I admire a website that is what its title says it is and nothing more. There might not be a better example than the Subreddit NFL_Bulges.
Here you won’t find discussions of how Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts failed in the clutch during his team’s shocking loss to the Atlanta Falcons on Monday night. What will you will find instead are photos of Jalen Hurts’ bulge.
The site has 5,000 members (in the top 10% rank by size, according to a Reddit metric aptly named) and its message is simple: “A place to post the best bulges of the NFL.”
Posts are generated from photos from games and what people see on TV. Even posts on a team’s NFL Instagram are mined for content:
Get off the sidelines and into the game
Our weekly newsletter is packed with everything from locker room chatter to pressing LGBTQ sports issues.
Its members follow these instructions to a T. Each post has a short title and then an image showing an NFL player (and the occasional college player) in full frame to show the bulge.
The titles of current posts show the variety, some with a catchy title and others direct. After all, people are here to see the photos, not read some double entendre.
- Herbie fully loaded
- Bozeday
- Steelers
- There’s no one like Evan
- This Evan
- Braelon Allen
- Mr. Benched Young
- Stefon Diggs
- Detroit Bulge
- Daniel Jones
- H.U.N.G
- Baker Mayfield
The attention to detail is obsessive in some cases, and there are clearly some site favorites like Bengals kicker Evan McPherson, who has multiple posts devoted to him.
Posters seem to love the somewhat see-through material on uniforms, with one devotee posting: “I love how you can tell whether some of the guys are circumcised or not by their head outline in their bulge.”
Speaking of obsessive, take these multiple screen captures of Houston Texans wide receiver Stefon Diggs from Sunday night’s game on NBC. The CIA couldn’t do a more detailed analysis:
“I just can’t understand, for the life of me, why the gays like football,” is my favorite comment on that post and one reason I find this site interesting, even though bulges aren’t a thing for me. Gay men can both appreciate the skill and artistry inherent in sports and also have the aesthetic bonus of eye candy.
What’s also cool about the site is that while many posts are labeled “not safe for work,” all the images come from mainstream photo sources or stuff everyone sees on TV. This should be a new target demo for the NFL and its advertisers, a group of hardcore fans who will watch every minute of action for that one glimpse of a bulge. The NFL should start a “Bulge Channel” on its Sunday Ticket package — ratings would soar.
I reached out to the moderators with some basic questions about the site but haven’t heard back. They must be too busy hunting for more bulges.
