Why Julian Edelman’s Impending Stardom Is a Good Thing for America
The handsome Patriots receiver had a big Super Bowl and now that women are talking about that punim, you can expect to see it everywhere.
Julian Edelman isn’t a secret. People talk about him in Boston. Specifically, women talk about him in Boston. He’s arguably in possession of the best hands on the Patriots – a fact he demonstrated with 109 yards and a touchdown on Sunday – and, more impressively, the handsomest face (sorry Brady), best haircut (sorry Blount), and fullest beard (sorry Ninkovich). He’s got one minor John Varvatos modeling gig under his belt, but Super Bowl XLIX was really his national debut, the birth of his star. Expect to see the NFL’s best Jewish receiver everywhere, and soon.
Edelman had one hell of a playoff run. Not only has he transformed himself into the remastered edition of Wes Welker, he’s still got that arm from his days under center at Kent State. Thanks to that TD pass to Amendola in the Ravens, his career passer rating is higher than Tom Brady’s. It was a remarkable football play, but football plays are only going to get you respect from football fans.
on Nov 29, 2014 at 2:12pm PST
A game-changing performance and haircut in the Super Bowl, say making two catches and a touchdown while obviously concussed, will get you a wider audience. The Super Bowl is, after all, demographically distinct from a regular season game. Not to put too fine a point on it: Women watch. And that matters when you look like Julian Edelman, which is to say, good.
If the ladies guarantee the rise of Edelman, men should support it. Sure, he’s a tough-as-nails, talented route runner, which is great, but he’s also genuinely weird dude. Earlier this season, he was seen wearing a shirt he’d had made up with Gronk on it. Gronk then wore a shirt with Edelman wearing his Gronk shirt on it. This continued apace, but Edelman switched it out for a Tupac “Trust Nobody” shirt in the playoffs. NBC had to apologize for showing it.
Whatever, it was a cool shirt. The Zegna tux he wore on the plane to Arizona was even cooler. And the nickname he seems intent on giving himself – that would be Supertron – cooler still. And yet your Bubbe would be happy to have talk with him about the Talmud. There’s a lot there.
on Jan 26, 2015 at 4:20pm PST
The question is whether Edelman will take his new-found renown in the Tom Brady, Ugg boots direction or keep it weird. We’d love to see him modeling or dancing in Run the Jewels music videos or throwing on a peacoat that fits and becoming, in that moment, the best-dressed man in Boston. He’s going to be a symbol of something, he’s just got to choose what.
Photos by Boston Globe / Getty Images