For years the book on Justin Herbert was that he's the introvert's introvert. A QB who'd rather be in the film room than anywhere with a camera pointed at him. So when the famously private Bolts QB suddenly turned up in a steamy music video for his very famous girlfriend, the timeline did a double take.
The shut-in QB making a music video cameo was the part nobody had on the bingo card.
Meanwhile, the recluse shut-in Justin Herbert stars in a music video for his queen #SomeThings
Enter Dave Portnoy, who took one look at the Chargers franchise QB swapping a clipboard for a leading-man cameo and decided to drop the hammer. His pitch: maybe winning rings actually requires being chained to the weight room and the tape, not pulling double duty as a music video love interest.
Portnoy lays out the case for less screen time and more film time, and uses the Patriots' trophy case as the receipt.
It's a classic Portnoy move — flex 6 rings and a recent Super Bowl appearance to win an argument about something completely unrelated. But the punchline lands because the Chargers really haven't won a playoff game in the Herbert era, no matter how many times the talent on the roster says they should. There's always a meltdown, always a stat line that looks great in a loss.
Is the music video actually the reason? Of course not. Herbert can star in 10 of these things and still throw for 5,000 yards next season. But this is the deal you sign up for when you're a $260 million QB dating a global pop star — every off-field appearance gets graded against your January résumé. And right now that résumé has a lot of blank space where playoff wins are supposed to go.