History on Ice: Matt Ryan gets his shot

This story appears in ESPN The Magazine's Feb. 6 Super Bowl Preview Issue. Subscribe today!

HIS MIND'S INTERIOR monologue is an eruption of profanity. He's just thrown another interception. In the artificially placid room temp of Atlanta's Georgia Dome, Matt Ryan is watching the safety recede into the distance. Ryan too is running as fast as he can. Dutifully, instinctively, he's giving chase, but he has no chance of catching the thief. In the instant of the error, everyone knows the safety will take the ball 100 yards into the opposite end zone. The crowd groans. Moments earlier, Ryan had engineered an electric comeback -- an 80-yard drive capped by a quarterback scramble for first down on…