Theheadline was enough to make a grown man cry: “Fitzpatrick’s heart was broken after benching.” Ryan Fitzpatrick, the 37-year-old journeyman quarterback for the Miami Dolphins, lost his job this week.
“My heart just hurt all day. It was heartbreaking for me,” Fitzpatrick said in a brutally honest press conference. “I’ve been a starter, I’ve been benched all kinds of different ways, but this one just really more so than any of them … I just felt fully committed and invested and felt like it was my team.”
If you’re a NFL fan, there is a decent chance Fitzpatrick has started a game for your favorite team. In his 16-year career, Fitzpatrick has played for eight teams: the Los Angeles Rams, Cincinnati Bengals, Buffalo Bills, Tennessee Titans, Houston Texans, New York Jets, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Dolphins.
Everything about Fitzpatrick’s football career has been unorthodox. He played his college ball a couple of miles down the road from Tufts at Harvard University. While in college, Fitzpatrick interned with the Boston Celtics and picked up prescriptions for the legendary coach Red Auerbach. Fitzpatrick led the Crimson to an Ivy League championship his senior season, throwing for 1,986 yards, 13 touchdowns and six interceptions. These are not exactly impressive numbers for a NFL prospect (last year’s number one draft pick Joe Burrow threw for over 5,500 yards and passed for 60 touchdowns his senior year).
Coming into the league, Fitzpatrick separated himself from his peers on paper. Literally. The Wonderlic is a cognitive ability and problem-solving test that NFL teams have long administered to college prospects at the draft combine. It’s essentially the SAT for NFL players. The test is 12 minutes long and has 50 questions, with players receiving one point for each correct answer. Theaverage player score is around 20 out of 50 but quarterbacks tend to perform better.Star quarterbacks Patrick Mahomes (24/50), Peyton Manning (28/50), Tom Brady (33/50) and Aaron Rodgers (35/50) are all considered to have done reasonably well on the test.Ryan Fitzpatrick reportedly completed the test in just nine minutes,left a question blank and got a 48/50. It is the third-best score in NFL history, behind only punter Pat McInally (50/50) and defensive end Mike Mamula (49/50).
Fitzpatrick’s career has been full of whirlwind games and incomprehensible box scores that make you rub your eyes and wonder if you need glasses. After former Buccaneers quarterbackJameis Winston was suspended to start the 2018 season, Fitzpatrick stepped in and threw for more than 400 yards in each of the Buccaneers' firstthree games. The three-game run, which included 11 touchdown passes, resulted in the rebirth of the nickname “Fitzmagic,” which he originally earned while on the Buffalo Bills.
In 2014, Fitzpatrick, playing for the Texans, threw for 358 yards and a career-high sixtouchdowns against the Titans.Two seasons later, Fitzpatrick threw six interceptions for the Jets in a game against the Kansas City Chiefs, tied for the most by any quarterback since 2001. This year in a game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, Fitzpatrickbecame the first player since the great Walter Payton to finish a game with two passing touchdowns, one rushing touchdown, 20 rushing yards and a reception. Forrest Gump might say Fitzpatrick is like a box of chocolates because, well, you know how that one goes.
With his benching in favor ofrookie phenom Tua Tagavailoa, Fitzpatrick will once again be roaming the sidelines as a backup. But I have a feeling we’ll see him back on the field slinging the ball again soon. One thing is for sure: The NFL is better because Fitzpatrick, and his beard, is in it.
Correction: A previous version of this article misspelled Walter Payton's name. The article has been updated to reflect this change. The Daily regrets this error.
