I have a dog who is obsessed with blueberries. A small handful every morning – or it’s crazy time for the next hour.
Bruce the pug is like most dogs. Food motivated, but fairly normal for 23 hours a day. The blueberry thing is beyond obsessive, it’s intense, fixating and fascinating, an unhealthy passion and anything but normal.
Kind of like how America feels about its quarterbacks.
American sports fans are obsessed with quarterbacks. They are the nation’s biggest stars, minus Travis Kelce, his girlfriend and Ashton Jeanty.
The quarterback obsession is massive.
The number of quarterbacks we are talking about is not.
Think about this: There are 8,000,000,000 people on this planet – and less than 200 of them play quarterback at the highest level. That’s 32 starters in the NFL, 133 at the FBS college level, a couple of FCS/CFL outliers and a few backups who create headlines (more on Malachi Nelson in a bit).
Mike Prater
In every sense, all these quarterbacks are local, regional or national stars. In many cases, all three. Right now, the worst quarterback on the worst team is being talked about – even though it’s probably not good.
In the NFL, they’re paying quarterbacks up to $60 million to play 17 games. In high school, the girls want to date the quarterback, the guys want to be his best friend – and the star is demanding (and getting) NIL money even before starting college.
Because in this country, the only country obsessed with football, we obsess over our quarterbacks, at all levels.
“I played quarterback in high school, as you guys can tell. Horizon High School’s finest. Man. Probably threw the ball twice,’’ Boise State coach Spencer Danielson said this week when I asked about our obsession with quarterbacks.
Fact check: Danielson actually passed for a respectable 1,500 yards and 17 touchdowns in his senior season at Horizon.
Then he answered the question.
“I don’t know, it’s a good question. I think just like anything, it’s something that when you’re a fan of a sports team, especially football and you’re going to know one player, you’re going to know the quarterback.
“I think it’s just the American culture and what it is with football, it’s been a part of our culture for so long. It’s an amazing game to teach you about life and I think the quarterback who touches the ball every single time is an easy target.’’
In Boise, we’re obsessed with Kellen Moore – and he hasn’t played here for 13 seasons.
When Steve Young says on our KTIK radio show that Moore should be coaching at BYU one day, it creates a social media buzz.
We wonder how long Brett Rypien can hang in the NFL. Or if Boise State will ever put a productive NFL quarterback.
We debate the future of Taylen Green at Arkansas.
We talk about Hank Bachmeier at Wake Forest.
Nationally, Aaron Rodgers is a headline every morning he wakes up.
We take notice of Joe Burrow’s hair.
Patrick Mahomes could run for president.
Quarterbacks get all the attention, have all the fun, make all the money … and win all the Heisman Trophies. Sorry Ashton.
I asked Boise State offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter the same question I asked Danielson: Why are American sports fans obsessed with quarterbacks?
“They all think it looks easy, but it’s really not,’’ said Koetter, who has been playing or coaching quarterbacks since his 1970s childhood in Pocatello. “When you got six, seven, eight guys trying to rip your face off and then you’ve got the DBs trying to cover those receivers, you’ve got defensive coordinators trying to disguise what their defense is doing, disguise the coverage. It’s hard, really hard.’’
Koetter’s football journey led him to the NFL, where he coached plenty of stars. Today, the stars of the NFL are making insane money, with Dak Prescott at the top, earning $60 million a year.
“That is crazy. That’s crazy,’’ Koetter said.
Twenty NFL quarterbacks will make at least $25 million this season alone.
Like most of us watching in stadiums or on TV, Koetter thinks saturation has somewhat watered down the level of quarterback play that we see on weekends. Apparently, we obsess about quarterbacks even when they’re mediocre.
“As I watch college football, it’s easy to see the elite guys. It’s easy to see the terrible guys, and then there’s a whole bunch of guys in the middle that are trying to be elite. So the great quarterback play jumps out and bad quarterback play jumps out.’’
I didn’t have the courage to ask Koetter if Nelson will see the field Saturday night when Boise State plays Portland State in the home opener at soldout Albertsons Stadium. Maddux Madsen is starting, as he should, and the Broncos should lead by comfortable double-digits going into halftime.
Second half: Nelson Time? Please.
We’ve been obsessing about him for nine months. Five-star transfer from USC – and he’s done nothing but practice. No public presence. No nothing – certainly not what fans have been obsessing about.
It would be awesome to see Nelson play Saturday, to see what the hype is all about, to see what a five-star looks like on The Blue. His appearance would add to the narrative that teams need two quarterbacks these days. Coaches, teammates, fans, media – we’d all be a little bit smarter about this obsession if we could see him play in a live game for the first time in 22 months.
Nelson is a quiet, introverted star with no stats, but we obsess over him because he plays quarterback. If Boise State takes care of its business, as it should against a poor FCS team, I’m sure he’d love to see a little playing time Saturday night.
Just like my boy Bruce loves his morning blueberries.
Mike Prater is the Bronco Nation News columnist who co-hosts Idaho Sports Talk (KTIK 95.3 FM on Monday-Friday from 3-6 p.m.) and the Boise State football postgame show (KBOI 670 AM). He is on Twitter @MikeFPrater and can be reached at mikefprater@gmail.com
