Cult Heroes and College Football

Cult Heroes and College Football

     On the first weekend of September in 2011, Oregon played LSU in Jerry Jones' new palace of a stadium in front of 87,000 people with millions more looking on at home. Somewhere along the way in the first half a guy named Tyrann Mathieu ripped the ball free from an Oregon punt returner in what was both a violent and incredibly smooth motion. The ball took one bounce and cam up off the turf perfectly into the hands of Mathieu as he strode into the end zone. He looked as shocked as anyone else that it happened as fluidly as it did because footballs are oblong and they do weird things when left to bounce on their own volition. A month later he would do similar things in a nationally televised game in West Virginia and, due to the fact that taking what he wanted was obviously in his nature, was dubbed the "Honey Badger" on a plane ride home. Naturally, LSU fans loved this, but so did a lot of other people. There was this guy running around with reckless abandon ripping fumbles loose and intercepting passes and he did it with a quiet swagger that set the tone for a team that would go onto an undefeated regular season. They appeared destined for a national title until for some reason Jordan Jefferson was allowed to play the entire national title game and someone decided that running the option with him to the short side of the field was a good idea. What I really remember about that team was that LSU's mascot that year wasn't a tiger. LSU's mascot in 2012 was Tyrann Mathieu. He was fun to watch and even more fun to make things up about. As the season was going on, nobody knew that much about Mathieu and so people could decide what he was. He didn't talk to the media much and was a three-star recruit who wasn't quite a DB and wasn't quite a linebacker and nobody knew who exactly he was and so he just became the Honey Badger. Unfortunately, this turned out to be a little much for Mathieu and he was dismissed from LSU before the start of the 2012 season. I don't know Tyrann Mathieu. However, I imagine that he probably struggled being around people and them wanting to meet a Honey Badger and then meeting a Honey Badger instead. 

     On Saturday night a true freshman running back named Nick Chubb came onto the field for Georgia. On his second carry, he ran out of a shoe, through a couple defenders and around another before breaking into clean air for a touchdown. I sat in a room of friends as this happened and none of them were Georgia fans. Before Nick Chubb did what he did all I knew about Nick Chubb was that he was an excellent high school football player and that he apparently possessed freakish strength. After his run, I knew that Nick Chubb was another beast to compliment Todd Gurley.

     A couple of things happened after Nick Chubb's run. The first was that I found out when Brad Nessler says the name Nick Chubb in an excited manner people laugh. The second is that Nick Chubb became a cult hero in my household. My roommates are not UGA fans. One of them is even a Florida fan. Within a hour after the game my friends and I were making up stories about Nick Chubb. In the past few days I have had numerous conversations about what Nick Chubb is doing. He probably is practicing and going to class and doing college football things. However my roommates and I have decided that he is going around being a boss and swagging out all over the place. We have decided that Nick Chubb can bench press a solid half ton. We are convinced that Nick Chubb has numerous side hustles like teaching Michael Jordan how to dunk. We are convinced Nick Chubb is what would happen if somehow Snoop Dogg, Herschel Walker and an angel somehow had a baby and that child of promise chose football as his path over many potential careers he could have excelled in. It's fun. Right now, we can make Nick Chubb whatever we want because he has played one game and we have no idea what or who he is. Like the Honey Badger, eventually we will get a clear picture. For now though, he is the ChubbAngel. The below picture was taken in my house and its contents were written by a Florida fan. It's worth a thousand words.