At the Texans’ football headquarters, only the brave called the middle linebacker by his actual birth name. This destroyer of running backs and setter of standards wasn’t “DeMeco Ryans” at the office. Nor was he “Meco,” the nickname his many of his friends still use. Instead, everyone in Houston, from owner to custodian, called him “Cap.”
It stood for captain, naturally, and it spoke to Ryans’s bearing, the force that emanated from deep within. His job description, according to fellow Texans linebacker Zac Diles, was: literal headhunter; trying to come f--- your world up, seek violence, wired different, love all that s---, every … single … snap. But Ryans meant much more to a nascent franchise that had existed for four NFL seasons and won only 18 games before drafting him in the second round in 2006.
Cap raised expectations as easily as he bench-pressed weights so heavy the plates bent bars. His energy never flagged. When Diles arrived in 2007, Cap already ran the building. In only his second season.
