After a year without a team to punt for, former Seattle Seahawks punter Jon Ryan is returning to his hometown of Regina, Saskatchewan to punt for the Roughriders of the Canadian Football League.
Ryan announced the move on his Twitter account with a link to Diddy’s song “I’m Coming Home.” The tweet included the Canadian flag and green heart and white circle symbols, which are the colors of the Roughriders.
“I feel like I can still play,” Ryan said last month while trying out for CFL teams. “If it was up to me, I’d play until I was 50. I think I’m far from done, so I wanted to pursue these CFL opportunities. As it turns out, there’s three, four, possibly five different opportunities out there.”
Ryan, 37, was released by the Seahawks last August as rookie Michael Dickson was destined to win the punting job. He landed with the Buffalo Bills briefly during the preseason but was released during roster cuts and didn’t land an NFL job last year.
Ryan went to the University of Regina and played wide receiver and punter at the school where he had a 109-yard touchdown reception. He played two seasons for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers before making the move to the NFL with the Green Bay Packers in 2006. After two seasons with the Packers, he was released at the end of training camp and signed with Seattle after the first week of the regular season. He spent a decade punting for the Seahawks before his release last year.