GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN – DECEMBER 03: Brittany Mahomes (C) and Taylor Swift (R) react during the game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field on December 03, 2023 in Green Bay, Wisconsin. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)
C.J. Beathard is going viral this week and it’s not because he was forced into the Monday Night Football game after Trevor Lawrence suffered an ankle injury.
An excited crowd at EverBank Stadium let out a gasp of air and then went silent with less than five minutes left in the fourth quarter during the Jacksonville Jaguars and Cincinnati Bengals Monday Night Football clash after that injury.
Beathard helped the team to overtime but the Bengals would go on to win.
After the game, he found himself going viral after an unearthed photo popped up on X.
An older photo of Taylor Swift posing with Jacksonville’s backup quarterback, C.J. Beathard, began circulating on X as the former Iowa product relieved an injured Trevor Lawrence.
Beathard, who completed 9 of 10 pass attempts for 63 yards in the Jaguars’ 34-31 overtime loss, mingled with country music artists while growing up in the Nashville area, as his father, Casey Beathard, is a songwriter.
“It was the best of both worlds,” Casey Beathard told ESPN for a 2015 feature profile on his son, then a quarterback at Iowa. “It was just natural to be hanging out at Kenny Chesney’s house, or sitting in a studio and Trace Adkins is singing. Then on weekends we’d drive down to Atlanta or fly out to San Diego and they (C.J. and brothers Tucker and Clay) got to spend a lot of time in the locker room and on the sidelines. They got to be around their heroes.”
Beathard has never started for the Jags, as Lawrence has stayed relatively healthy until the MNF moment versus the Bengals. In total, he’s only thrown 17 total passes in limited duty for the Jags across the three seasons he’s been with the team. He’s completed 12 of those throws for 82 yards but no touchdowns and one interception.
He may be called on to start a few games as Lawrence recovers from his ankle injury.
