SAN JOSE, Calif. -- I could have spoken to any player on the Carolina Panthers at Super Bowl Opening Night. But the only guy on my radar was an undrafted linebacker who played 36 snaps this season.
You can go ahead and try to score dream interviews with future Super Bowl legends. I want to talk to the guy who invented the Creedbomb.
Ben Jacobs won't take full credit for the Creedbombphenomenon. But no player has done more to revive the cultural footprint of Scott Stapp, the lead singer of the defunct rock group Creed.
"I've been getting a lot of questions about that, yeah," he replied almost sheepishly after I complimented his stellar Stappian wheeze. "I don't know if I'd say killer, but I'd say pretty average I guess is how I would describe it.
"I pick my spots."
Jacobs is being modest. We present Exhibit A through Z:
I asked Jacobs if he's surprised that Creedbomb had legs beyond the Panthers' locker room.
"Yes. Extremely surprised," he said. "It was just something that is quirky, it's goofy, it started as an inside joke, just guys talking before practice. It turned into a game really, we were trying to get it on the Panthers' Snapchat, I was singing in the background, trying to get in the background for other guys' interviews. And then it just kind of went from there. I'm very surprised how far this thing has gone.
"No. You can't request a Creedbomb," Jacobs replied in a polite but stern manner. "That's not how it works. It's got to be natural."
God, I feel so stupid.
