The Tampa Bay Buccaneers made a wild Week 1 lineup decision involving Michael Jordan.
No, not the basketball player. Not the actor, either.
This is the offensive lineman Jordan, and he's starting in Week 1 in a shocking change.
Beat reporter Rick Stroud explained it like this:
"HUGE shake up on the Bucs offensive line as Ben Bredesen moves to center. Graham Barton moves from center to LT, which he played three years at Duke. The new starter at LG is Michael Jordan. Apparently, more trust in this than playing Charlie Hack at LT."
ESPN's Ben Solak added this: "The extremely elusive center to left tackle flop!!! That’s crazy!"
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Who is NFL Michael Jordan?
This is the 6-foot-6, 315-pound offensive guard Michael Jordan.
This MJ was a fourth-round pick by the Bengals in 2019 out of Ohio State. He's 27 years old.
Jordan spent his first two NFL seasons with the Bengals, starting a combined 19 games.
He then started 10 games for the Panthers in 2021. In 2022, he was strictly a backup in Carolina.
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He missed the 2023 season, but he returned in 2024 to play 12 games (11 starts) for the Patriots.
He was born in January 1998 in Cincinnati. It would've been impossible to name a kid with the last name Jordan as "Michael" and not know what was happening.
And then he grew into a 6-foot-6 guard, albeit a bit heavier than MJ at 315 pounds.
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