Ryan Fitzpatrick has his old job back.
But he looks like a new man.
With Ryan Mallett out for the season, the Texans are expected to turn back to Fitzpatrick, who started the first nine games of the season for them. But when he walked into the team facility today, there was little notice.
We hate to break this news to you so close to a holiday, but Fitzpatrick has trimmed his glorious beard.
“We had to chop it down piece by piece. It was definitely a significant amount of time to take it off,” Fitzpatrick said, via Brian Smith of the Houston Chronicle.
“It was more me just getting tired of having to pick corn out of it,” he added. “When I eat pancakes in the morning with the syrup and stuff, that’ll be there for days. My wife will ask me, ‘Did you have pancakes this morning?’ And I’ll say, ‘No, it was four days ago.’ ”
While his wife might like it, others weren’t so impressed.
“I can’t even look at him anymore,” rookie backup Tom Savage said. “His lips look small.”
Hopefully Fitzpatrick listens to his teammates, and grows back one of the very best things about the NFL.