Former Patriot Logan Ryan pays off brother’s $82K student loan debt

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Logan Ryan is giving back, in a big way.

The former New England Patriot and current Tennessee Titan recently surprised his older brother, Jordan, by paying off all of his remaining $82,000 in student loans.

After spending his first four seasons in the NFL with the Patriots, Logan signed a three-year, $30 million contract with the Titans this offseason. He decided to use his new deal for good and help out someone who means the most to him.


“My brother, he’s texted me after every game, and he’s been on my side since I was little,” the cornerback said, “He helped me put on my shoulder pads when I was little. And he’s never asked me for a dime. He’s never asked for my money. He went to work every day, paid for his loan and bills like everybody else and never once asked me for a penny. To be able to do that, it was the best feeling in the world.”

It was after a long drive with his father, Lester, that the two came up with the idea to help his big bro out.

“My dad said, ‘You can give him $80,000 cash, or you can buy him a new car, but what are you doing here? You’re not catching a fish. You’re teaching him out to fish,” Logan said to Sports Illustrated, “Now, he has the freedom to give back and do something like this for someone else.”

Logan surprised Jordan just a few days after his 29th birthday by giving him a bottle of Jack Daniels and then blindfolding him to take him outside where the oversized check awaited him. The kind and thoughtful act left his brother in tears, but also sent a message about the student loan debt problem that many young adults are facing these days.

“To see the amount of stress student loans can put on people, good people who work hard. To be able to free him up, it was an awesome moment. It’s something I’d been wanting to do for a long time.”

Jordan earned an engineering degree at Drexel University, and since then he had been paying $1,000 a month toward his loan with 10 years of payments remaining. But thanks to this generous and considerate gift from his little brother, he no longer has to worry about that.

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