"You Can't Be a Thermometer, You Have to Be The Thermostat", Tampa Bay's New Starting QB, Undrafted Rookie Jalon Daniels, is Going to Be Just Fine (During Press Conferences)

I'm a little ashamed to admit that, "I'm not sure this guy knows what a thermostat is." – was my first incorrect thought upon reading that quote. I'm not sure why I (and an unimpressive number of people in the replies) collectively forgot what a thermostat does. But hey, at least I figured it out before I tweeted out my confusion. 

It's a good quote, Jalon. Makes perfect sense. It's a little bit out of the Jalen Hurts playbook of "make everything at the press conference into a metaphor or something". But all things considered, that's a pretty good way to live your life at press conferences as an NFL QB. If you can consistently take the podium with a handful of motivational quotes/analogies ready to go, you can use them to answer about 80% of the questions you'll ever be asked. 

Side Note: My personal go to when I need to bullshit my way through a sentence at work, or in a job interview, or anywhere in life – "You've just gotta find that balance." You can throw that out during any conversation at any time. It doesn't even have to make sense, or pertain to anything in particular. It just sounds right enough, and is quality advice that's applicable to almost any situation.

That's what 90% of football talk is anyways. Trent Dilfer made a career as an analyst saying things like, "You cannot lose games in the NFL and still win."

That's not inspirational. It's not an analogy, metaphor, simile, it's not anything. It's not even thought. It's barely a full sentence. Yet in real time, 99% of people watching Trent Dilfer say it live surely nodded along and thought, "Yep, this is perfectly professional ball talk."

Mike Tomlin built a whole Steelers franchise around one of those quotes.

My point is, an NFL quarterback can assure that he gets in no trouble at all (with his words) if he's properly equipped with an arsenal of motivational quotes. Not that every QB should be Jamies Winston. You've gotta have a special type of charisma to be Jameis. But again… have you ever heard a Jalen Hurts press conference. 

Just buy a book of coaching quotes or something. It will keep you from saying anything actually stupid. Surely A.J. Brown would have murdered Jalen Hurts with his bare hands had Jalen Hurts not studied up on stupid quotes every night. If only Cam Ward had one ready go in this moment right here.

Jalon Daniels would never. Now all he needs is the "be good at quarterback" part. There are maybe 20 guys in the entire world right now capable of doing that on an NFL field right now. But maybe Jalon Daniels will surprise us. Maybe he has the right stuff. Crazier things have happened than undrafted rookies succeeding at QB in the NFL. I'm sure of it.

My one piece of advice (other than the quotes thing) – leave your highlight chain at home, Jalon.

You can get away with that fine in college, but you don't wanna show up in Dallas tomorrow with practice highlights around your neck. No matter how mediocre the Cowboys defense may be, it's still made up entirely of NFL players. Which should be a far cry from the Big 12.

P.S. I'm also cheering for Jalon Daniels because how funny would it be if after Jayden Daniels made whole stink about LSU disrespecting his legacy by giving out #5… if another quarterback came into the NFL and just cucked his whole name. I know Jalon is different than Jayden… but barely…