About two weeks ago, Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers was unable to successfully chug a beer during an NBA game. It was a bit of a thing. Matthew Stafford, quarterback for the rival Detroit Lions, chugged one on Twitter just to dunk on him. Rodgers eventually laughed it off. It was a funny internet video, and we all chuckled, and the cosmic ballet went on.
Weeks later, however, Rodgers’ faux pas (if it can really be considered as such) has led to copycat chugs, meaning that what began as an excuse for professional athletes to slam beers has devolved into grown men slamming any liquid at all to prove an indeterminate point. Take this ESPN footage from an episode of NFL Live yesterday, where analyst/sports-trade-leaker emeritus Adam Schefter and former NFL QB Dan Orlovsky broke out the chocolate milk:
And then, with water. There are a lot of ways to fill broadcast television time, and chugging water is certainly one of them.
Say what you will about the 1700s, but at least people used to get into actual duels for the sake of establishing their dominance over the social order. Orlovsky won the contest, but in another sense, did he really? Did a single one among us?