The Baltimore Ravens and Carolina Panthers held their first game of the NFL preseason on Thursday night, which is to say they played a game completely devoid of meaning for all but the fringe roster guys. It’s a stark contrast to the ongoing Rio Olympics, which are as meaningful as sports get. While there are certainly thousands of provincial sports fans who’d rather watch their team’s third-string quarterback than the height of athletic drama, those folks were not at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, which happens to be Michael Phelps’ hometown.
Phelps made history with his fourth-straight gold medal in the 200 IM on Thursday night, and they played it on the Jumbotron so that everyone could enjoy history together. It was a great move, and the players even stopped playing to watch it on the screen. Here’s how it looked on a shaky vertical video from inside the stadium.
But it wasn’t just Baltimore that wanted to stop everything and cheer Phelps on — Cam Newton didn’t just celebrate his teammates (illegally), he also celebrated the greatest Olympian ever:
Cam Newton's Michael Phelps reaction is worth your attention… https://t.co/Nq6HtsZeG5
— Carolina Huddle (@CarolinaHuddle) August 12, 2016
“You won’t see too many athletes who would stop playing their game to watch another athlete compete,” Newton said after the 22-19 loss to the Ravens. “That just shows how highly everyone thinks of Michael Phelps. It is unbelievable for him to be such a phenomenon for so long. It was really cool to watch his race tonight. I have so much respect for him.”
To give you a sense of Phelps’ dominance, his first Olympic games was in 2000 in Sydney, when Cam was 11 years old.
(Via ESPN)
