RSP contributor Mark Schofield finds Washington State quarterback Anthony Gordon’s game ugly but intriguing.

It is amazing how the human mind works.

Specifically, it is amazing the things that stick in your brain that you can recall years— or decades—later.

For example. I can not tell you much about my high school English class during my junior year beyond the following: It was a shared History and English seminar, where we would read literature from the period of time we were covering in history class. I was exposed to “Johnny Got His Gun,” a book that still sits on my shelf.

Thanks to a forward-thinking teacher, it was the first time I heard Metallica’s “One.” 

All of these are worthwhile events but the memory from that English class that is seared into my brain an essay I wrote over the weekend that I was required to read aloud in class. I barely know what the essay was about, but I do remember that I had seen “With Honors” that weekend, and my essay largely mirrored the plotline of that Brendan Frasier movie.

I was going to say “classic,” but that’s going too far.

After reading my essay, a classmate called me out on the similarities between the two. 

So that moment—not the essay but his derision—is something I’ll always carry with me.

Here is another. I’m a sophomore at Wesleyan and dating a senior (I wasn’t exactly cool or anything, Wesleyan was a different school) and I was at a house party she and her friends hosted. One of her closest friends was approached by a guy and he dropped a pickup line I’d never heard before:

“You’re ugly but you intrigue me.”

I’ll finish the story in a moment, but that memory from college also left an indelible imprint in my memory. I was reminded of it this week when I started studying Washington State’s quarterback Anthony Gordon.

At first pass, he is probably not teaching tape at the quarterback position. His footwork is sloppy, his drops into the pocket are messy, and his mechanics are a bit jerky. And yet, he intrigues me.

Very much so. 

I am growing to like many things about him. I will have more to say on him soon, but for now, we can look at his underneath feel. Given how the NFL operates, you need to have the ability to work against underneath coverage and against the middle of the field. Some of Gordon’s throws this season are examples of advanced quarterbacking:

Again, I’ll have more to say on Gordon in the weeks ahead but…I’m very intrigued.

To close out the story from my past…the line worked. I would not recommend that you try it, however, but it did work. Again, Wesleyan is a different place.

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