A classic “before they were stars” moment

Hey, you know Joel McHale? The host of The Soup and the guy who plays Jeff Winger on Community? Were you aware he played two seasons at the University of Washington as a tight end? Well, he did. And here is the photo evidence (with copyright infringement protection and all)…

McHale was recruited to Washington’s rowing team out of high school, and he walked on to the football team as a tight end. McHale actually wrote a story about his walk-on experience at Washington back in September on Grantland, in which he recalls how the idea came about.

I was in a fraternity with a bunch of football players for two rocky quarters at the University of Washington. It was a football house, but I got along with them really well. A great player named Chico Fraley asked me, “Why don’t you try out for football?” And I thought, “Ah, yes, I do want to die.” But that’s what I did. I walked on.

I was actually on the crew team for a few weeks first. Out of high school I got recruited to row. Not a lot of people watch crew at the University of Washington, so the team made up for it by being assholes — they were less concerned about rowing than whether the freshmen were being hazed enough. Every year, they’d shave the freshmen’s heads and eyebrows and make a hair pillow; they had a glass display case filled with years’ worth of hair pillows, which they were quite proud of. One time I didn’t push a chair in properly, so the varsity crew team surrounded me and their captain hit me for being insubordinate. So I switched to football.

Read the full story here.

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