Ryan Moats' PE.com Blog

BigEd76 · December 12, 2005, 05:01:34 PM

Figured it was time to give it its own thread instead of burying them in the game threads and Westbrook threads...

QuoteBack To Work (3:56PM today)

My fiancée and I went out and got some McDonald's after the game last night. It's something quick. I don't eat it all the time.

You might find it surprising, but no one knows who I am. People look at me, I might have a little width on me but I look just like a normal guy.

I don't think my popularity will change unless people see my face and see what I look like.

I don't think about getting fame or fortune. I just like playing. I try to keep it like that so I'll stay grounded. I might get famous and I can't control that, but I can control that way I handle it. If you approach it like a superstar, then that's the wrong way to approach it. If you approach it like a normal football player, you'll be fine.

I watched a little TV last night. Not just ESPN, just TV...just relax. You know what I watched? America's Funniest Home Videos. I sit there and crack up the whole time.

I may catch one of the ESPN's and I wont lie, I do look at it. I don't pay attention to it really. Half of the time, they are just talking. I catch that one glimpse and let it go.

Today, I did my work out and did my film and I'll come in tomorrow and do the same thing. My college coach told me, I should look at my film to improve what I did. Just get those thoughts in your head to fix what you did and what could have done...what I didn't do.

Here's one from 12/9 that wasn't posted:

QuoteA Little More Personal...

Something that you might not know about me is that I'm engaged to a wonderful woman named Tamishia.

It's great. I have the person God wanted me to have. You do have your ups and downs, but I love her. So, you fight through those tough times.

We were friends in college. She was busy. She was a busy, busy, busy woman. She was Miss Tech. She did a lot of different stuff around school. Meanwhile, I had football so I was practicing all of the time. We would see each other on campus, but she was always too busy to talk.

I couldn't get her attention at first. We started talking, but then she went to law school. She did her first year of law school in Texas and I was still in Louisiana playing football. We kept in touch.

When I came to Dallas after training for the Combine, she was in Texas already so we hooked up and went out, had fun, did all different types of stuff. We saw each other every day. That was my routine: go work out, hang out, go hang out some more. That's where it came from.

My whole life I never did the playing around thing with women. I always wanted to find a lady who was on the same page with me and wanted the same things I did. In college, it's hard to find that type of woman because everyone wants to party. I really wasn't into that. She was the only one I knew who was real concentrated on her work and knew what she wanted. She's very independent.

It was just plain to see, if this didn't work I wasn't going to get married. I don't see this not working because we work at it. We don't like each other somedays. But at the end of the day, I always come to my senses. That's part of love I guess. Sometimes you don't like 'em, sometimes you do. She's very responsible, a great worker. That's the type of partner I want. When we try to make a life together, I don't want to have to do all of the work like worrying about bills while my wife does the luxury thing. She works just as hard as I do.

She just got into graduate school to get her Master's. She's thinking about teaching law. It depends on what she wants to do. Law school is funny. It's harder to get into law school up here when you went to school in Texas because the laws are different. It would be easier if you came out of high school because you are an empty eraser board and they can draw whatever they want on you.

I proposed on the last day of training camp. I went and played in my first game against the Steelers after that. I wasn't nervous about asking because I knew she would say yes.

What I did to propose was get her mad and started a fight that lasted the whole week. I was being a jerk on purpose. She hung up on me that week like four times. I got home and told her that I was being mean on purpose. I got down on one knee and said since we get so mad at each other let's do that marrying type of thang.

I called her mama, and she said 'Are you sure?' because there are no returns. You can't give it back.

I thought about giving it back a few times

SunMo · December 12, 2005, 05:06:10 PM

QuoteWhat I did to propose was get her mad and started a fight that lasted the whole week. I was being a jerk on purpose. She hung up on me that week like four times. I got home and told her that I was being mean on purpose. I got down on one knee and said since we get so mad at each other let's do that marrying type of thang.

quite possibly the worst proposal ever, why didn't he just go all the way with it and throw the ring at her while he was banging another chick

Wingspan · December 12, 2005, 05:07:42 PM

fascinating.

Butchers Bill · December 12, 2005, 05:10:04 PM

Quote from: Sun_Mo on December 12, 2005, 05:06:10 PM
quite possibly the worst proposal ever, why didn't he just go all the way with it and throw the ring at her while he was banging another chick

Reminds me of an old Eddie Murphy routine...if you ever get caught in the act with someone other than your wife:

"Yeah, I farged her....I make love to you."

JTrotter Fan · December 12, 2005, 06:18:55 PM

Ha! From 'Raw'

QB Eagles · December 12, 2005, 06:50:12 PM

I've been reading Moats' blog the whole time it's been up. Best thing on the Eagles website.

rjs246 · December 12, 2005, 06:51:17 PM

F Moats.

Or more accurately, F Reid for keeping him off the field and F the fact that he's never going to follow through on the promise of his first NFL start.

PoopyfaceMcGee · December 12, 2005, 09:44:11 PM

Quote from: rjs246 on December 12, 2005, 06:51:17 PM
F the fact that he's never going to follow through on the promise of his first NFL start.

He didn't start.

Don Ho · December 13, 2005, 02:33:45 AM

Watched Funniest Home Videos? Not Survivor like the rest of us?

To bad he couldn't have really taken advantage of this situation. Idiot! There's your prize pal!

Don Ho · December 13, 2005, 02:36:56 AM

Quote from: Don Ho on December 13, 2005, 02:33:45 AM
Watched Funniest Home Videos? Not Survivor like the rest of us?

To bad he couldn't have really taken advantage of this situation. Idiot! There's your prize pal, 40 days in the wilderness with two desperate woman

mussa · December 13, 2005, 09:35:39 AM

moats makes me look smart

Feva · December 13, 2005, 09:57:03 AM

Quote from: mussa on December 13, 2005, 09:35:39 AM
moats makes me look smart

Yeah, but we all know better, now don't we?

MadMarchHare · December 13, 2005, 10:12:05 AM

Not to be too much of a Survivor nerd, but Rafe was openly gay......

Rome · December 13, 2005, 10:51:51 AM

I wonder if Moats will turn out to be any healthier than Westbrook?

Hopefully.

BigEd76 · December 13, 2005, 04:08:07 PM

QuoteThis Is A Long One... (3:21 PM)

The media attention I got at Louisiana Tech going when I was among the nation's leading rushers helped me learn how to deal with the media. I already knew how I was going to handle it anyway.

I always give praise to my offensive line because without them it doesn't matter how you run, you aren't going to make it. I always praise my offensive line and let them know because they don't get a lot of praise. I mean, they make some awesome blocks but the running backs get the praise. I kind of make sure they get what they deserve as an offensive line and in return, they'll keep fighting for you.

My mother and the people that I was around are the reason that I'm grounded. I've been down at the bottom and I have been high and cocky, and I've been dropped down, and people tell me, 'Hey, slow down, you aren't all that.' I remember that, that's what I hold onto.

As a player, you have to stay humble because it won't last forever. You want people to remember you as a good person, as a good man. You want people to remember you like that. You don't want people remembering you as being cocky and stuck up-type of football player.

I started learning that in high school. I was pretty good in high school, but God brought me down. I got hurt. I got hurt to where they said I probably wouldn't play anymore...ever. It brought me down.

I didn't know what I would do without football and that's where I started to develop a little something else as a backup because I didn't have a backup before. I just figured I would play and get here. So after the injury I started concentrating on school and I have love for others things too, especially website design.

When I was a freshman I came in college, I had speed you know, I'd run away from people like I did in high school. But in college, I heard that they kept labeling me a jitterbug. I didn't like that because that said all I could do was run away from people and I didn't like the fact that that was what they thought of me. So, I started developing, training hard every day. Just trying to get my size up. I got up to about 200 pounds, around there.

I was mostly a catching back my freshman year, then my sophomore year came and I had the chance to start. I battled a lot in preseason and I thought I won it fair and square but he was a junior and I was a sophomore. Still, I kept battling and battling and finally got my start with like six or nine games left and I ended up running for 1,300 and 10 touchdowns.

Then my junior year I knew it. I knew I would be starting and I worked to get my size up some more. I got it up to 210. That was the hardest I ever worked that summer with Coach McKnight. He was the strength coach. He worked my butt off. It was awesome and I was ready! I was 210. I was stronger and I was running through people.

I wanted to make sure I was downhill running, in-between the tackles. And I had success. Then I got comfortable to where I was just playing. Making people miss, juking people out that kind of thing. I never thought about the NFL the whole time. But after my junior year, I thought about it and I realized I had a running back behind me who I thought was going to be good and me, I didn't get a chance to play when I first got there.

I had Joe Smith in front of me and I had to wait. So I thought, I had the chance to leave and I can let him take the show and give him a chance early to develop as a player and let him play and develop at the same time. That's the best way to go.

Why didn't I play my senior season? I always knew people would doubt me, no matter what. They would doubt me because I'm 5-8. If I was 5-10 they wouldn't. It's crazy how being 5-8 then 5-10 could change how people look at you. But I knew that they would doubt me because I am 5-8. Even if I stayed for another year and ran for another 1,800 yards, they still would have doubted me.

I probably still would have been drafted in the same area. I knew I would be in the same position. Me staying another year and hogging the show for a younger back, this back was more like a Marshall Faulk type back, tall, big back, maybe he would have a better chance. No matter if I stayed or went, I'd be doubted, so let's start the doubt early that way I'll have time to develop.

Now that I'm in the NFL, the next fight is to master this level of play. I felt like I mastered the college level at the end. I felt like I had nothing else to do. I ran for 1,300 and then 1,800 yards. I had 18 touchdowns as a junior. You couldn't say that I didn't play against competition. I played against some of the best competition of the year and had success against them. I felt there was nothing else for me to do but leave. Now I'm here, now I want to master the game at this level as a running back and possible as a receiver and that's where I'm at right now.