Quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick has a reputation to uphold.
He's about leadership and eccentricity and resolve.
And the beard. The Washington Football Team's new QB is all about the beard.
And while he hopes this year to join the WFT in going to the NFL playoffs - something, despite his 17 years in the NFL he's never done with a team - the beard is going nowhere.
“I don’t think I could ever shave again,” Fitzpatrick said this week, reflecting on how a pair of fellow sports stars, the Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce and PGA golfer Dustin Johnson, suddenly look post-shave. “They look like different human beings.”
Fitzpatrick, 38, is quite aware that his beard is part of his "FitzMagic'' "mystique,'' if you will. He has on many occasions in his NFL travels invigorated his new team, especially in his early going with a club.
Last season, Fitzpatrick had 2,091 passing yards, 13 touchdowns and eight interceptions for the Miami Dolphins as the guy who started the season as the QB. He was eventually benched for Tua Tagovailoa, news that, when it first reached him, struck him as a "joke.''
But Fitzpatrick isn’t joking about Kelce and Johnson being unrecognizable with their new clean-shaven looks, and he isn't kidding about remaining hirsute himself. Now he just needs the Washington Football Team to have the look of a contender, something all involved hope happens starting in the Week 1 season opener at home at FedExField against the Los Angeles Chargers.
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