NFL players, they aren’t all that different from you and me. Sure, they are bigger and faster and way richer, but they also wanna get laid a lot.
And if there’s a way to go about it that makes the prospect of having sex a lot easier, just like you and me, they’re going to use it.
Enter, Tinder and the Jets.
It can be hard for NFL players to find Mrs. Right.
Their workplace is nearly all-male. Their hours can go from pre-sunrise to post-sunset. Many players fear the women that they do meet will regard them as winning lottery tickets or dumb jocks. Or both.
So, a few of them are quietly calling an audible on their smartphones. They’re using the dating app Tinder—and giving no indication that they play football on their profiles.
Can you blame them? And who actually cares what a person’s job is before a first date. If it’s not racist baby slaughterer, you should give them a chance. What fake identities do the Jets whip up?
On [Breno] Giacomini’s profile, there are no pictures of him in an NFL jersey. The four photos show the 28-year-old, 318-pound lineman smiling and wearing a short-sleeve shirt or tank top. He looks like a construction worker—which is what he initially tells women he is.
The facade cracks after he meets his dates in person. “A few weeks later, it’s like, ‘What do you have to do on Sunday?'” he said. His reply: “‘I have to do work.'”
Hey, you could milk that for a while. I used to work construction and was at a job site every Sunday for a year straight. But still, the facade is hard to keep.
The women eventually figure it out. Besides dodging questions about his Sunday whereabouts, Giacomini must deal with fans who notice his massive frame. “After a while, it’s, ‘Hey, how come this guy wants to take a picture with you?'” he said. “And it’s like, ‘Well, they think I play football or something.'”
How prevalent is the app, though?
In Cortland, a city of 19,000 in upstate New York where the Jets are holding training camp, at least 11 players had active Tinder profiles in late July.
That’s more than 10 percent of their training camp roster. Pretty impressive. But it begs the question? Do they have pet insurance? Sadly, no.
Cornerback Kyle Wilson said he joined Tinder to try to meet women he wouldn’t encounter otherwise. Football groupies don’t appeal to him. “You don’t want anything too easy,” he said.
When the app matches him with a woman, Wilson, 27, avoids cheesy lines. “I’m a pretty straightforward guy. If you’re interested, just say what comes to your mind,” he said. “‘Hey, how you doing?’ Get to know them, so you feel what they say back, and go from there.”
Wilson’s gonna be out a lot of money if his dog dies. More importantly, are there ladies thirstin’?
Ihaca College graduate student Sarah Eisenschmidt said she half-jokingly reactivated her Tinder account last month because she knew the team would be holding camp here. “I was kind of just figuring Cortland’s pretty close to Ithaca,” she said. “May as well give it a try.”
The 23-year-old student said she didn’t recognize any of the Jets players she matched with by name and hasn’t exchanged messages with any. Even if she did, she said she might be too nervous to go on a date with an “intense” football player.’
Yea, right.