Eight years younger, Atlanta Falcons safety Ryan Neal was there when his brother Michael got the call from the Green Bay Packers that he was drafted. Now he is taking his turn.
Ryan has looked up to his brother since a young age and more often than not was watching him play.
“Mike made it [seem like] a lot more [fun] when I got to see him play,” Ryan said. “He definitely had an impact on me playing the game.”
The Neal household was always a crowded place to be. Being second youngest of four brothers, Ryan’s older siblings including Michael made sure to set an example with tough love.
“It was always like that, we are a competition based family,” Ryan said. “Whether it be video games, racing, wrestling, whatever it was, that’s just how it was growing up.”
Like Michael, Ryan had aspirations to one day make it to the NFL. When the Green Bay Packers called his brother, it made it seem more reachable.
“It wasn’t really settled [into my mind] that you could make it to the NFL,” Ryan said. “I remember it like it was yesterday, I was sitting next to him when he got the call, at that moment he kind of made it real and turned it into a reality and I was just like, ‘I wanna do it too’ It was just another, ‘If he could do it, I could do it’ sort of thing.”
Ryan talks to his brother almost everyday to check in as well as pick his brain on life in the NFL.
“[I ask him] about everything really,” Ryan said. “How you go through the ups and downs, face adversity in situations, everything in between you can possibly think of and having him there definitely laid the land before I got there so I kind of knew what to expect and then the rest of it just had to be on experience.”
Though playing different positions in their careers, Ryan still asks Mike about what to do when you take the field. The reactions, adapting to surroundings, as well as the X’s and O’s.
“We’ll talk plays, we’ll talk ball and all that,” Ryan said. “He’s definitely that wisdom there for me.
Michael talked about the advice he gives his brother which started with pointing out the common goal that every player has growing up.
“Anyone who plays the sport would love to be [in the NFL],” Michael said. “You take the opportunity and make the most of it by understanding what it is and that it is a business, the NFL is a business and you’re only there to take money out of their pockets and put it in your pockets at the end of day. That’s pretty much the main thing.”
Like Ryan, Michael was at the side of his younger brother when he got the call from the Philadelphia Eagles.
Michael wanted to play long enough to see Ryan enter the league and have both of them in the NFL. While that did not happen, he was ecstatic to be there to witness Ryan’s dream come true.
“Him being present when I got my phone call was a big thing and just being there with him in a room full of people was special,” Michael said.”Just being there to help facilitate that transition to kind of let him know which situation would be the best, who would give him the most money up front. It was cool.”
Ryan values his older brother’s opinion highly, and Michael himself claims the moment hit him harder than his brother.
“It’s an honor for him to put so much behind me in helping him with the process,” Michael said. “It was an emotional moment for me to be honest, for me just being there and having a brother to make it and being able to mentor somebody in my family not just a kid with a dream was big for me so it was good for me.”
Ryan is having to go through something that Michael never had to do. Switch teams. Going from the Eagles to the Falcons, Michael is doing everything he can to help his brother.
“You’re coming in as an undrafted free agent bouncing from team to team and I was a second round draft pick and the pressure was on me from the organization to produce,” Michael said. “When he ended up leaving the Eagles and going to the Falcons, I texted him and told him how the process was going to work and what to expect, he took that advice and ran with it definitely.”
The first difference Ryan realized moving from Philadelphia to Atlanta was the weather.
“Lord have mercy when I first got down to [Atlanta] it was hot,” Ryan laughed. “It’s really, really, really hot and I couldn’t believe it, I never sweat so much in my life and I never felt heat like this and this was definitely something I needed to get used to.”
While also learning from his brother, he is learning from one of the most player respected coaches in the NFL Dan Quinn.
“DQ is the man, I don’t care what anybody says, DQ is the man,” Ryan said. “I wouldn’t rather have it any other way, he is one of the best head coaches I have ever been around, he’s one of the coolest dudes around. He definitely is about getting the job done in any way possible.”
When it comes to the Neal family, Ryan says the slogan, ‘Friends, Family, and Football’ could not be anymore true when it came to their bond.
“Definitely all about that through and through,” Ryan said. ” I can’t wait to see some of my nephews pick up that football because I am waiting on them to do it.”
