To the annals of crazy sporting careers add the name of Josh Dobbs — also known as the Passtronaut.
While many would argue you need to be a rocket scientist to play quarterback in the NFL —learning vast playbooks by heart and processing information in split seconds — Dobbs, 28, is living proof.
With a degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Tennessee, Dobbs once interned at NASA. But he decided against a career in space and instead set his sights on becoming a shooting star in the NFL.
Drafted by Pittsburgh in 2017, Dobbs was a career backup before joining the Tennessee Titans (his fifth team) last term.
He made two starts, both defeats, and returned to former team Cleveland for a short spell in the offseason before heading to the Arizona Cardinals, his sixth franchise, in August.
But it wouldn’t be long before the nomadic quarterback, 28, was on the move again…
Enter the Minnesota Vikings. They were the NFL’s luckiest team last season, winning 11 one-score games as they finished an improbable 13-4. But their fortune ran out at the first hurdle in the postseason, losing 31-24 against the New York Giants in the wild card round.
And after starting 0-3 this time out, few gave the mistake-prone Vikings a prayer of getting anything out of this season, bar a top 10 draft pick for the first time since 2014. Since 1990, only four of 158 teams (2.5 per cent) who began 0-3 have reached the playoffs.
So when Minnesota split the next two games — and lost superstar receiver Justin Jefferson to a hamstring injury in the second, a defeat against the Chiefs — the chances looked remote. But there is something in the Mississippi River when it comes to this most undulating of teams.
Without Jefferson, the Vikings have won four straight. The first three came under the leadership and accuracy of statuesque quarterback Kirk Cousins, who had only missed two games since 2015. For the first he was rested (the Vikings were in the playoffs); the second as he had Covid
