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Football isn't America’s past time, it’s America’s addiction. Nothing says that better than the off season which actually doesn’t really exist. That’s the trick the NFL has pulled off, there’s always something. As I write this we’re a few days away from a televised golf match pitting Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers against the young guns of Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes. This ain’t happening with four top players for any other sport. They’ve got us hook line and sinker. The calendar year is really divided into 4 quarters… LOH THE FOOTBALL SYMBOLISM! There’s the preseason which starts with training camp, the regular season, the post season and the wondrously engaging player procurement season which we're still in. Think about it, people are still talking about the signing of players like Tyrann Mathieu to New Orleans and Melvin Ingram to the Dolphins.
But it’s not just players that have so many of us drooling. It’s plays. Well.. sort of plays? We’re in the middle of a bunch of things called OTA’s. For the uninitiated that’s organized team activities. While it sounds like advanced playground for adults it’s really a chance for teams to come together and workout as a unit without actually hitting each other and putting on pads. Two weeks ago the Miami Dolphins social media team put up a video on twitter of their QB Tua Tagovailoa throwing.. IN A BUCKET HAT MIND YOU.. to his new receiver Tyreek Hill. Hill came over in that shocking trade from Kansas City and has speed to burn. They’re both in shorts and the throw? Well let’s just say it wasn’t what you would call a “penetrating ball flight”. It hung up in the air and Tyreek had to wait for it. Since it was put up that video has almost 7 million views. 7 MILLION! And it created an entire debate: Was it under thrown? Does Tua have the arm strength to capitalize on Hill’s speed? Is this a bad marriage? It was one throw.. against air.. with players in shorts.
Speaking of Kansas City, The Chiefs picked up a very interesting WR in the player procurement season named Justyn Ross. The Clemson star went undrafted and could be a great pick up if he stays healthy.
The Chiefs social media team put up a video 2 days ago of him making a crazy one handed catch, it’s already closing in on 1.5 million views. And LORD the comments: “out of bounds, not a catch”, “another inaccurate throw from Mahomes”. One twitter account who goes by the name “magicbeans69” broke it down like this: “Its a catch the laces don’t spiral after that moment the rest is in control bringing it into his body. His left 🦶 comes down in bounds. Was it lucky idk I know he needs work on his sideline🦶work. It’s all over his college tape one🦶one🦶 doesn’t seem to drag or try to fixable”. It’s one catch, from an undrafted rookie and we’re micro analyzing it like it’s the search for infinity stones 😂.
This part of the year for NFL fans is like a really good party in Miami in the 80’s: everyone is running around looking for that one last hit of the good stuff that will tide us over until the next rager begins. Reporters will dutifully break down every 7 on 7 drill and proclaim greatness or incompetence based on these throws. People will eat it up with a spoon cuz it’s all we got for a while. Any other sport would kill get the attention for their playoff games that NFL OTA’s bring to the table. Hell the NFL Pro Bowl, which everyone says they hate, got a higher TV rating in the middle of the day than the NBA All Star game, which everyone says they love, had in a primetime window. So prepare to suffer thru preposterous spin on plays that actually mean nothing for a while, because it’s all we got. And we’re gonna need a little something to make it to September.
