Colts receiver T.Y. Hilton wore a clown mask as he entered the stadium to face the Texans on Saturday after cornerback Jonathan Joseph called Hilton a “clown.”
So NFL players wearing entrance masks is a thing now, eh?
The NFL’s new fashion trend is ... weird.
James Dator has been covering a wide range of sports for SB Nation for over a decade, with a special focus on the NFL.
Hilton didn’t exactly go off in the Wild Card round, but he was a big reason for the Colts’ success, finishing with five catches and 85 yards, proving that while the Houston defense thought he was a clown, he got the last laugh.
Then on Sunday morning Hilton woke up to this terrifyingly adorable sight.
But if you thought the concept of entrance masks was exclusively a Texans vs. Colts thing, well, the Ravens would like to have a word.
Last week they rocked a Guy Fawkes mask.
Then this week there were more.
The Ravens masks don’t make a whole lot of sense. There’s no outlying beef between the Ravens and Chargers. The teams have only played 12 times in history, and while they did meet in 2018 (a 22-10 win for the Ravens) the masks don’t really have a place.
Now, normally I’m a firm believer in anything that makes the NFL more fun to watch — but this seems so shoehorned I just can’t get behind it. I like masks as a response to a slight, or a way to extend beef — otherwise they’re just weird.
We’ll need to wait and see if this evolves, but perhaps this is the start of NFL entrance masks being a thing.
