AP

July is a dead period on the NFL calendar until training camps start, which leaves those who keep an eye on the league to talk about things that would be ignored in a busier period.

Things like Titans quarterback Zach Mettenberger responding to Texans defensive end J.J. Watt’s opinion that Mettenberger’s habit of taking pre-game selfies is best left to high school students by taking a swipe at Watt and the Texans wearing letterman jackets usually seen on high schoolers on a 2012 road trip. Watt fired back by saying that lions don’t concern themselves with the opinions of sheep, although he left unanswered the question of why they’d be interested in sheep selfies.

That means it was Mettenberger’s turn to keep the fire burning. He passed on further jabs at Watt in a text message to Jim Wyatt of the Tennessean, however.

“Watch the video and you can see I was being sarcastic and joking,” Mettenberger said. “Pretty simple.”

Laughter’s a pretty good reaction to what’s turned into the kind of back and forth that even some high schoolers might find too juvenile to be worth the effort.