Matt Ryan

ATLANTA FALCONS quarterback Matt Ryan sprained his left shoulder in the closing minutes of the NFC Championship Game and won't be able to play in Sunday's Pro Bowl. Coach Mike Smith said Ryan will need 3 to 4 weeks to recover from the injury, which was described as a sprained AC joint to the non-throwing shoulder. No surgery is required. Ryan was hurt just after the 2-minute warning. On a 5-yard pass that Jason Snelling took down to the San Francisco 10, linebacker Ahmad Brooks got a shot on the Atlanta quarterback.

THE FALCONS like to pass first and ask questions afterward, but they are not some high-flying, chuck-and-duck team. Atlanta is throwing the ball about three times more per game this season, compared with last season. Three times. The difference is that Matt Ryan is throwing it more efficiently, and that, along with a favorable schedule, is why the Falcons are off to a 6-0 start. Atlanta was 3-3 at this juncture last season and 4-2 in each of Ryan's first three seasons as a starter.

ATLANTA - Sometimes, one game can change everything or it can change nothing. For Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan, Sunday's dramatic 30-28 win over the Seattle Seahawks has forever put an end to The Question. The what's-it-like-to-have-never-won-a-playoff-game question. Now, people can move on to more weighty questions, like, "Hey, Matt, what's it like to have never won a Super Bowl?" And maybe that one is headed for the trash bin soon as well. For Seahawks defensive coordinator Gus Bradley, only time will tell whether Sunday's loss, in which his unit gave up 417 yards and 24 first downs and allowed Ryan to complete two late passes that set up Matt Bryant's game-winning 49-yard field goal, had any impact on his chances of becoming the Eagles' next head coach.

ATLANTA - He seemed to be the perfect quarterback for the city, a Southern kid in a Southern town, an African-American in a metropolis where more than 60 percent of the population shared his skin color, but, most of all, an unconventional quarterback with breathtaking athleticism for an organization that was in dire need of something fresh. Now, only 2 years later, he is gone, replaced by a new prodigy, and a new brand of excitement, one noticeably lacking in the foibles that came as part of the Michael Vick package.

FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga. - A slip of the tongue gave away Atlanta coach Mike Smith's focus. Smith was just starting his review Monday of the Falcons' 30-28 win over the Seattle Seahawks in the NFC divisional playoffs when it became clear his thoughts were on this week's NFC championship game against the San Francisco 49ers. "We knew the San Francisco Forty ... excuse me, the Seattle Seahawks, were a very good football team and they showed a lot of resiliency," Smith said before smiling after catching his verbal miscue.

WHILE HE stirred no memories of his famous cousin, Mike McGlinchey last Friday lifted the number of high school pass-throwers in the maternal portion of his family to six. Considering his height (6-9) and weight (275), he also likely became the biggest kid in city history to whip one downfield. McGlinchey, a senior at Penn Charter who's bound for Notre Dame, did not text or call Matt Ryan, the PC/Boston College product now creating a NFL-wide buzz for the Atlanta Falcons, about his chance to rack up passing yardage.

ATLANTA - Time wasn't the problem for Matt Ryan on Sunday. He had plenty of that. After shredding the San Francisco 49ers for 24 points in a brilliant first half, Ryan had 30 minutes to finish the job and punch his ticket to the Super Bowl. After his two terrible turnovers helped the Niners get back into the game, Ryan had the ball and a chance to reclaim the momentum. Even after San Francisco scored to take a 28-24 lead, Ryan had 8 minutes, 23 seconds to burnish his legacy with a game-winning drive.

ATLANTA - The Atlanta Falcons needed more than one "Matty Ice" to turn back the greatest comeback in NFL playoff history by Seattle. After the top-seeded Falcons squandered a 20-point lead over Seattle in the fourth quarter Sunday, Penn Charter graduate Matt Ryan completed two long passes to get in range before Matt Bryant kicked a 49-yard field goal with eight seconds remaining to give Atlanta a 30-28 win over Russell Wilson and the gutsy Seahawks...

When Mike Ryan heard the news in July, he called his son immediately. ESPN analyst Mel Kiper Jr. had just named Matt Ryan, Boston College's starting quarterback, as the second-best signal caller in the country, making this summer afternoon feel "a bit like it was Christmas morning" to the proud father. His son's reaction? "Well, looks like we've got a little work to do. " It was an appropriate response from the lightly recruited, three-sport captain at Penn Charter, who has turned himself into the Atlantic Coast Conference preseason player of the year and one of the area's best chances at a homegrown Heisman Trophy winner since Abington High School's Eddie George took home the prize at Ohio State in 1995 and Overbrook High's Ron Dayne won in 1999 while at Wisconsin.

ATLANTA - Make way, Joe Montana and Steve Young. Colin Kaepernick is leading a brash new group of 49ers to the Super Bowl. Frank Gore scored a pair of second-half touchdowns Sunday, and San Francisco, after falling behind by 17-0, pulled off a record rally for a 28-24 victory over the Atlanta Falcons in the NFC championship game at the Georgia Dome. Former Penn Charter star Matt Ryan completed 30 of 42 passes for 396 yards and three touchdowns for Atlanta, but couldn't pull off a comeback the way he did two Sundays ago against Seattle.

Rutgers defensive back Logan Ryan was chosen by the New England Patriots with the 21st pick of the third round in Friday's NFL draft. The Patriots acquired the pick from the Minnesota Vikings, and Ryan joined former Rutgers teammates Devin McCourty and Justin Francis with the Patriots. "I feel great about things," Ryan said in a phone interview. "I did [think New England might take him]. I didn't know when, but I knew they needed a corner. " New England was one of the teams that met with Ryan leading up to the draft.

Two days before Ryan Nassib's name may be called on national TV in the first round of the NFL draft, he returned to West Chester. Nassib, one of the top college quarterbacks last season, prepped for Thursday's draft by criss-crossing the country the last three months trying to impress NFL decision-makers in personal workouts and interviews. On Tuesday, he was back home, speaking to students at St. Maximilian Kolbe School. They were once like him, before he filled out to 6-foot-2, 227 pounds and became a football star.

THE HOUSTON Texans are hoping two massive new video screens will help lure the 2017 Super Bowl to Reliant Stadium. The Texans are in the process of installing the video boards, which will be ready for use in Houston's first preseason game in August. Cowboys Stadium in Arlington currently has the biggest screens, and Houston's will be about 30 percent larger than those. The two new boards will have about six times the area as the current video boards and will be placed in each end zone.

NEW YORK - Righthanded reliever Greg Burke has appeared in the major leagues with two teams, but the 2000 Gloucester Catholic graduate isn't too far removed to appreciate the experience he had playing high school baseball. Burke, 30, made the New York Mets roster out of spring training after previously pitching 48 games in the majors in 2009 for the San Diego Padres. He says making the major leagues has been a great thrill, but Burke also doesn't downplay his time at Gloucester Catholic, which was a baseball power before he arrived and remains so today.

ATLANTA FALCONS quarterback Matt Ryan sprained his left shoulder in the closing minutes of the NFC Championship Game and won't be able to play in Sunday's Pro Bowl. Coach Mike Smith said Ryan will need 3 to 4 weeks to recover from the injury, which was described as a sprained AC joint to the non-throwing shoulder. No surgery is required. Ryan was hurt just after the 2-minute warning. On a 5-yard pass that Jason Snelling took down to the San Francisco 10, linebacker Ahmad Brooks got a shot on the Atlanta quarterback.

ATLANTA — One Philadelphia-area quarterback is going to the Super Bowl, but another one is going to have to wait at least one more year. While Audubon, N.J., native Joe Flacco punched his ticket to New Orleans Sunday with the Ravens' 28-13 win over the Patriots in the AFC Championship Game, Matt Ryan came up just short as the Falcons lost a 28-24 heartbreaker to the 49ers in the NFC Championship Game. Ryan completed 30 of 42 passes for 396 yards and three touchdowns in the defeat.

ATLANTA - The thing you notice about the members of the 49ers' defense - besides the fact that they're very, very good - is that they play the game very businesslike. You'll seldom see them celebrating a big play with the uh, for lack of a better word, gusto, of many of their NFL colleagues. They're not big on sack dances or cock-a-doodle-doo struts or doing that standing-over-ballcarrier thing that Eagles safety Kurt Coleman is so fond of. You can thank Jim Harbaugh for that.

ATLANTA - Make way, Joe Montana and Steve Young. Colin Kaepernick is leading a brash new group of 49ers to the Super Bowl. Frank Gore scored a pair of second-half touchdowns Sunday, and San Francisco, after falling behind by 17-0, pulled off a record rally for a 28-24 victory over the Atlanta Falcons in the NFC championship game at the Georgia Dome. Former Penn Charter star Matt Ryan completed 30 of 42 passes for 396 yards and three touchdowns for Atlanta, but couldn't pull off a comeback the way he did two Sundays ago against Seattle.

ATLANTA - Time wasn't the problem for Matt Ryan on Sunday. He had plenty of that. After shredding the San Francisco 49ers for 24 points in a brilliant first half, Ryan had 30 minutes to finish the job and punch his ticket to the Super Bowl. After his two terrible turnovers helped the Niners get back into the game, Ryan had the ball and a chance to reclaim the momentum. Even after San Francisco scored to take a 28-24 lead, Ryan had 8 minutes, 23 seconds to burnish his legacy with a game-winning drive.

San Francisco cornerback Carlos Rogers had one word to describe what his homecoming in Atlanta will be like when the 49ers face the Falcons in Sunday's NFC championship. "Expensive," he said. Rogers, born in Augusta, and an offseason resident of Atlanta, grew up doing the "Dirty Birds" dance when the Falcons reached the Super Bowl during the 1998 season. He has paid for more than 30 tickets for friends and family for the playoff game in the Georgia Dome. "I was a fan of the Falcons.