Bird Box Challenge: blindfolded sports stars kick and throw what they can’t see in tribute to Sandra Bullock hit horror flick
- American football kickers put on an impressive show but Barbarians rugby team fail miserably as they join new online fad
The movie is about a menacing, invisible entity that makes people hallucinate if they are exposed to it, forcing the main characters to don blindfolds as they battle their way through the story.
Proving that grown-ups are very much influenced by popular culture, we gathered the best examples of sports people trying to conquer the invisible demons of failure as they wear blindfolds, put their trust in the force and say to themselves “I can do this with my eyes closed”.
The first is one of the best.
A user with the handle Alan Anaya ‘21 has his blindfolded friend tee up a gridiron ball with his nose, and the “best kicker in Mexico” – as he claims on his Twitter profile – also blindfolded, runs up and attempts to kick it between the posts. This was impressive.
Also attempting a conversion for the extra point is Michael Hayes, who proves himself to be one heck of a kicker. The “SC Specialist of the Year” uses a tee to set up the ball and performs what is clearly a well-rehearsed run-up to send the ball sailing between the sticks.
Unfortunately, the Barbarians rugby team are not as efficient in blindfolded kicking as their American football counterparts. It was all they could do to actually touch the ball let alone kick it between the posts.
Here, Caitlin Hall shows that you don’t need to wear a blindfold to pass to someone you don’t see.
They even had mascots doing the Bird Box Challenge. Here, the unusual mascot of NHL team the Philadelphia Flyers, known as Gritty, is compelled to do the Bird Box Challenge by fans. And he passed with “Flying” colours.
What is it with basketball players? Sam Kramer knows exactly where the basket is as she makes this Bird Box Challenge from the halfway line.
The Los Angeles Chargers were mocked for conceding a ton of points in their 41-29 defeat by the New England Patriots in their NFL play-off game over the weekend. It seemed their entire defence was blindfolded.
And finally, the original Bird Box Challenge, long before there was such a movie. It is the classic scene from the 2004 Ben Stiller movie Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story.
