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Ryan Kerrigan is three-time pro bowler and has 71.5 career sacks. Often times that requires a great deal of communication with his teammates. How he does so being almost completely deaf in his left ear is amazing.
That’s right, the Washington Redskins edge rusher is hearing impaired in his left ear. It’s sure that the news came out when he was drafted but the tidbit may have been forgotten. Kerrigan noticed his lost of hearing as far back as kindergarten. Kerrigan told the media on Saturday at Redskins’ training camp in Richmond, that trying to communicate with him in loud areas on his left side is like talking to a “brick wall.”
“If I put a headphone in there and turn it up — like super-freaking loud — I can hear,” Kerrigan said per Peter Hailey of NBC Sports Washington.
Teammate and fellow edge rusher Preston Smith recalled a moment when he realized Kerrigan couldn’t hear him on his left side,
“I was talking to him one time, standing on his left, and I was trying to get insight on the play,” Smith recalled per Hailey. “Then, he turned so he could hear. And I was like, ‘Man, I’ve been talking this whole time and you didn’t hear me.'”
One player that Kerrigan can hear loud and clear, even on his left side, safety and last year’s defensive captain D.J. Swearinger. Kerrigan joked, “Even a guy with one functional ear like me can hear him.”
Through the years, Kerrigan being deaf in his left ear has been brought up from time to time, but long before social media became what it is today. A quick search on Twitter had a few top results on the matter…
Fun Fact: Ryan Kerrigan is partially deaf in his left ear, hence why he likes to rush from the right side so he can hear the QBs cadence.
— Jay (@RedskinsCult) July 29, 2015
Ryan Kerrigan is deaf in his left ear. #HTTR
— Cheri (@AnimatedHokie) September 11, 2014
NFL 1st Round Pick: The Washington Redskins' first-round draft pick is deaf in one ear. Ryan Kerrigan played de… http://bit.ly/iXYoXq
— Deaf News Today (@DeafNewsToday) May 25, 2011
Kerrigan’s struggles to hear have not stopped him from being one of the more dominant pass rushers in the NFL. Kerrigan enters 2018 third on the Redskins’ all-time sack list. He is 10.5 behind Charles Mann for second and 19.5 behind Dexter Manley for first.
