Brendan Ryan, wearing a white T-shirt adorned with a green sketch of the cartoon character Popeye, smiled and greeted teammates he had not seen in months.
He hugged Garrett Jones and Stephen Drew. He joked with reporters. He lamented the lack of facial hair among his teammates.
“Garrett,” Ryan said to Jones, whose locker is adjacent to his, “let me see your face.”
Jones, clean-shaven, turned to Ryan. “That ship sailed,” he said.
“This,” Ryan said later, smiling and running his finger across his well-manicured mustache, “is just in spite of everyone here.”
On Wednesday, though, Ryan was finally again part of the “everyone here.