Off the Field: NFL Players Who Hit the Water

The NFL is one of the most significant sports leagues in the USA, but when there are no games and the training season is a little more relaxed, the players have more time to travel and pursue their interests. Following the Super Bowl, many athletes will travel to warmer regions to engage in sports like surfing, sailing, jet skiing, diving, and a broad variety of other activities that help us escape the cold.

The offseason is full with exciting events, some of which even take place on the field. Listed below are some of our favorites:

Tom Brady Rocks a Wetsuit

A suit for every occasion. Image: CBS Sports

The Patriots were enjoying a lot better, albeit chilly, day on New Year's Eve, which was a miserable day to be a Baltimore resident and a Ravens supporter. At Foxborough Stadium in Massachusetts, it was 13 degrees Fahrenheit (-10 Celsius), far colder than it is for a typical game there. Many players on the field were wearing long-sleeved Under Armour shirts, but it takes a certain amount of brilliance to be probably the best quarterback in NFL history. Tom Brady, being the gem that he is, made the obvious choice to wear his wetsuit.

Wetsuits help us stay warm by interacting with the water, but now we also know what the NFL's most fearsome arm is thinking. Whatever the outcome, the Patriots easily defeated the Jets by a score of 26–6. Tom might not even require a weight belt if he had another ring.

Divers (Almost) to the Rescue for Julio Jones

Don't wear your diamond earrings on your jet ski, was the one piece of advice my grandfather ever gave me. Aside from the fact that he put a lot of effort on the mill and never truly said that, it's wise counsel that we should all probably give to our grandchildren when they start earning absurd sums of money.

Julio Jones, a wide receiver for the Atlanta Falcons, was enjoying a leisurely jet-ski ride on Lake Lanier in northern Georgia last summer when one of his $100,000 diamond earrings fell into the water. Being a resourceful individual on both a mental and financial level, he hired a diver named Bobby Griffin to search for it underwater.

Since it was a lake dive, the outcome of this tale is known. Griffin had been looking for the Falcon in the dark depths of a man-made lake that covered a previous neighborhood full of buildings and trees that had been flooded since the 1950s, down to around 65 feet (20 meters). At the very least, let's hope he received fair payment.

In other news, a $100,000 diamond earring was discovered at the bottom of Georgia's Lake Lanier. finds and keeps?

Matt Burke is a Man of Adventure 

The adventure-time coach. Image: Miami Dolphins

Matt Burke joined the Miami Dolphins in 2017 as the linebackers coach, most likely because he enjoys traveling. Fortunately for him, he has plenty of time this time around to take a vacation after making it to the 2016 postseason.

The former Ivy League safety has proven to be quite the adventurer. He pursued a career in the NFL as a coach after earning a master's degree in psychology from Boston College and a bachelor's degree in psychology from Dartmouth. He has traversed both land and water in the United States along the route. He left for Central America to start diving when this got boring. We assume he is there at the moment, though Miami wouldn't be a bad spot to remain.

He has also scaled Mount Kilimanjaro, as a side note.

The Quarterback Who Almost Wasn’t

 When the ball is down, the surf is up. Image: Tennessee Titans/AP

Marcus Mariota, a Hawaiian, received an opportunity in 2015 that is rarely given to young children. Hey, come throw a ball for twenty million dollars, the Tennessee Titans offered. The best quarterback in Oregon Ducks history was presented with an enticing offer, but he declined it.

The cause? a surfing prohibition in his contract. He made it clear to the Titans that surfing was his top priority. He's on the field right now and moving farther into the postseason, albeit we're not sure how that turned out.

That’s about it for us, if you have any stories about your favorite pro athletes, let us know below.

– Todd Allen Williams, Senior Editor