It’s easy to tell when a pro athelte says something to make headlines or get attention.
The inverse is also very true.
Such is the case with William Hayes of the Los Angeles Rams, who was the star of Tuesday’s episode of Hard Knocks because of his beliefs about mermaids and genuine disbelief concerning dinosaurs.
You can’t make this stuff up, folks.
ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez captured an excerpt from the show:
“Will Hayes absolutely believes and is totally convinced, that there are mermaids, and they do exist,” Rams coach Jeff Fisher told the “Hard Knocks” cameras from his office. “As a matter of fact, I remember him getting real excited about the potential for moving out here because he knew that he would be close to the mermaids here on the West Coast.”
One will find Hayes’ logic concerning dinosaurs quite…interesting:
“I think it’s some bulls—, to be completely honest with you,” Hayes told “Hard Knocks.” “I just can’t fathom a T. rex walking around here, something man ain’t ever seen.”
Believe it or not, this isn’t new—Hayes made headlines last year because he was adamant in these beliefs. Peep a quote captured by ESPN’s Nick Wagoner from last December:
“He thinks archaeologists place bones underground like a parent would place Easter eggs,” Chris Long said earlier this season, laughing. “They just planted them. It’s some large conspiracy. He does not believe that dinosaurs ever existed and he thinks that mermaids are real. I love dinosaurs, so we have a big point of contention.”
After last night’s episode, Chris Long took to Twitter to talk about his friend’s oddities:
I have so much footage of William Hayes talking about mermaids and dinosaurs on my phone it’s not even funny.
— Chris Long (@JOEL9ONE) August 16, 2016
Hayes is agrown man, so it’s pretty funny he’s a dinosaur truther and looks at a body of water and thinks about the mermaids within. But hey, we all have our oddities, Hayes’ are just a little more outlandish than usual and happen to get the spotlight of the NFL.
Indeed, what Haynes has to say next is anyone’s guess.