Jalen Reagor Made His Case For The All-Time Worst "Guarantee Game" Performance In NFL History
Guarantee games are great because you either look like a genius when you guarantee a victory and your team gets the job done, or everybody more or less just forgets the guarantee was ever made in the first place if your team loses. It's a very low risk, high reward.
But sometimes a Guarantee Game comes around which is so preposterously horrendous that you simply cannot just move on from it. Which brings us to Jalen Reagor.
The Minnesota Vikings are trying to keep up with the Eagles atop the NFC standings. They were 10-2 heading into yesterday's matchup in Detroit to take on the 5-7 Lions. A win would have clinched the division for them and their spot in the playoffs. So Jalen Reagor, a man who has had a total of 6 receptions all season long without ever having a game yet this season with more than 1, decides it is up to him to guarantee a win against Detroit.
That's some big talk from a guy who has had 6 receptions for 87 yards on the whole year. Just as a quick comparison here, AJ Brown had 10 receptions for 155 yards against Detroit in week 1. So just one game was better than Reagor's full season. But maybe it's a Detroit thing. Maybe this game against Detroit would be Jalen Reagor's coming out party in Minnesota. It would have to be, right? I mean he guaranteed a victory. Clearly he needs to step up and make a few…oh. wait. Nevermind.
1 target. 0 receptions. Vikings lose 34-23. Demon mode.
Here's the thing--if you are going to suck, just suck quietly. This is the NFL. There's nothing wrong with sucking at this level of the game. Nobody is going to get mad at a guy who sucks in the NFL but just keeps his head down and goes about his business. The best you can hope for at that point is to just become invisible while still cashing in a few million dollars in paychecks. What you can't do is suck AND be loud about it. You can't suck and starting guaranteeing victories knowing damn well you wouldn't be a reason why your team would win in the first place.
0 catches and a double digit loss after guaranteeing a win. I still have to check in with the folks over at the Elias Sports Bureau, but that has to be the single worst result in Guarantee Game history.