Published: Aug. 16, 2016 at 04:42 p.m.
Updated: Aug. 16, 2016 at 05:42 p.m.
William Hayes made the football community slap its collective forehead last year with his dead-serious contention that dinosaurs were the handiwork of the human imagination.
"No, I don't believe dinosaurs existed," Hayes said in December, via ESPN.com. "Not even a little bit. With these bones, it's crazy because man has never seen a dinosaur, we can agree on that, right? But we know exactly how to put these bones together? I believe there is more of a chance you will find a mermaid than you will a dinosaur because we find different species in the water all the time."
This prompted a memorable one-liner from Hayes' former Rams teammate, Chris Long, who said, "He thinks archaeologists place bones underground like a parent would place Easter eggs."
Hayes' unusual -- perhaps unprecedented -- dino-truther perspective was sure to find its way into the new season of Hard Knocks, and sure enough, the topic will be excavated (nailed it) in the second episode of the HBO series tonight. As an added bonus, we'll also get to watch a straight-faced Jeff Fisher explain Hayes' unwavering belief in mermaids.
I remember him getting real excited about the potential for moving out here because he knew he would be closer to mermaids here on the West Coast. That sentence will go down as Jeff Fisher's greatest accomplishment as Rams coach.
And I know what you're thinking: How can Hayes be so certain that mermaids exist while also positive dinosaurs are fantasy? The answer: I don't know. I'm not clear how the mind of a resolute crazy person works.