Ryan Nielsen was stuck on ‘It’s a Small World’ when Jaguars reached out

“I looked at my wife like ‘How long is this gonna be?'”

When the Jacksonville Jaguars first attempted to interview Ryan Nielsen for their vacant defensive coordinator job, they were denied by the Atlanta Falcons.

Teams are allowed to block their assistants from interviewing for lateral moves and the Falcons, at the time, were interested in potentially keeping Nielsen in charge of leading their defense. So the coach, thinking he wasn’t going to have much business to handle anytime soon, went ahead and took a trip to Disney World.

“We were on ‘The Small World’ … I’ve got my kids and my wife is on the other end,” Nielsen said. “We just sat down on the boat and I got a text from Coach [Doug] Pederson basically saying ‘Hey Ryan, it’s Coach and we’d like to talk to you.’

“I looked at my wife like ‘How long is this gonna be? I gotta make a call.’ I can’t remember the last time I was on ‘A Small World,’ but it seemed about a half an hour that ride. But eventually we got off and it worked out.”

Disney’s “It’s a Small World” ride is only around 10 minutes, but it can feel a lot longer for even the most patient parents. Add in the stress of not wanting to blow a potential job opportunity and the sometimes grating repetitiveness of the ride must’ve been brutal for Nielsen.

In the end, it all worked out. Nielsen got the job and the Jaguars got their defensive coordinator. Perhaps now that he’s a little closer to Orlando, the coach will have a chance to take a slightly less stressful trip to Disney World before the 2024 season gets started.

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