Last night, Tony Jefferson II had an epiphany: Eyeglasses (which have existed for hundreds of years) really do help you see better. The Baltimore Ravens safety admitted to everyone, unprompted, that he had just been going through a decade-long chunk of his life without seeing much of it in detail. Who knows how many times someone at a medium distance had made eye contact with Jefferson and waved hi, only to be to be ignored, because he saw them as some sort of wiggly blob.
To some degree, I found Jefferson's confession relatable. I wear glasses every single day. My vision isn't that bad, really. I can read without glasses and see across the room, but I have to squint to read the spines of books more than three feet away from me. In particular, when I'm driving, I cannot read the street signs without my stupid glasses on my face. I need them so much that I have prescription sunglasses and about five pairs of regular glasses I keep scattered around my house.
Like Jefferson, for a little while, I didn't wear glasses. In college, I simply pretended to have perfect vision. What's the harm in that? I could see well enough, I reasoned. No point in having clunky shit on my face that was covered in my grimy fingerprints and constantly needed readjustment.
But there are many differences between me and Jefferson. He went to the University of Oklahoma, and I went to the University of Texas, making us unlikely comrades in this ordeal. Also, he is a pro football player, and I am but a mere blogger. You don't really need to see anything except for the screen to be a blogger, but being able to see seems important for the last line of defense on a football field.
A nearsighted defensive lineman could probably get by without corrective lenses, but a safety? Safeties are supposed to track the ball, keep their eyes on the quarterback, and disrupt any passes. Field vision is crucial to that position. It was safe to assume, then, that if Jefferson was not wearing his glasses, he was wearing contacts. Wrong!
This guy was out here squinting in NFL games! Was that why he wore a reflective visor, so that no one would notice that he couldn't see anything? Jefferson has four career interceptions; he probably could've had eight with the miracle of eyesight. I'm not sure when exactly he started wearing his contacts to practice, but judging by this clip, they seem to be working out well for him.
