As some of you may know, via my twitter yesterday, I am now humbled and honored to consider D'Andre Swift a teammate for life. And more than that, a friend. Per most Mondays in the slow moving and quite frankly boring life of a 24 year old still living with his parents in the suburbs, I took my talents to LA Fitness to absolutely assert athletic dominance on soccer dads far removed from their primes. And keeping to standard, I never came close to asserting said athletic dominance. However, what I don't have in vertical jump and ability to cross some over into the next solar system I make up for in want-to, defensive effort, and pure tenacity on the glass.
The irregularity in this mundane Monday came along when a dude who looked exactly like D'Andre Swift rolled ino the gym. Now, most people don't know shit about what football players look like outside of quarterbacks, fortunately I'm not most people. I'm one of the brave soles who links his weekly happiness directly to the success of the Detroit Lions so at a certain point it's my job to know what these guys look like. That being said, definitely helps that Swift is far and away our most electric player, helps that he was a stud at UGA, and helps that he was wearing a Lions hoodie and Google exists to confirm my suspicions.
Anyway, the pickup session came and went and surprise, surprise, the NFL running back is also good at basketball, who would've thought. I will say, I had a hard time restraining myself; not from trying to get a picture or asking who he was, but from telling him that it's gonna be a lot harder to rush for 1000 yards this year if he turns his ankle boxing out a kid that got cut from his freshman basketball team. But in the end my innate nature of being cool as a cucumber prevailed and we just played like I wasn't constantly monitoring those ankles.
Despite it being cool that I was playing a sport with a pro athlete (and an absolutely fucking sick one at that) the best had yet to come. It was cool to see him go to the rim literally at will and without trying, but my biggest takeaway came at a singular moment when I knew no matter what happens on the field, he's a Super Bowl locker room guy. This is where my tweet comes in.
Just played like 5 games of pickup with D’Andre Swift, shockingly also good at basketball.
— Nick Bradley (@carladoolin) May 17, 2021
Biggest takeaway was when I clanked a corner 3 and let out a very explicit, “fuck” and he told me to “keep shooting”. You can win super bowls with guys like that #OnePride
YOU CAN WIN A SUPER BOWL WITH A GUY LIKE THAT. Listen, I know I'm not Magic Johnson, hell I'm not even Tyler Johnson (Dwight Schrute clone on the Heat), if anything I'm a Gus Johnson. When I clanked that 3 to take my FG total from 0/1 to 0/2 on the day our friend D'Andre easily could've kept his mouth shut. Or worse, told me that I stink and to stop shooting. But no. That just isn't the kind of guy he is. My friend Dre is a leader of men, a champion, a beacon of light in this dark, cruel world. "Keep Shooting" -D'Andre Swift. Hang that in a museum somewhere, and we'll keep the original in my bedroom until I die. Morale of the story, even though I fully expect Swift to have a MONSTER year for the Cats this year, no matter what happens on the turf I know we can win a Super Bowl with a guy like that in the locker room. Hell of a football player, better teammate, (pretty much) best friend.
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