In the days after Ryan Day left the field in Columbus following Ohio State’s loss to Michigan to end the regular season, his family’s safety was the top priority after they received death threats from a lunatic group of fans of Buckeye.
Obviously, there were monstrous fallout in Columbus after the loss, with fans calling for Ryan Day to be fired after Ohio State lost its fourth straight game to the Wolverines. But what some people haven’t heard is how everything spiraled out of control from a safety standpoint for Ryan Day and his family.
Speaking with the Columbus Dispatch, Nina Day, Ryan Day’s wife, spoke about the horrific events that occurred after Michigan’s loss. The situation behind the scenes for the family had changed in a dangerous way.
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Head coach Ryan Day of the Ohio State Buckeyes celebrates with his wife Christina and daughter after defeating the Oregon Ducks 41-21 in the Rose Bowl game presented by Prudential at Rose Bowl Stadium on January 1, 2025 in Pasadena , California.
“The time between the Michigan game and the Tennessee game was as low and dark as you can imagine. Extremely negative. Unprecedented hate,” Nina Day explained.
When Ryan Day was eight years old, his father committed suicide. So when fans somehow got their hands on Nina Day’s cell phone number in the days after the Michigan loss, unfathomable messages started coming in at a steady pace, before Nina decided it was best to just disconnect her phone.
“I was told several times to make Ryan follow in his father’s footsteps and commit suicide,” Nina told the Dispatch.
Ohio State Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day leaves the field after the game against the Michigan Wolverines and the Ohio State Buckeyes on Nov. 30, 2024, at Ohio Stadium in Columbus, OH. (Ian Johnson/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Outside, Ryan Day continued to move forward, holding his weekly press conference as he waited to see who his team would play in the first round of the College Football Playoff. But within the family, things were starting to get out of control when it came to their safety.
According to Nina Day, her 16-year-old son, RJ, began receiving death threats on social media, while the family’s address was also published, prompting Ryan Day to hire armed security guards to protect his family in their house. Nina also thought she should take her children and leave Columbus during this time, not knowing what the next month would bring.
“I think at times he questioned his decision to get into this and be in the spotlight that we’re in. He felt responsible and he just felt bad for putting us in this position. He promised us that he would get us out of this. “Nina Day mentioned about conversations with her husband.
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There are fans of all sports who take things too seriously and this is another example of something that cannot be controlled. There was no reason for the Day family to have to fear for their lives during a football game, I don’t care how much you get paid or what your job is.
This is obviously the ugly part of sport, and it’s not like it’s the first time we’ve heard of coaches having to deal with these types of situations, and it won’t be the last.
Coach Sherrone Moore of the Michigan Wolverines shakes hands with coach Ryan Day of the Ohio State Buckeyes after the game at Ohio Stadium on November 30, 2024 in Columbus, Ohio. (Jason Mowry/Getty Images)
“He fought like hell and got us out of a very dark place that we were in five weeks ago because of his resilience, because I don’t think anyone really thought this was going to end the way it did,” Nina Day mentioned. “Everyone thought the season ended in November.
“The only thing he kept telling me was, ‘I want to bring you peace. I just want to bring you peace.’ And I knew that for us to feel any kind of peace, I had to win it all.”
All this during a soccer game. A family that fears for their lives and needs armed security to watch their house, just so they can sleep peacefully and feel safe.
While Nina Day mentioned that you can’t label an entire fanbase as “fringe lunatics,” there are certainly a number of people who should be held accountable for their actions towards the Day family.
As I watched Ryan Day celebrate with his family on the field Monday night, hugging each member of the family, there was certainly more to the story than just a head coach dealing with outside noise.
