Breaking: Matt Ryan has always been this way

One of the fun advantages of your team going to the Super Bowl (aside from, ya know, your team going to the Super Bowl) is getting to know your favorite players better as a result of the extra national attention. Jenny Vrentas of MMQB gives us an inside look at our MVP-caliber Super Bowl quarterback, Matt Ryan, from a visit to his high school, William Penn Charter School in Philadelphia. Full of fun anecdotes and defining moments, this piece is a good opportunity to learn a little bit more about our quarterback who generally keeps it “low-key and under the radar.”

For instance, Vrentas recounts that:

Ryan stood out as an eight-grade quarterback, the first quarterback coach Ed Foley had at that age who could read the defense and audible into a play that was actually better than the one they had called.

Sound familiar, Falcons fans?

We also learn that even as a young quarterback, Ryan was focused on winning more than his own personal performance, which jibes nicely with what we’ve seen from him throughout his time in Atlanta.

“It’s nice to put up big numbers,” he said as a high school senior, “but it’s more important to win. I love to win.” And now, Matt Ryan has the opportunity to win the biggest game of his life. As we might say on Twitter, #thatsmyqb