Malik Willis made a call that few, if any, NFL quarterbacks have ever had to make on the fly. On Sunday, the Green Bay Packers QB chose to hold onto the ball—rather than throw—after his center vomited all over it.
The incident occurred on a key third down. Head coach Matt Lafleur had dialed up a passing play. Willis received the ball, stepped back, and then realized the ball had no grip. That was due to the puke. As a result, he could not make the correct throw, so he opted to run. Despite his courage and, frankly, his gentlemanliness, he failed to move the chains for a first down.
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“I asked Malik why he didn’t throw the ball on that third down, and he told me that Josh [Myers] threw up on the ball,” Coach Lafleur told the media during his press conference. “I was like, ‘That’s the first time I’ve ever heard that.’ As a matter of fact, the official came over to me and said, ‘We saw your center throwing up on the ball.’”
The referee, Shawn Hochuli, asked the coach if he wanted the player removed if that happened again, to which Lafleur said, “Absolutely.”
Ultimately, the play in question didn’t cost the Packers anything significant, as the team went on to pull off the upset win over the Indianapolis Colts, 16-10.
NFL players throwing up on the field isn’t anything new. There’s a lot of energy being exerted in a game, and sometimes, more than just energy is leaving these athletes’ bodies. Former Philadelphia quarterback Donovan McNabb is believed to have thrown up during the fourth quarter of his team’s losing Super Bowl attempt in 2005, though he insists he didn’t.
Weird stuff happens all of the time on the gridiron. Seattle star wide receiver D.K. Metcalf once had to get carted off because he had to go to the bathroom so bad. That being said, having to grab a vomit-soaked football (while not wearing any gloves, mind you) is among the more heinous things I’ve ever heard of happening on the field.
