“Jeopardy!” champ from Philly provides ray of hope for entire city
After yet another rough year for Philadelphia sports fans, it appears that we finally have produced a winner that this city so desperately deserves.
“Jeopardy!” champion Ryan Long has won 15 straight games on the storied show.
Long, a 39-year old Uber and Lyft driver from Philadelphia now holds the ninth-longest winning streak in the history of Jeopardy, earning over $275,000 during his historic run. Not only that, but just over a year ago, he was hospitalized and in real bad shape battling COVID for weeks.
I know it’s hard for Philly to even consider a champion outside the typical 4-for-4 sports in this town. I mean hell, the Philadelphia Union are in first place and no one gives them their fair shake as contenders, but I think we have to make an exception for Ryan Long.
It’s hard to imagine driving on one of those ride share apps to now being one of the Top 10 best Jeopardy contestants of all time and winning hundreds of thousands of dollars. At the very least, after this Long should be launching his own ride share jeopardy show in the city of Philadelphia and just own people for extra tips.
This Cinderella story hasn’t been without its dark valleys to match its glorious peaks though. In a truly horrifying moment Ryan froze. What made it so terrifying about him freezing? It was a very basic Philly sports question that froze him like a statue.
The clue was “In an unexpected crossover, the green Phanatic supporting this team since 1978 has a kids’ book with a “Galapagos Gang” of animals.” As a Philly guy, you probably just almost immediately imagined the Phillie Phanatic as soon as you read the word “Galapagos.”
Of course the question was “Who are the Phillies?” but Long got beat out by another contestant.
Even with the Philly question blunder, Long ultimately won that episode of Jeopardy anyways and continues to bring home narrow victories as other contestants fall flat on their faces. Could you imagine if Long was in the Phillies bullpen? He might have been able to close out a few of those miserable losses over the past week.
Just don’t ask him about the mascot.
Cheers to Ryan Long, we hope his run on Jeopardy continues and will gladly call him a champion of Philadelphia regardless.
Mandatory Credit: Jeopardy!
