Prior to throwing his first NFL touchdown pass on Wednesday in the Ravens' game against the Steelers, Trace McSorley was frequently relegated to the inactive list whenever Baltimore would play. That all changed when extenuating circumstances of the Ravens' COVID-19 outbreak, and Robert Griffin III getting injured mid-game, not only brought him into pads that day, but also brought him onto the field.
For some -- be it Penn State fans, or McSorley's friends and family -- it was a momentous occasion that this third-stringer took the field. But no one group seemed to be more excited about it than NFL fans on TikTok, where the ex-Penn State star has become a bit of a cult hero.
This popularity existed well before McSorley's debut against the Steelers. It began when one TikTok user combined a hype song created for McSorley back in 2018 during his final year at Penn State with the opening vocals of Coolio's "Gangsta's Paradise," and put that audio over clips of the user subbing in McSorley in a "Madden" game and dominating.
@sorley_yt 2nd Best QB in the game😤 #madden21
♬ Trace McSorely spittin - David James
Others followed suit in the trend of celebrating McSorley and used audio for other hype videos that claimed he was the greatest quarterback in the NFL / demanded that he start over reigning MVP Lamar Jackson. It got to the point where even the NFL's official account acknowledged the 25-year-old's popularity -- a mere three days after the original audio was created -- as well as the Ravens' official account a few days later.
@nfl my boss doesn’t believe me, like to prove her wrong 👊 #nfl#football#tracemcsorley
♬ Trace McSorely spittin - David James
So naturally, this McSorley-obsessed section of the internet exploded in excitement when McSorley was called on to come into the game against Pittsburgh on Wednesday. He then ended up throwing a touchdown pass to Marquise "Hollywood" Brown. Once again, the NFL's TikTok account capitalized on this.
@nfl pov: you knew this video was coming #tracemcsorley @ravens #throwitonadime
♬ Trace McSorely spittin - David James
As mentioned before, extreme health-related circumstances put McSorley on the field against the Steelers, so it doesn't seem likely that he'll be back anytime soon. But now that the 25-year-old's ravenous, and extremely online, fanbase has gotten a taste of seeing their hero in regular season NFL action, it's hard to imagine that their appetite gets satiated again by anything other than another appearance in an actual game.
