Ryan McBean

Defensive Tackle-Oklahoma State

4th Round — 132nd Overall

 

Do you consider yourself an end or a nose tackle?

 

I'm an end.

 

Hey, where's that Jamaican accent?

 

Jamaican accent? I promise you that you would not understand anything that I'm saying.

 

Try us [reporters] one time.

 

[Unable to understand with accent)

 

You were right.

 

Ryan, I've [reporter] read some stories about some tough, tough growing-up. Could you tell us about it a little bit?

 

Just like everybody else, I had a hard time growing up. I came from a different culture. Jamaica has way different rules and regulations. I had to grow up and be a man at a real young age. It's okay though. I've overcome all of that, and here I am now. So, I'm good.

 

So, how did you get away unscathed? I mean, you went to Brooklyn too.

 

Yes, sir, I remember we [family] had to take a Greyhound [bus] from New York all the way to Texas because of some incident that happened—some stuff that went down in Brooklyn. So, I had to take a Greyhound all the way to Texas and stay there, and now here I am.

 

Some incident about some stuff? You've got to elaborate; you've got to tell us [reporters] the good details here, man.

 

I wasn't running with the right crowd, and my brother wasn't running with the right crowd at the time [in Brooklyn]. He got into some little trouble. My grandmother said, "You know what? The best thing for you all to do is come over to Texas, because in Texas, they have the opportunity for you to do anything. Come out here." And that's what I did. We took the Greyhound, drove all the way down to Texas, and I started football there.

 

You went from Jamaica to Brooklyn at the age of 11 or 14? I've seen two different things.

 

Fourteen, sir. I left from Jamaica when I was 14 and moved to Brooklyn.

 

Who did you live with in Brooklyn?

 

I lived with my mother. My mother lived in Brooklyn with me and my brother. We also stayed at a foster house after she left where we stayed for two or three years, and then she brought my brother and me up to New York.

 

Sounds like you've turned it around. How did you turn it around in Dallas?

 

I had some real good coaches and real good teachers that cared about me. People in Euless—in the Fort Worth area—they really care about the players, and they looked after me as soon as I came into the district—the coaches and the teachers and everything else. I had a chance to cope with my surroundings. At Trinity—my high school—they helped out a whole lot. They fit me into the system a whole lot—a whole lot.  I want to thank Ms. Smith, and I want to thank all of the coaching staff at Trinity High School and everybody else there.

 

What do you weigh?

 

I weigh 285.

 

When did you start playing football? You must be a raw football player.

 

I started playing football when I moved to Texas in the ninth grade—ninth or tenth. When I first got to the defensive end position in high school, I said, "Okay, the defensive end position is mine." And I've never left it since then.

 

You started playing as a freshman or a sophomore in high school?

 

As a sophomore.

 

Compared to this rough upbringing that you've had, tell us what kind of value you put on becoming a football player.

 

I'm still learning. Put me with a coach; I'm just like a kid. I'm still learning, and I want to learn. I want to keep learning. I'm good right now, but I know that I could be better. I could be great at anything that I could do. That's my position; I'm very young at the game. I'm with Coach Mitchell

now, and he's going to teach me everything that he can.

 

He said that you don't have a driver's license yet. Is that true?

 

No, I don't have a driver's license yet.

 

You fixing to get one?

 

Yes, sometime pretty soon.

 

First order of business: make the team. Second: get a license. Is that the order?

 

Yeah, I've got to get my driver's license. My mother's been praying for me ever since I've been driving without one. Every time that I jump in the car, she's praying for me. So, it's time for me to get my license.

 

So, you know how to drive. You just don't have the paperwork.

 

[Laughs]

 

I'm going to ask you a personal question. When did you learn how to read?

 

I learned how to read [at a young age]. My father was a very strict guy. He set that stuff down. When I left Jamaica, I was already educated—reading and everything, math and everything. Math isn't my favorite subject, but my father was very strict. When I left Jamaica, I continued that on as a very small kid; I stress that. Education is a very big key in my life, and I promised a couple of people back at Oklahoma State that I've got to go back and get my degree.

 

So, you were in Jamaica with your dad and your mom was in Brooklyn. Is that right?

 

When I was in Jamaica with my dad, at the time, they were both there. When they separated, my father went his way, and my mother went to the States, and I stayed in what I called "foster care." I stayed there for a few years, and then my mother made enough cash to fly me and my brother up to Brooklyn.