Matt Ryan retires: Read full letter to Atlanta, team [Video]

ATLANTA — On the day that Falcons great Matt Ryan announced his farewell to the NFL, he shared a thank you to the city that he called home for most of his career and a city that loved him: Atlanta.

“I am so lucky that my start and now my finish is here in Atlanta,” Ryan said in a video shared from the Falcons X account.

The former Falcons quarterback announced Monday that he was retiring from his professional football career, which began in 2008, when he was drafted right out of Boston College to join the Falcons franchise. He spent nearly his entire career — 14 years — in Atlanta before a short stint as QB for the Indianapolis Colts.

During the video, interspersed with career highlights during his time with the team, Ryan narrates his letter and underscores all that he learned about “what it means to be a true professional.”

“For the rest of my career, …