There’smoretohintonthan Emergencyquarterbacklegacy
Kendall Hinton, 24 years young, looked at his smart phone and saw his obituary staring back at him.
On Nov. 2, the only man who’d ever run a mile in his shoes, former Colts running back Tom Matte, died from complications related to leukemia. Matte was 82.
Hinton was alone. The Last Living Instant Quarterback.
“Literally, in the NFL, Tom Matte is the only person that could ever understand that position,” said Hinton, the Broncos wide receiver who a year ago this month became only the second player in modern NFL history — and the first since Matte in 1965 — to start a game at quarterback as a non-quarterback.
“It’s a feeling you can’t really understand, except for Tom Matte and I.”
Kendall Hinton, Emergency Quarterback for the Denver Broncos …
“Now I’m the only one. We definitely shared something special. Just that legacy. In the NFL, something like that happening is crazy. It doesn’t happen. I don’t know if anybody will ever get to be in that position again.
“In a matter of a few hours, everything changed.”
•••
For $30, Hinton will talk smack about your fantasy league commissioner. Or pump up your roommate. Or salute a loved one.
He started an account on the celebrity video service Cameo last year as something of a lark, with proceeds going to charity. But in the process, he also came away surprised at the love from Broncos Country for a guy who rose to NFL fame by accident.
“From that one game, I got a lot of support from Broncos fans,” Hinton told The Post recently when asked about his historic NFL debut last Nov. 29 against New Orleans, a game that saw him elevated from practice-squad wideout on Saturday to starting quarterback on Sunday.
“It kind of gave me the opportunity to share my story, my journey, and kind of how I got here. Which resonated with other people, which inspired, motivated, and now helps people feel more comfortable with where they’re at. I think that’s one of the biggest things that’s changed.”
For the rest of his life, and decades after it, strangers will shout Kendall Hinton’s name in places he’s never been. (Hey, remember that guy?)
He’ll win bets. (
Most days, he’ll settle arguments. (
Sometimes, he’ll start them. (
“It took me a while to realize that, ‘OK, that was reality, like, that really happened, I was out there playing,’” Hinton said. “It took me looking at pictures (later). It honestly didn’t feel real during the game. It was like a dream.”
Earlier this year, Hinton spoke at the commencement of his collegiate alma mater, Wake Forest, via a video message, part of a ceremony that included former
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and current U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
“Everyone’s path is unique,” he told the assemblage, “so embrace every twist and turn on your journey … in order to create a story that hasn’t been written, we must embrace the unknown.”
Even his old high school, Southern Durham (N.C.), where Hinton won a state football title as a junior, is joining in that embrace. Kendall’s father Kevin said the school has talked about retiring Kendall’s old No. 2 jersey, perhaps as soon as next spring.
“That’s something that the current coach and AD, they gave me a call (about) and said (they) wanted taken care of,” Kevin noted proudly.
The Raleigh-durhamChapel Hill Triangle might be Carolina Panthers
Country, by proximity, but the Hintons say they’re starting to see more and more Broncos logos around Durham proper. A cult following that’s picking up speed.
“His sisters steal all his gear,” Kevin laughed. “It used to be the Wake Forest gear. Now he comes in with Broncos gear and of course they take it, they wear it.
“When I’m wearing my Broncos hat, (people) are like, ‘Hey, the kid from Southern who plays for the Broncos, do you know him?’ And I’m like, ‘I’ve met him a couple times, yeah.’”
••• Shortly after the 2020 season ended, Hinton headed home, gifts in tow.
One of them was an autographed Broncos jersey that he delivered to Michael Jones, his longtime mentor and passing game coordinator at Southern Durham, who’d thrown a barbecue to celebrate the aforementioned Saints game that lives in Mile High infamy.
“Coach, they are so fast,” Hinton said of NFL defenders.
“It looked like it,” Jones countered. “How did your body feel?”
“Coach,” Hinton replied, “It felt like I got hit by a couple of trucks.”
It’s not how many times they knock you down. It’s how many times you get back up.
“It’s like a pediatrician or a primary care doctor going in for heart surgery, or a type of surgery they’ve never done before,” Hinton said of the one-night cram session that took place on Nov. 28, the eve of the BroncosSaints game the wideout had to start behind center.
“You’re familiar with it, you know what you’re looking at. But you have no idea of the speed. Everything’s so new. It’s definitely something few people can relate to. But it’s kind of hard to put it into words.”
A year later, Hinton’s actions have spoken far louder. Since joining the active roster on Sept. 14, the North Carolina native has appeared on 30% of the Broncos’ offensive snaps, according to Pro-footballReference.com, catching 12 balls on 15 targets for 145 receiving yards and a touchdown over nine games, primarily in relief of either Jerry Jeudy or KJ Hamler.
“Absolutely, yeah, it can’t get much worse than that (Saints game),” Hinton laughed.
“But nah, I think it’s pretty cool. It’s just that my confidence has gone up. I feel like I belong here. (Last November), I was just happy to be here. Now I feel like I can add something to the team, some value, learning what I’m doing (as a receiver), and just (my) confidence.”
The longest day of Hinton’s football life had the same effect, ultimately, on both his career and on the Broncos: Neither of them ever want to repeat it.
For the team, that meant picking up Danny Etling as an emergency quarterback last week when COVID-19 protocols put backup quarterback Drew Lock and offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur on the shelf. For Hinton, an undrafted rookie last fall, the Saints cameo proved to be a taste of the expectation level, to say nothing of the speed.
“That experience may have made him work even harder in the (last) offseason, realizing that this is what the professionals look like,” Kevin said. “That this is how they do their job, so I have to be ready to do this myself.
“(In 2020), there was no combine, no rookie camps, or anything like that. He was feeling really confident that if he’d had a rookie camp, he felt that things could’ve been a little bit different. I always tell him that things work out the way they’re supposed to. They kind of flow that way.”
The Pro Football Hall of Fame has Hinton’s wristband from last Nov. 29 on display, still, resting next to the one Matte used to help beat the Rams in 1965. Kendall’s grandfather was so blown away by that, he headed up from North Carolina to Canton, Ohio, to see it for himself. Kevin, meanwhile, admitted that he had to use his daughter’s college ID last November in order to secure the NFL Game Pass in time for the Broncos-saints.
“Kendall came off the field one time, pulled his helmet off and he was smiling,” Kevin recalled. “Once I saw that, I didn’t really care about anything else. He’s not a football player to me. He’s Kendall.”