Anthony Richardson is living every NFL rookie’s dream of being named the Indianapolis Colts’ starting quarterback, and now he is upping the ante. Richardson dropped visuals for his rapping alter ego, “GVO” or “Gainesville’s Own” first rap song, and the polarization of his new tenure in Naptown immediately began.
In the music video, Richardson steps out of a gas station convenience store to his friends waiting atop a yellow Lamborghini Urus SUV. Richardson says some questionable words in the video, such as “Actavis,” slang for the pharmaceutical company that makes liquid codeine, a drug used popularly as a mixer with carbonated beverages. He also drops the N-word in the song and calls him and his friends “gang.”
These terms are commonplace within the culture as part of today’s iteration of rap music. However, Richardson is now at the gunslinging helm of a team that formerly had Peyton Manning, Andrew Luck, and Johnny Unitas as its frontmen.
The Quarterback Rapper Era
You cannot get more white than Johnny Unitas and more conservative than the state of Indiana, which has long been considered a Republican stronghold. Currently, the Republican Party holds supermajorities in both chambers of the Indiana General Assembly.
The team last reached the Super Bowl in 2010 when they lost to the New Orleans Saints under Peyton Manning. However, Manning also brought the team its last Super Bowl win in 2007 over the Chicago Bears.
Richardson was this year’s fourth overall draft pick, and now he is the face of the Colts as its starter this season, per the announcement by Colts head coach Shane Steichen on Tuesday. Richardson made his preseason debut against the Buffalo Bills on Saturday.
Surprise, Surprise, Surprise!
Richardson never saw the announcement coming, as the Colts probably didn’t know the music video was coming either. In the words of Sgt. Vince Carter’s doofus subordinate Pvt. Gomer Pyle, “surprise, surprise, surprise!”
“Anthony’s just been progressing,” Steichen said during the starter announcement. “The growth he’s shown, then, obviously, going into Buffalo, playing against a lot of their starters, he showed great signs of improvement. I like the things he did, and it’s an opportunity now for him to get a lot more with the [starters] moving forward, and we go from there.”
Richardson is looking to etch his name into the greatness column of NFL quarterbacks. Now, will Indy allow him to be great as a player and a rapper is the question.
