Things have taken a downturn for LaVar Ball of late.
The father of UCLA hoops star Lonzo Ball and poster boy for a particularly explosive brand of Sports Dad audacity lost his 24-hour news cycle meal ticket when the Bruins were bounced out of the Sweet 16 over the weekend. On Monday morning, Deadspin published a post under the headline, "Here's Some Satisfying Video Of LaVar Ball Playing Basketball Badly".
Last week, we told you about how Le'Veon Belldetonated Ball's boast that he could defeat Michael Jordan 1-on-1 in their respective primes. Now we have some photographic evidence of the brief period when Ball was trying to make it in the NFL.
The deep dive comes courtesy of ESPN's Rich Cimini, who reported that Ball made two unsuccessful attempts to make the New York Jets in 1994 and 1995 -- first at defensive end, then at tight end. Boomer Esiason, the Jets' quarterback during that barren time in franchise history, had no memory of Ball, but former linebacker Marvin Jones had thoughts.
"I remember LaVar Ball very well," Jones said. "He was a very athletic guy and raw. I remember him very well because he played only one year of college football. I remember a very confident guy and, yes, he voiced his opinion and was cocky, but overall seemed like a great guy."
Ball never made it out of training camp with the Jets, but did earn a few paychecks as a practice squad player with the Atlanta Falcons. He never recorded an official NFL snap.
