"Belief in Ourselves, Belief in Others, Belief in Achieving What Many May Deem Impossible", It Sure as Hell Sounds Like Jacksonville is Going to Let Travis Hunter Play Both Ways

I know Jacksonville Jaguars' brand new child GM James Gladstone was practicing that poetic waxing in the mirror from the moment he had the idea to mortgage his team's future for a chance to challenge the boundaries of the game of football with a player as rare as Travis Hunter. About halfway though that soliloquy, I was expecting Travis Hunter to turn and give his new boss a lighthearted, "Alright man chill chill chill...". Or something like that. Anything to pull in the reigns a bit. I'm not sure I've ever seen a person who better embodies the phrase, "bright eyed and bushy tailed". At the ripe age of 34, James Gladstone is getting his shot to run an NFL franchise like he's always dreamed. He hasn't been beaten down by years of decisions gone wrong. He's not haunted by all the moves he should have made. He's bursting at the seams with confidence. He's ready to shock the fucking world. 

I know that as a GM, you wanna hype up your guy. I know you want to get your fan base excited. But there's a piece of advice I was given early on in my sales career that I try by best to live by. Under promise, over deliver. Not that he shouldn't inspire confidence. But if Travis Hunter is going to succeed on both sides of the football, which based on that speech it sure as hell sounds like the Jaguars are going to give that chance, there's going to be some growing pains. He may not come out the gate playing 100 snaps per game. It might take a season or two to get the offense/defense ratio down right. There's nothing wrong with a GM believing that his new star player is going to achieve "what many may deem impossible". But boy is James Gladstone testing fate here. He gave the world no less than 5 soundbites in an 80 second clip that @OldTakesExposed is already at full mast just thinking about tweeting 5-10 years from now. Even if Travis Hunter turns out to be only a phenomenal cornerback, he's not living up to his GM's opening press conference remarks. Big Cat said it on Pardon My Take this morning. You can see the press conference now. A 45-year old James Gladstone talking about how when he came into the league, he thought he had to take a big swing. But the splashy move isn't always the best move. etc. etc. 

All that said, I love that Travis Hunter is going to a team where they're going to let him attempt to play both ways. Jury is out on whether that's good or bad for his career, but selfishly I want to see him try it. If anyone is going to pull it off it's him. It certainly makes the Jaguars more interesting. It gives the casual fan a reason to pay attention when the Jags pop up on Red Zone. I think pretty much everyone is cheering for him to pull to off. And I suppose if you're the GM of a team like Jacksonville, you might as well do the most fun thing possible. What do you have to lose? It's not like thing can get much worse than they were before James Gladstone and Gay Barstool Pat took over the team.