Detroit Lions kicker Jake Bates has a sensual stretching routine, with facial expressions to match
Detroit Lions kicker Jake Batest went viral last year when he did a stretching routine that caught everyone's attention.
Mark
All Detroit Lions kicker Jake Bates wanted to do was stretch out a knot in his hip before having to kick again. The way he did it, with ESPN cameras capturing every expression, made for a viral moment we hope can be repeated when the Lions host the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday Night Football.
To recap: In the third quarter of the Lions’ 40-34 win over the San Francisco 49ers on Monday Night Football, ESPN showed Bates lying on his left side, slowly contorting with a look of both pleasure and discomfort on his face, with his tongue hanging out to one side.
It was as sensual a moment you’ll ever see on an NFL sideline.
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ESPN announcers Joe Buck and Troy Aikman were intrigued when the show morphed into “MNF After Dark” and got the lowdown from sideline reporter Lisa Salters:
“He’s OK now, he hasn’t gotten any treatment from the medical staff,” Salters said. “But he was on his left hip, he had a softball. You’ve probably done this at home when you’ve had a knot on your body. I asked him how he was doing, he said he was fine.”
“That explains the video we just showed,” Buck said as Aikman chuckled.
The video of what was the most-watched Monday Night Football game of the season launched a bunch of memes, not unexpected given what people watched. Even the NFL Bulges subreddit was on it.
One compared Bates to “Seinfeld’s” George Costanza posing in his underwear for a photo shoot he did with Kramer in a classic episode.
Others referenced Kate Winslet asking Leonardo DiCaprio to “draw me like one of your French girls” in a scene from “Titanic.”
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As for Bates, he took the whole thing in stride, saying, “My family and friends are having a field day with it already. It’s fun. I understand it.”
As someone who has used similar balls to work out a knot, I understand Bates’ feeling of ecstasy when relief is at hand, though I have never done it with millions watching. Whatever Bates did worked, since he nailed a 57-yard field goal shortly after.
All of us, and in particular the gay NFL fans, are rooting for an encore Sunday night.
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