You'll never guess who I ran into ...
Of all the players I've covered, it's hard for me to think of one whose career makes me happier than the guy I ran into Tuesday on the most famous street in Manhattan.
I ran into former Seahawks defensive lineman Quinton Jefferson on Tuesday afternoon. He was waiting for an Uber outside the Five Napkin Burger on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, and after he allowed me to reintroduce myself, I told him that I had been thinking of him the previous evening.
That’s not as random as you might think. Jefferson is now part of the Jets’ fire-breathing defense, and he’d sacked Chargers QB Justin Herbert in front of God and everybody on Monday Night Football.
After watching that play, I felt a surge of happiness not just for what Jefferson had done on that play, but for the fact that seven years after the Seahawks drafted him as the married father of three, he was still out there sacking quarterbacks. To run into him the next day felt like this unbelievable bit of kismet.
“What are the odds, right?” Jefferson said.
Jefferson is too talented as both a player and a person to be called a longshot, but Jefferson’s longevity and success weren’t guaranteed, which is part of the reason I’m so happy for him. The other part has to do with the specifics of his story, which I’ll explain. But first, I did run into an absolute whopper from Colin Cowherd earlier this week, which prompted me to try a new experiment here at The Dang Apostrophe:
