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Being an NFL player comes with plenty of perks, like having dedicated staffers who roam the field with water bottles in search of people in need of hydration. Now, Travis and Jason Kelce have shed some light on why that seemingly thankless job exists in the first place.
An NFL team needs to be a well-oiled machine that relies on plenty of cogs tasked with ensuring it operates at its highest possible level. Players and coaches obviously get the bulk of the attention, credit, and blame for how things pan out on gameday, but there are a ton of people working in more menial roles who are still valuable contributors.
That includes what I would consider the funniest job you can have when you’re employed by a professional football franchise; one I assume people would describe as “Hydration Specialist” to sound impressive on their résumé but has long been referred to as “waterboy.”
If you tune into a contest, you’ll routinely catch those men (and women) roaming the sideline with platters filled with cups and running out onto the field during stoppages with a holster of water bottles they typically offer to players who simply open their mouths to get their H2O fix.
If you’ve ever wondered why that job exists in the first place, the Kelce Brothers took some time out of a recent episode of the New Heights podcast to shed some light on the matter.
During a back-and-forth where Jason and Travis managed to remain relatively composed while repeatedly uttering variations of the word “squirt,” they seemed to agree it was ultimately a matter of convenience:
Travis: Honestly, somebody comes up to me and all they gotta do is just go around from person to person and go ‘You want one? I can’t shoot you real quick.’ It’s way easier than handing the bottle—I don’t know, it’s maybe not that much easier, but it is convenient.
Jason: I think this typically happens at a TV timeout or something like that. You’re trying to be efficient and get water to as many guys as possible before the timeout’s up, so you kind of just know when someone reaches up to squirt you to open up your mouth and you just get squirted.
They don’t always have to do the squirting. You can do the squirting sometimes, but when you develop a relationship, you just know when you’re about to get squirted on to open your mouth.
Travis: You gotta have a good relationship with the person squirting.
Jason: You don’t want to just be letting randos squirt on you. You gotta make sure you know who you’re dealing with.
Wise words.