Athletes coining meme-worthy phrases is nothing new, with Portland Trail Blazers guard C.J. McCollum acting as a recent example. McCollum’s response of “I’m trying Jennifer” made the rounds with virality in August 2018 and, from there, the phrase took on a life of its own. This week, Milwaukee Brewers outfielder and reigning NL MVP Christian Yelich took center stage and it came as a result of news that he took part in ESPN The Magazine‘s annual Body issue.
After some promotional photos came to light, an individual named “Roxane J” fired a message in Yelich’s direction on Twitter and, well, the superstar responded by telling her to… relax.
This took off almost instantly, with jokes flying around on social media and providing entertainment for the masses. Obviously, Yelich is well within his rights to take part in ESPN’s venture and, with that as the backdrop, he was asked about the choice and the reaction.
Sorry, Roxane. @ChristianYelich said the really racy photos are yet to come.
“I went in with the mindset that I don’t really care what people think. … It’s just about being confident, having fun, embracing yourself.” pic.twitter.com/vNJ5IUoVak
— Adam McCalvy (@AdamMcCalvy) August 27, 2019
From there, Yelich put an exclamation point on the proceedings on Tuesday evening, changing his walk-up music to “Roxanne” by The Police.
.@ChristianYelich changes his walk-up song to Roxanne.
* chefs kiss * pic.twitter.com/1NNDzrtjbz
— Cut4 (@Cut4) August 28, 2019
It wasn’t difficult to find the symbolism here and, whether Yelich knew it would happen or not, virtually everyone took notice.
This is an exceptionally 2019 occurrence from top to bottom but Yelich is having a bit of fun and the one angry person (perhaps there are more?) on Twitter moved swiftly to delete the correspondence. Let this be a reminder, however, that the internet never forgets.
