Thought you had a good arm, JJ? New NFL star McCarthy is ripped on social media for awful first pitch at the Minnesota Twins
JJ McCarthy may have a bright future in the NFL, but he definitely doesn’t have a baseball career ahead of him.
The first-round pick Minnesota Vikings were asked to throw out the ceremonial first pitch before the Minnesota Twins took on the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday night.
Although he is fresh off a national championship with the Michigan Wolverines and throws balls for a living, fans were quick to point out that the quarterback should probably stick to football.
“JJ McCarthy’s first pitch was…not great,” said one fan subtitled a clip of McCarthy’s effort, which showed the ball flew past the catcher and hit the backstop.
“Good news is they didn’t draft him as a pitcher,” one fan commented on the clip.
JJ McCarthy threw out the first pitch before the Minnesota Twins took on the Tampa Bay Rays
The Minnesota Vikings’ first-round pick proved he should probably stick to football
“He’s used to hitting moving targets, let’s keep doing that,” chimed in another.
A third wrote: ‘He went for it anyway. Never scared.’
His teammate and fellow first-round pick Dallas Turner also threw a pitch, with similar results to McCarthy.
“I didn’t have time to warm up,” Turner joked on his Instagram Story.
McCarthy is currently competing with former 49ers quarterback Sam Darnold for the starting position after veteran QB, Kirk Cousins, signed with the Atlanta Falcons earlier this year.
The quarterback was joined by his teammate and fellow first-round pick Dallas Turner.
McCarthy is currently competing with Sam Darnold for the starting quarterback position
The Michigan alum was the fifth quarterback taken in April’s NFL draft
Head coach Kevin O’Connell said Darnold would lead next month’s training camp, but that wasn’t necessarily indicative of what the season will look like.
“We haven’t had to put out a depth chart or anything like that, but yeah, I would say Sam would be the guy I would look at based on the spring he’s had, and where he really is in his career and his quarterback journey, and what he was able to do when he came in and [hitting] get started and take advantage of a competitive situation,” O’Connell told reporters.
McCarthy was the fifth quarterback taken in April’s NFL draft, behind Caleb Williams (No. 1 by the Bears), Jayden Daniels (No. 2 by the Commanders), Drake Maye (No. 3 by the Patriots) and Michael Penix Jr. . (No. 8 to the Falcons).
He kicked off the Vikings’ rookie minicamp last month, telling ESPN it “didn’t feel like it” [his] first day.’
“I’ve been involved with the offense for a long time. So possible [go] out there and performing and performing, that’s new, but it wasn’t anything that was overwhelming or too much,” he said.