drunk, looking for his mother, Melody. Stevenson was sure his wife was taking drugs.

Their only child didn’t hear the screams and the panic. He didn’t see the bizarre chase down the street into a neighbor’s house. His father, an amateur boxer, ripped the door off the hinges and whaled away at the love of his life, causing her to bleed from her mouth and sending her to Cooper University Hospital in Camden for four days with four broken ribs, a fracture to her skull and a punctured lung.

Robert Stevenson was charged with attempted murder and five other felony counts. He tried to obtain a passport using the name of a dead baby before jumping bail. He fled to Canada and his wife, who had forgiven him, and his son later joined him.

Robert Stevenson and his son changed their names and lived under assumed identities and the family lived on the lam.

Today, the boy who protected his family’s dark and complicated secret for much of his life is a pivotal part of the U.S. Olympic hockey team that faces Canada.

The name on the back of his hockey jersey is different from the one he was born with, but Bobby Ryan realized he needed to tell the truth and no longer hides from it.

"I didn’t feel like I really had an identity," says the 22-year-old star of the National Hockey League’s Anaheim Ducks. "I knew I had to tell my story."

And his father has never forgotten how that one night long ago changed three lives so dramatically.

"I regret it every day," he says. "This is mine for the rest of my life. Fortunately, I have two people that put me in a position to be able to make it up to them."

‘YOU’RE BOBBY RYAN’

On the run, he combed parts of Canada and Alaska, looking for good junior hockey programs for his son. Bobby had a gift that needed to be cultivated.

The fugitive’s scouting trip ended in El Segundo, Calif., just outside Los Angeles, where an elite hockey feeder system was in place.

Before his wife and son arrived, Stevenson changed his name. Bob Stevenson became Shane Ryan, an alias created after watching the movie "Saving Private Ryan."

His son changed his name, too.

Bobby Stevenson disappeared.

"My parents made it clear," he says. "They were serious, so I only had to be told once: ‘You’re Bobby Ryan to anybody who asks. No exceptions."

While the father became a professional gambler, his son’s game on the ice flourished under an assumed identity.

The family had repaired the wounds, even if they were still living with their secret.

Then one day in February 2000, Bobby Ryan was sleeping on a couch on the first floor of their home when his world changed again.

It was 4:45 a.m.

Federal marshals burst into the house and took away his father at gunpoint. The man who had set in motion a new life for his family 3,000 miles from his crime had made one critical mistake: He used an old credit card to rent a movie at Blockbuster.

Law enforcement tracked him down shortly thereafter.

The ruse was over.

A SON'S CROSSROADS

Ryan was extradited to New Jersey, where he pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and jumping bail. He was sentenced to five years in a Camden prison.

The father has legally changed his name to Bob Ryan and works at Bob Clarke’s Gym in Cherry Hill, owned by the Flyers’ former star and current executive. Bob Ryan says he regrets what he did 13 years ago but he doesn’t regret his decision to flee from New Jersey.

"It probably makes absolutely no sense to 95 percent of the people," he says. "I’m not saying that what happened was good. I’m saying what happened had positive changes for Bobby."

The kid rocketed up the youth rankings in Michigan and thrived in the Ontario Hockey League in Canada. The father saw none of it.

"I missed more games than I care to count," Bob Ryan says. "I couldn’t travel to Canada because the parole department wouldn’t permit me to. But I wouldn’t trade any of those things for where he ended up."

As the 2005 NHL Draft approached, Bobby Ryan reached a crossroads. He didn’t want to hide behind the family secret anymore.

"It wasn’t easy by any means," the player says. "I didn’t want to have people ask about my parents and have to lie. If you hide it, it’s more than likely going to come out at some point. Then you’re going to have to deal with the repercussions of not being honest in the first place."

So Ryan exposed his complicated past before the Ducks selected him with the No. 2 overall pick, just after the Pittsburgh Penguins drafted Sidney Crosby. "Through it all, I became more independent," Ryan says. "I certainly don’t have any skeletons in my closet."

IN THE STANDS

The couple inside the house on Merchant Street in Cherry Hill lives a simple life now. Bobby Ryan and Melody (who has kept her married name, Stevenson) are still together. They’ll both be in the stands today to cheer for their son.

"Does he have scars? Probably," the father says. "But he’s a good kid. He’s honest. He’s forthright. He’s genuinely good to other people. He took the right path."

The name stretched across the back of his son’s jersey is no longer an anchor.

"Stevenson was just going to bring about turmoil," Bobby Ryan says.

A 6-foot-2, 210-pound forward with a blend of speed and power, Ryan has flourished in his first two seasons in the NHL. In 2009, he finished second in the voting for the Calder Trophy, awarded to the league’s top rookie.

"He’s a guy that can change a game by himself," said Team USA architect Brian Burke, who was Anaheim’s general manager five years ago when he drafted Ryan. "This guy can break a game open."

Last Monday, the day before he scored Team USA’s first goal of the Olympics, the young star stood inside Canada Hockey Place, retracing his strange road and sharing a family saga that somehow emboldened him.

Bobby Ryan stopped hiding long ago.

It certainly takes a lot of bravery to be honest about a past like that. And if something like that comes out accidentally during a season and is revealed by some random reporter, it would most likely be some sort of hockey scandal. Ryan set himself free by clearing the air early on his career and now it is one less thing that he has to worry about when he is on the ice. That's not to say he is not forgetful of it, but could you imagine hiding something like that while playing in front of thousands of fans over 82 times per year?

There may not be a Flyer per se on Team USA, but Bobby Ryan is certainly the player who I am really rooting to do something special for Team USA. He already has a goal for Team USA and he is certainly someone that Flyers fans can really get behind, and frankly if there is one person on this team who I want to score a game-winning goal in a potential gold medal game, it is Bobby Ryan. You would be hard-pressed to find a more deserving player than him.

A Closer Look: Jahri Evans

I talked about this ad nauseum during the live blog last night and even mentioned it in my after-game post, but the Pro Bowl offensive lineman is the 1st person out of the college that I go to, Bloomsburg University, to go to the Super Bowl.

The Pro Bowl right guard has been fantastic for the Saints, and while I was mistaken in that he was a multi-time Pro Bowler (this year was his first time voted, although I could have sworn he got in last year, but whatever), the Saints uncovered a gem in this 4th round draft pick. And because I get such the proverbial hard-on for local products that end up successful on the big stage, I figured I would share this story with you by Jeff McLane about Evans in yesterday's Philadelphia Inquirer.

Growing up in North Philadelphia, the New Orleans Saints guard had "four moms" - his mother, Katreen Hopkins, and his three older sisters, Carmela, Geana, and Cheryl. They are the reason he is playing in tonight's NFC championship game against Minnesota, the 26-year-old Evans said.

"My mother was strict, but not overly strict," said Jahri (pronounced Jah-ree). "Because having three older sisters was kind of like having four moms at the same time. They were a lot older than me. My younger sister is 20 years older.

"But they were very influential on my life. Growing up in the neighborhood, it was kind of hard with only women around you. But I think, looking back, that it helped me out a lot."

Evans, who is now 6-foot-4 and 318 pounds, grew up in Nicetown and went to Frankford High School. The sense of purpose developed at home served him well. He will start his 68th consecutive game tonight and was named to his first Pro Bowl. The journey, however, has been anything but smooth.

Forget for a second that he was raised in a neighborhood that even its residents would have difficulty describing as "nice."

"It was pretty rough," said Evans, who relocated his mother to Glenside after his second season in the pros. "Growing up there, you're used to it. It's your environment. But at a certain point in time you've got to go, 'I'm going this way even though my friends are going that way.' "

There were other roadblocks.

The summer before his senior year at Frankford, Evans broke a kneecap in two places in a pickup basketball game, wiping out his final scholastic season. Whatever nibbles he had drawn from Division I programs disappeared.

He ended up at Division II Bloomsburg. The Huskies weren't exactly known for producing NFL talent, but off he went. Then, after a redshirt freshman year, Evans suffered a broken ankle during his sophomore season.

Still, he kept his eyes on the prize.

"I never looked at it as if, 'I don't have a chance,' " Evans said Friday. "Even playing at Division II, even going through the injuries, there was never a moment where I thought, 'Man, I don't think I'm going to make it.'

"I knew that if there was going to be that chance, I didn't want it to slip past. I didn't want it to be my fault for not making it."

Starts at home

How does a player make the jump from low-level college football to the pros? It doesn't happen often.

"I would have said you were dreaming," said Tom Mullineaux, Evans' coach at Frankford. "But he always did well in high school and he always had that stick-to-itiveness that not many people have. He's just that type of person."

Evans credits his family. That upbringing helped most, perhaps, after his knee injury. He was always a good student, but with football on the shelf he delved into the books - with some prodding.

"His mother pushed him," Mullineaux said. "I just remember her being one of the more involved parents. I don't think she took a lot of nonsense. There were never any teachers in school that ever had a problem with Jahri, and that's not the way it always is, unfortunately."

Still, Mullineaux could see how much Evans wanted to play his senior season. He attended every practice and game.

"You could see something," Mullineaux said. "You just wanted to get this kid into college, maybe play some football, and graduate, and get a job. You wanted him to be a productive person in society."

Bloomsburg was recruiting other players when Mullineaux brought up Evans. There were no athletic scholarships left, but Evans' grades and SAT score earned him an academic free ride.

After the ankle injury and slow start, Evans eventually became the best lineman at his level. Following his junior and senior seasons, he was a finalist for the Gene Upshaw Award, given to the Division II offensive or defensive lineman of the year. The pros were a possibility, but a team had to be willing to take a chance.

On the bayou

Evans was among a handful of Division II players invited to the NFL's scouting combine in Indianapolis before the 2006 draft. He worked out for several teams, including the Eagles.

In the fourth round, the Eagles wanted a certain guard, but it wasn't the Philly native. So they swapped picks with the Saints, threw in defensive tackle Hollis Thomas, and moved up and took Max Jean-Gilles with the 99th selection. Nine picks later, New Orleans grabbed a project in Evans.

"A whole bunch of GMs are kicking themselves now," Saints fullback Heath Evans said.

Jahri Evans started his first game as a rookie. It wasn't supposed to be that way. He was supposed to bide his time behind Jermane Mayberry, the former Eagles Pro Bowler who had left Philadelphia two years earlier. But Mayberry, a Division II standout at Texas A&I, hurt his shoulder in training camp and soon retired.

"He helped me out a lot," Evans said. "He told me when I got the job, 'Hey, man, don't let nobody take this spot from you. It's yours now.' "

If his rookie season was occasionally rocky, Evans was much more consistent the following season. By his third season, those around the team thought that he had played at an all-pro level, although the recognition wasn't there.

"Call it arrogant, call it whatever, but guys say, 'OK, this is a D-II guy, why was he there?' " Heath Evans said.

But you can ignore the obvious for only so long. This season, the Saints had the NFL's top-ranked offense. Quarterback Drew Brees was sacked just 20 times, and New Orleans' three-pronged ground game counterbalanced an explosive passing attack.

"It may be a year later than he deserves to go to the Pro Bowl," Saints coach Sean Payton said. "A lot of times a player will get that on the back end. He'll play in that game a year longer than he should."

Evans said he used the slight as motivation. But when hasn't he had something to spur him on?

"I've had some adversity and some ups and downs, but I fought through it," Evans said. "I knew that if I kept a positive mind-set and just kept going, that, hopefully, things would work out. . . . And they have."

Really? The Eagles passed on Jahri Evans to draft Max Jean-Gilles? Are you shitting me? So this is what hell is like I guess......but I digress.....to show you the kind of impact he had on the game, here is Jahri Evans making Benny Sapp shit his pants on the key block that sprung Reggie Bush for the Saints first touchdown (the replay does not show it so as you watch it live, pay attention to Evans, who is #73 and starts out in his usual spot at right guard).



Best of luck in the Super Bowl, Jahri! Make Bloomsburg proud!