Chase Claypool is Alright
Your cardiologist breaks you the unfortunate news — cholesterol has clogged the main line out of your heart and you need an aortic bypass. You spend time evaluating surgeons and finally settle on one to invest your life into. As you’re going under, he tells you, “Well, I guess there’s better surgeons. I could honestly have a steadier hand. There’s a lot of guys you should’ve picked before me.”
For those who missed it, Chase Claypool gave fodder to every detritus feeder on twitter after his interview on Brandon Marshall’s I AM ATHLETE podcast.
The interview was half an hour of spirited conversation with four experienced athletes adding nuance to a lot of the storylines that have surrounded the young Steelers over the last two seasons. It’s not a surprise to see PFF reducing that conversation to the one sentence that can generate interactions. This disrespectful reduction of information should make headlines, and boy could I write one, but that’s low-hanging fruit.
Watching the interview shows a lot more about how Chase really feels. With about 5 minutes left in the conversation, Chase speaks on his expectations for the season, expressing confidence in the 2022 Steelers. This train of thought continued into explaining his thought process while he is playing. It’s his opinion, while he’s on the field, that no one can beat him. On the line of scrimmage, he “knows (he’s) a top five receiver, (he) knows (he’s) a top three receiver”.
If this is such a wild way to think about your game, why would all three hosts of the show dap him up and get excited about that take? One of the major themes of the show is experienced professionals speaking with younger athletes to give them advice on creating their success in their league. If this was a delusional lack of self-awareness, Pacman Jones would have been thrilled to humble him, but they know how vital confidence is. Claypool even said afterwards that media outlets would grab that sound byte and quote it but that was his philosophy between the white lines and he was sticking to it. I’d hardly call PFF “the media”, but he knows how the click-farming game works.
Give me more of this from everyone. Give me Najee Harris calling a 2000 yard season or Cam Sutton and Levi Wallace in press coverage every snap. Post a clip of Devin Bush predicting 140 tackles after Kenny Pickett and Mitch Trubisky saying they can recreate Baltimore’s Heisman formation. Make them hate you because it’s all just noise. There’s no chance of it happening without some belief from the players.
Calm down, Chase Claypool is fine. No, he’s not a top three receiver but you’re telling on yourself as a fake football fan if you’re mad that he thinks he is.
