An Interview With The Creator Of That Viral NFL Quarterback Thread

It's truly a gem.

Jan 19, 2022

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The Internet can be a very bad and dark place. But sometimes it’s a really great place. A little over a week ago, the Internet was a very good place when writer and podcast host, Sarah York, shared a simple tweet:

Sarah York 🌈 @thesarahyork

NFL quarterbacks and what kinda guy they seem like:

What transpired was an epic (and long) Twitter thread detailing the the “kinda guy” quarterbacks in the NFL seem like. Whether that’s problematic Aaron Rodgers being described as “The manager at a local brewery” or Kirk Cousins as an “Evangelical youth pastor who got married at 20”, the descriptions are highly specific and uncomfortably spot on.

I reached out to York and she kindly answered my pointless questions about my favorite thread so far of 2022. You can read more of York’s spot-on sports and pop culture opinions by following her on Twitter here.

First of all, your thread is next level good. Can you share how you came up with the idea? Were you watching an NFL game when the idea popped into your head
Thanks! I was literally just on my couch watching one of the last games of the regular season and texting on a group chat with three friends (all women) who love the NFL and are usually watching the same games. We were talking about Josh Allen and I said the "tried salad for the first time" thing and the idea popped in from there. Then I opened Twitter and started with the NFC.

Sarah York 🌈 @thesarahyork

Baker Mayfield is your brother’s best friend from high school and has a kid with your cousin but you don’t see him much anymore because he got really into sports gambling and is like 30 grand in the hole with some scary guys from New Jersey

Did you know the thread was going to go viral pretty quickly?
I did not! Most of my followers are women and queer people, so I didn't really think a sports thread would hit home for them, but it did. I ended up gaining like 4k followers this week, most of whom are straight men who might end up having a little buyers' remorse on that follow. Once the likes and reactions started rolling in, I knew I had to finish it that night. Which was rough because it was like midnight when I was about halfway through.

Sarah York 🌈 @thesarahyork

Jalen Hurts is a trainer at 24 Hour Fitness and remembers every single member’s name but you kinda avoid him when you’re there because his energy level is a little much at 7 am. He dated your sister in high school and she’s still in love with him.

In my experience, going viral is a very wild ride. Have you gotten any reactions that surprised you from the World Wide Web?
None super surprising, but I've been really pleased at some of the retweets from people I like and that I've followed for a while. Some people responded with stupid shit, but I once went viral for a tweet about guns, so I can handle anything at this point.

You truly deserve a Pulitzer for how accurate these are. Can you share which one is your favorite?
I think the Andy Dalton one is probably my favorite. It's the one I laughed the most at when I was writing it. I think the Kirk Cousins one is probably the closest to reality.

Sarah York 🌈 @thesarahyork

Andy Dalton is your best friend’s ex boyfriend who reads at a 7th grade level but is a millionaire because he was an early investor in Top Golf with money he got from a settlement from getting run over by a zamboni when he was 16.

Was there a strategy you used when pulling the photos for each quarterback? They are so spot on.
Actually the photo is what came first. Basically, I went down the list of teams by division and Google Image-searched each QB, and chose the photo that got my creative wheels spinning the most. The one of Sam Darnold just looked like a guy sitting in the back of a cop car saying, "Do you know who my FATHER is?!"

Of the NFL quarterbacks you described, which one was the hardest to nail down?
Probably Lamar Jackson because he's hard to make fun of. I think he's a gifted athlete and often undervalued in the media, so all I could imagine is a guy SO talented at something weird that he kinda ruins the vibe of a chill hang.

Sarah York 🌈 @thesarahyork

Lamar Jackson has never once mentioned bowling the entire time you’ve known him but then he rolls a goddamn 293 at what was supposed to be a chill beer league kinda thing

I need to talk about the Aaron Rodgers one. Given all of the controversies he’s found himself in lately, how did you nail down the ‘manager at a local brewery’ angle?
For me, it's all his aesthetic. He has a real unwashed presence and I mean that in a literal sense. He looks like he smells a little ripe at all times. Like maybe Shailene [Woodley] got him on some organic "deodorant" made of tree sap or some shit. So the long greasy hair, unkempt beard...I can just imagine him throwing on a dirty flannel and heading to work at a brewery in Greely, Colorado, a little hungover from the night before.

Sarah York 🌈 @thesarahyork

Aaron Rodgers is the manager at a local brewery and shares custody of a 3-year-old boy named Dash with his ex-girlfriend he met back when she was a bartender there. He is currently dating one of the bartenders there.

And he's handsome in that aloof dirtbag way that I know very well from working with countless guys like that in the restaurant business over the years. They present countless red flags and yet somehow there's always a woman orbiting around him that thinks she's gonna change him.

I need to know how you would describe Roger Goodell (Commissioner for the NFL). Would you mind sharing what type of guy he might be?
Roger Goodell looks like an oil executive that buys his way backstage to every Bruce Springsteen concert and posts a grainy selfie with his horrible wife on Facebook with the caption, "Me and Cindy seeing THE BOSS".

I must ask, who is your favorite NFL team? If you have one.
I'm a lifelong Kansas City Chiefs fan.

Which league will you describe next? My gut is NBA, but I might be biased because it’s my favorite.
I think I like NBA players too much, in general, to do this for them. The important part of doing a thread like this is to sort of dislike the subjects of them enough that making fun of them comes easily. NFL players are much easier to "punch up" at than any other league, I think. And the league itself is such a nakedly corrupt cesspool, it just feels better to go after their biggest names.

Again, guys who seem like they're actually good people are hard to punch, like Lamar. Also, I feel like Baker Mayfield is probably a really nice guy in person and I do think he's a good actor in those insurance commercials. Ben Roethlisberger, I can't emphasize enough, belongs in prison.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

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