Arvia: St. Rita’s Ryan Donahue gets hang time with Lions

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St. Rita alum Ryan Donahue is the Detroit Lions' punter. | AP photo

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Updated: November 24, 2011 12:28AM

Politely, Ryan Donahue said, “Do you mind if I call you back in an hour? I’m in the middle of something.”

Assuming “something” could have meant anything from practice to conditioning to a special-teams meeting to rookie hazing, I agreed.

Almost exactly 60 minutes later, the Detroit Lions’ rookie punter called back, apologized, and revealed, “I was furniture shopping with my fiancee.”

And Donahue, an Evergreen Park lad, is smart enough not to mess with an Evergreen Park girl. Friends of the St. Rita graduate are advised, as well, to stay on the good side of the future Amber Donahue.

“She’s my secretary at the moment,” Donahue said.

That means Amber is handling ticket requests. And the Lions are hosting the Bears in the Oct. 10 Monday Night Football contest.

“There’s a substantial amount of people coming out to the Monday Night game,” Donahue said. “Maybe 15 to 30 — and that’s a preliminary number. Even more for the Sunday game (at Soldier Field) in November.”

By either date, interest from Bears fans could be waning. The Lions are young, 2-0 and heading into their Sunday noon start as road favorites in Minneapolis for the first time in 30 years. The Bears’ Urlacher/Briggs/Tillman/Peppers window is closing, they’re 1-1 and home dogs for a 3:15 p.m. date with Green Bay.

Interest from Donahue fans, however, merely may be getting warmed up. He’s quickly revealing himself as another in a series of right moves by Lions management, which since relieving itself of Matt Millen and Rod Marinelli, the principle architects of Detroit’s 0-16 2008 team, has removed all but 10 players of that odious bunch from its roster.

Donahue, an undrafted free agent, opted to try his luck with Detroit despite other offers after being a 2010 Ray Guy Award finalist as a senior at Iowa.

“I really liked this organization from the get-go,” he said. “It’s a new organization, very young. (General manager Martin Mayhew) has put together this fresh, new, young team.”

Donahue won a training camp battle with eight-year Lions punter Nick Harris in part, he conceded, because he’s a cheaper option. That he quickly proved himself an adept holder for kicker Jason Hanson — who last week set a league record for games played with one team when he suited up for his 297th Lions game over 18 seasons — helped, too.

Still, punting is his main gig. And Donahue has done that quite well so far. Though his 44.7-yard average per punt ranks just 19th in the league, his 42.8-yard net average ranks eighth and his six punts inside the 20 rank second.

“Net average above all else,” Donahue said. “You want good hang time on the ball, to give your coverage team as much help as possible.”

Speaking of help, Donahue can’t really discuss his rise to the NFL without mentioning fellow St. Rita alum J.J. Standring. The 1997 St. Rita grad and 2001 honorable mention all-Big Ten punter returned to Rita after graduating from Northwestern and essentially plucked Donahue out of the hallways to turn him into a kicker.

As a freshman, Donahue was a backup safety and old-school, straight-on kicker. He didn’t intend to go out for the sophomore team until Standring intervened — suggesting he could be the varsity kicker.

“First, he changed me to soccer style,” Donahue said. “Second, he taught me how to punt. It’s really an art form to get the ball to spiral off your foot and turn over.”

It took Donahue three months to get a ball to turn over. But a week after beginning to work with Standring, he was Rita’s varsity kicker.

He and Amber will be back at St. Rita’s church in June for their wedding, but they’ll hardly be strangers until then.

“We’ve been in touch with Father Tom (McCarthy), J.J., coach (Todd) Kuska — we’ve heard from a lot of St. Rita people,” Donahue said.

They’ll be hearing from a lot more before that Monday night in October. Even as a pro, Donahue can’t hide from his roots as a Chicagoan and a Bears fan.

“Oh, yeah,” he said. “You do try to take them one game at a time, but in the back of my mind that’s going to be something special. ... I was in grade school when the Bears got Brian Urlacher.

“At the same time, I’ve got to remember he’s probably going to try to take my head off.”