The college football season hasn’t officially started yet, but we may have already gotten the most bizarre story of the year, and there’s a connection to the Minnesota Vikings.
Saturday Blitz (along with several other sources) is reporting that prior to last year’s American Athletic Conference game between the Memphis Tigers and the Texas-San Antonio Roadrunners, Memphis defensive back Tahj Ra-El sent the Tigers’ playbook and signals to UT-SA quarterback Owen McCown.
McCown, as you’ve probably guessed,
is the son of Vikings quarterbacks coach Josh McCown. He committed to play at Colorado following his high school career but transferred to Texas-San Antonio after just one season and is set to be the Roadrunners’ starter again this year. Ra-El, on the other hand, transferred to Purdue this past offseason. Although, depending on what source you look at, he may or may not have been dismissed from the program after this all became public.
REPORT: @On3Memphis has obtained direct messages of former Memphis DB Tahj Ra-El sending UTSA QB Owen McCown the Tigers' playbook before their game
— On3 (@On3sports) July 24, 2025
The Roadrunners won 44-36.https://t.co/h7iD6N0nWj pic.twitter.com/EesFEqzbGG
As someone who has watched sports for the majority of the nearly fifty years I’ve been on this rock, there are very few things that I haven’t seen. A player on one team just straight-up sending a player on another team their playbook and signals? That’s a new one.
Ra-El and McCown don’t appear to have had any other real connection to each other prior to this. This was just one guy tracking down a player on the opposing team and saying, “Here. This is all our stuff.”
Texas-San Antonio won the game, 44-36. Given that the Roadrunners had that much inside information on what the Tigers were doing, that result might almost be considered a disappointment, wouldn’t it?
Obviously, the elder McCown didn’t have anything to do with this. But, when a story this strange comes down the pike and there’s even a slight connection, you have to go ahead with it.
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