Matt Ryan will look off a safety now and then and try to bluff a defense from time to time, but the Falcons quarterback is generally not one for subterfuge nor chicanery -- until he recently donned a mustache and toupee that he acknowledged made him look like “Uncle Rico” from the movie “Napolean Dynamite.”
By all accounts, Ryan plays life straight as an arrow, but somebody somehow convinced him recently to go under cover in concert with ESPN’s Jac Collinsworth -- son of broadcaster Cris, the former Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver -- and put on a disguise so that he might masquerade as a salesman in the Falcons Store in Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
He played along, and one of the best moments came when he showed off the jerseys of his backup, Matt Schaub, and tried to give the patron insider information by telling him that Schaub recently had been taking a lot of snaps in practice with the first team offense so that he might, you know, become the starter and a star and that the jersey -- which Ryan offered at discount -- would become all the more valuable.
Five minutes of video to trigger your astonishment:
There are various points in this bit where Ryan is being fed questions from Collinsworth through an earpiece, and others where he feeds Collinsworth questions through an earpiece, like when he suggests asking about good-looking quarterbacks.
You won’t see something like this often, if ever, again.
For more on the Falcons, who are charging hard toward a return trip to the Super Bowl with a three-game win streak that leaves them one game out of the lead in the NFC South, check out these stories at myajc.com:
# Falcons rocking third-down conversions even better than in Super Bowl season.
# Julio Jones closing in on Roddy Jones' franchise receiving record.
# Former Falcons John Thierry dead at 46.
# Tony Dungy is loving the Falcons' chances to win the division.
And then there is the fact that Falcons wide receiver Mohamed Sanu, who does a bit every week with the the team’s website about his footwear (that absolutely should be tagged “Sanu’s shoes”; think about it), threw a 51-yard touchdown pass to Julio Jones last Sunday that made him 6-of-6 as an NFL passer.
He has a perfect passer rating!
No matter how the rest of the season plays out, Falcons fans should rejoice in the reality that they have been able to embrace one of the very best wide receivers in NFL history. Julio Jones is really, really good, even if he rarely, rarely practices.
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