Some ‘The Good Place’ Fans Thought Blake Bortles Was A Fake Jaguars Quarterback

Getty Image

Blake Bortles hasn’t had the best week of his NFL career. The fifth year NFL quarterback was benched on Sunday after struggling against Houston Texans, getting benched for Cody Kessler in a 20-7 loss.

Just months after leading the Jaguars to the AFC Championship game, Bortles has regressed back to the middling quarterback he’s been much of his career. Still, Bortles was essentially given a vote of confidence by head coach Doug Marrone on Monday, putting him back in as starting quarterback of the Jaguars.

"I spoke to both quarterbacks this afternoon and told them that Blake will be our team's starting quarterback. I believe this gives us the best opportunity to win." pic.twitter.com/eDXVHtUrTf

— #DUUUVAL (@Jaguars) October 22, 2018

But all this talk online about Blake Bortles, real life human quarterback, got some fans of The Good Place confused. One of them, comedian and The Big Sick creator Kumail Nanjiani, made his confusion clear on Twitter on Monday evening: he didn’t know Bortles was actually a real NFL quarterback.

— Kumail Nanjiani (@kumailn) October 22, 2018

Nanjiani is not alone in this thinking, either! To many non-sports fans, Blake Bortles is merely the favorite football player of Jacksonville resident Jason. And Bortles has become a consistent joke in the Mike Schur show, mostly because of how bad he and the Jaguars have been. Jason thinks he’s the best, and he is not. Jason is often wrong, so this makes sense.

This joke tailored specifically for sports fans became far less funny when Bortles had an improbably strong second half of last season and got the Jaguars to the playoffs. Actor Manny Jacinto, who plays Jason on The Good Place, even showed up to the Jaguars playoff game against the Buffalo Bills in January.

— #DUUUVAL (@Jaguars) January 7, 2018

All of that seemed like an eternity ago for both the Bills and Jaguars, two teams with good defense who are atrocious at football otherwise. And The Good Place fans who might not be all that into sports have completely missed the absurd quarterback controversy Doug Marrone has manufactured.

— Josh Dorian (@SaltedJosh) October 21, 2018

Every time Blake bortles is trending I giggle cause I literally didn’t know he was a real person until last year, I thought @nbcthegoodplace made him up

— Alison Merritts (@therealamerr) October 21, 2018

Confession:

…. I thought Blake Bortles was a silly name they made up for ‘The Good Place’ pic.twitter.com/qmYXoKjhSz

— Tora’s Spooky Shae (@BlackMajiik) September 7, 2018

In everyone’s defense, Blake Bortles is a ridiculous create-a-player name. So it’s completely understandable, especially coming from a show that’s invented dozens of fake frozen yogurt franchises, to assume that too was fake. Schur has put in plenty of ridiculous sports references in his shows, too, so it wouldn’t be a big surprise if The Good Place fans simply chalked up the name to some inside joke sports fans would chuckle at.

— Aimee Ogden (@Aimee_Ogden) January 21, 2018

And it’s important to note that this realization isn’t anything new, by the way. Fans of the show have slowly learned of Bortles real-life existence for months now.

— Laura (@theactivestick) January 14, 2018

did you know that Blake Bortles is a real person and not just a funny name made up by the writers of The Good Place madness

— aoife (@aoiph) January 14, 2018

For some it wasn’t until Jason had to play against the Jaguars in Madden until they realized he was a real person.

— kim possible (@itneedsaying) October 21, 2018

As usual, the correct response to all this is “poor Blake Bortles.” It’s also important to note that Jake Jortles is, however, just on the show. We think.