"You're not allowed to do that."
Surfing and football are having a moment. Just yesterday we learned that the San Francisco 49ers star running back, and last year’s Comeback Player of the Year, Christian McCaffrey is preparing for the upcoming season by training with Laird Hamilton. The King of the Sea’s unorthodox methods have long drawn those looking to unlock heretofore unseen levels of fitness. When I was there, in “The Pool,” Spiderman and Rick Rubin were there too. It has to, then, be assumed that McCaffrey will have his best season yet, thanks to surf-adjacency.
Today, though, surfing is being castigated as “unchill” by a former football luminary. The ex-coach Urban Meyer, who became a star at Ohio State before going to Florida, losing his way, becoming an embarrassment for flirting with babes in bars and getting fired, was very angry after Ohio State’s highly-touted quarterback Julian Sayin sharing his offseason plans.
Speaking on The Triple Option program, Sayin shared that he would be surfing, saying, “The waves haven’t been great so far, but they should be picking up maybe this week, maybe next week. Should be ready to go.”
The five-star recruit grew up in Solana Beach, in North County San Diego, and played his high school ball at Carlsbad High School before heading to Alabama. After the legendary coach Nick Saban retired, following the 2023 season, Sayin transferred to Ohio State, redshirting his 2024 and being named starter, last year and doing extremely well.
Though Ohio State was bumped out in the second round of the college football playoffs, hopes are very high for this upcoming season, leading the aforementioned Meyer to sneer, “If I was (Ohio State’s) head coach, I’d say ‘get your ass out of the water, Julian. You’re not allowed to do that. Just kidding.”
Sayin is correct in saying North County’s waves haven’t been great so far. In fact, they’ve been bad.
Over to you in the booth.