Jared Veldeer is Giving Ring Chasing a Whole New Meaning

One of the things that makes the NFL playoffs great is its finality. Overtime once was and still can be "sudden death". ​ There's no best of 7 series to determine the Super Bowl champ. You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow. This opportunity comes once in a lifetime/season; unless your name is Jared Veldheer. 

Jared Veldheer started at Left Tackle for the Colts in the Wild Card Round and will likely start for the Packers in the Divisional Round. ​When my boy texted me this story and used a line that I imperialism-ed for the title of this blog, I was like "how tf is this possible?" Turns out thanks to COVID protocols it's very possible.

​via PFT:

Jared Veldheer can make NFL history this week.

Veldheer, an offensive tackle who played for the Colts on Sunday against the Bills, is signing with the Packers, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN. If he plays for the Packers against the Rams, he becomes the first player in NFL history to play for two different teams in the same postseason.

Ordinarily, that wouldn’t be permitted. But Veldheer was on the Colts’ practice squad, rather than their active roster, and was moved up to the gameday roster as part of the league’s special rules this season to give teams more flexibility to field healthy players during the COVID-19 pandemic. When the game ended, Veldheer reverted back to the Colts’ practice squad, and the Packers are signing him off the practice squad. (Players on active rosters remain under contract and can’t sign with another team after they’re eliminated from the playoffs.)

Veldheer played every offensive snap for the Colts in their loss to the Bills, and he’s likely to play for the Packers as well, given that Green Bay needs help at offensive tackle after David Bakhtiari‘s season-ending knee injury, and that Veldheer played for the Packers last year and knows their offense. Veldheer is set to do something no other NFL player has done.

We've seen players signed during the playoffs before. I remember the Colts signing Deion Branch during the 2013 playoffs. Who could forget Trey Junkin? For an outside of the NFL example, the 2012-13 San Antonio Spurs signed Tracy McGrady for depth during their 2013 Finals run without playing a regular season game. But never before has an NFL player played for two different teams in the same postseason. Jared Veldheer can change that this weekend.

This is some 1920's barnstorming American Professional Football Association type stuff when guys would play for multiple teams under aliases instead playing for one team and working in a factory. As a former lineman who never got his ring, I commend Jared Veldheer for taking advantage of loophole we'll likely never see again.