What started as a harmless DM between old high school teammates turned into one of the weirdest preseason headlines in The American.
UTSA quarterback Owen McCown confirmed at the conference’s media day(s) in Charlotte that he received messages from former Memphis safety Tahj Ra-El containing defensive signals, injury updates, and even a screenshot of the Tigers’ call sheet, all before last year’s matchup between the two teams.
Naturally, it became a thing. But everyone involved seems to agree on one point: it didn’t actually matter.
McCown said he never asked for the info and didn’t use it. UTSA coach Jeff Traylor said he didn’t even know about the exchange until “maybe a week ago.” And league commissioner Tim Pernetti basically called the whole situation a non-story.
“What I can tell you is there’s really not much to this story. I think a lot of it has been sensationalized, and some of it, I think, quite frankly, is clickbait,” Pernetti said via the San Antonio Express-News. “The integrity of this thing means something to people in this league, so naturally, anything that flirts with the line, we’re going to take seriously. But in this case, I think this is much ado about nothing.”
According to On3’s report, Ra-El — who played two years of high school ball with McCown in Charlotte — sent him a handful of defensive tips in a private message before UTSA’s Nov. 2 game against Memphis. Screenshots of the exchange show Ra-El including coverage notes, injury info, and a caption that reads: “that’s all the signals.”
McCown responded with four crying emojis. At one point, he even joked, “If they cut your stuff, I’ll put in a word.”
Asked about it on Friday, McCown didn’t shy away from the story, but he didn’t give it much weight, either.
“First and foremost, I didn’t ask for any of that information. Based off my little emoji reaction, you can see it caught me by surprise,” McCown said. “The information made zero sense. It was completely irrelevant to what we do week in and week out.”
Traylor called the topic “asinine” earlier this week and reiterated that it had no impact on the game.
“He said the stuff didn’t make any sense at all, so he didn’t tell me anything about it,” Traylor said. “It had no bearing on the game whatsoever. I didn’t know anything about it. He didn’t tell me anything about it. Owen is a great kid, and he was just being nice to his buddy, and it got blown out of context, in my opinion.”
For Memphis, the game ended in a 44-36 loss, one of just two on the season. UTSA, meanwhile, came in at 3-5 and left with one of its biggest wins of the year behind four touchdown passes from McCown.
So did leaked signals decide the game? No. Memphis just couldn’t stop a quarterback who knew how to beat them, with or without the help of a former teammate.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.