TAMPA, Fla. — Ryan Jensen was a 10-year-old grade school student in Fort Morgan when Tom Brady won his first Super Bowl.
By the time Jensen was 13 years old, the quarterback he now snaps to had earned his third Super Bowl ring. What did Jensen think of Brady during his formative years?
"Always growing up a Broncos fan, he always kind of whupped on the Broncos early," Jensen said Friday in a Zoom interview with 9NEWS. "With Tom, people seem to always hate winners for some reason. And I think that was the same thing as a football fan. He was always winning and always doing really good so you don’t really like him all that much.
"But obviously now playing with him and getting to know him on a personal level, so happy to have him on my team, that’s for sure."
This is Jensen’s first Super Bowl week; Brady’s 10th. The center-quarterback combination directed the Tampa Bay Buccaneers threw three road playoff wins this month, including a 31-26 upset at Green Bay in the NFC Championship last week, to become the first team in the 55-year history of the Super Bowl to play the world championship game on their home field.
The Bucs will meet the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LV next Sunday at Raymond James Stadium.
"It’s crazy to think about but being able to be home for the Super Bowl, it’s special," Jensen said. "It’s never happened before. I know it’s been kind a crazy for the NFL to figure out how to do it with a home Super Bowl team but it’s exciting in Florida. Hopefully we’ll be able to have a little bit of a home field advantage with a bunch of Florida fans."
For his Zoom interview with 9NEWS, Jensen wore a CSU-Pueblo hoodie. There’s a chance he may line up across another CSU-Pueblo product, Mike Pennel, a backup Chiefs’ defensive tackle. Jensen played for four years for the ThunderWolves Division II program after he was an all-state player at Fort Morgan High School. He is proud of heritage – so much so that he may be the only person on earth who moves to Florida in the dead of summer to start training camp and then moves back to his current home in Evergreen in the dead of winter once the football season ends.
Which for himself, wife Stephanie and toddler Wyatt is later than usual this season.
"Colorado’s home," Jensen said. "With football season starting in the summer we go down to Florida when it’s hot as possible. And when the season is over we move back to the tundra of Colorado. So we always joke around and call it the reverse snowbird affect.
"Yeah, we’ll be heading back pretty quick after the Super Bowl and get home and get some relaxing up in the woods."
He will be the second player from Fort Morgan to participate in a Super Bowl – first officially. In the 2013-season Super Bowl in New York, Broncos’ tight end Joel Dreessen was inactive in XLVIII because of a knee injury but received special permission to work out with the team, in full uniform, during pregame warmups.
"I remember growing up watching Joel Dreessen," Jensen said. "And watched him play at CSU and then for the Texans, the Jets and the Broncos so it’s awesome to be that next guy coming from a small town in northeast Colorado. It’s amazing, I’ve had a lot of people reach out to me that I grew up with and seeing how the town’s proud, so it’s been a neat experience."
A sixth-round draft pick of the Baltimore Ravens in 2013, Jensen was struggling mightily his rookie season until he was diagnosed, and treated for, sleep apnea. He said for all but three or four nights in the past six, going on seven years, he sleeps while using a CPAP machine, which forces air into his mouth and keeps his airways open as he sleeps.
"It really made a tremendous difference and really saved my career and potentially saved my life," Jensen said.
Sleep condition aside, nothing will cause a player to toss and turn like Super Bowl week.
"I think I’ll sleep like a baby," he said. "It’s all about controlling your emotions and not peaking too soon. There’s obviously going to be a little bit more nerves going into the Super Bowl -- the entire world’s watching -- but that’s why we get paid the big bucks to perform when it counts most. I think I’ll be all right."
Jensen, 29, had gradually gained national acclaim, first as the Ravens’ starting center in 2017 – the fourth and final year of his rookie contract – and then as the NFL’s highest-paid center when his agent Mike McCartney – son of Colorado Buffaloes coaching legend Bill McCartney -- brought him a four-year, $42 million contract with the Bucs through free agency. (Six other centers have since passed Jensen’s $10.5 million annual average).
But the spotlight has never shined upon Jensen like it did this year. He is the guy always in the TV screen before the play, getting ready to snap to the iconic Brady, who joined the Bucs last March after 20 successful seasons with the New England Patriots.
"Just what he brings to a team … obviously his skill and what he does really well as a quarterback, but also from that leadership aspect and that experience aspect, he has really helped bring this team along tenfold," Jenson said of Brady. “It’s been an awesome experience to be able to learn from him and experience that greatness in what a player like that brings to a team.
"It’s huge knowing that when times get tough that Tom’s going to get everyone together and bring the troops back together and get ‘em rolling again. That just comes from the experience of what he’s done over his career. Being able to get everyone on the same page again, it’s awesome."
After finishing 11-5 during the season that included a decisive 28-10 victory against the Jeff Driskel-led Broncos at Empower Field at Mile High in game 3, the Bucs had to first survive a Cinderella performance from Washington emergency quarterback Taylor Heinicke in the NFC’s first playoff round, rallied in the second half to overcome the favored Saints in the second round, and then outplayed Aaron Rodgers’ Packers in Green Bay last week.
"You’ve seen wild card teams, last seeds, win Super Bowls," Jensen said. "It doesn’t matter who you’re playing in the playoffs, it’s always going to be a tough game. And then doing that on the road, three weeks in a row, that’s a tremendous challenge and the whole team really stepped their game up and we really got into a really good groove."
Although, the Bucs will now have to prove they can win at home in the postseason, they can take comfort from their familiar role as underdogs against the Chiefs.
"Obviously, Kansas City is a great football team and they’ve been a great football team for the last couple years now," Jensen said. "But we play the game for a reason and excited to go out there and play and hopefully come out of there with the W."
When he returns to Evergreen, the smoker awaits for Jensen, who loves to cook.
"I think I’m going to do a nice brisket to kick off the offseason," he said. "A nice, 16-hour cook, nice relaxing and just hang out and enjoy some good barbecue."
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