CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - Water is a pretty important part of Chris Long's life. Just look at his Twitter, where he's the self-proclaimed hydrated king.
"There was a serious epiphany that I'm not as thirsty as I was when I played because I'm not exercising as much, so then I thought I don’t need to drink as much water," former NFL and University of Virginia defensive end Chris Long said. "As a podcaster I was perpetually dehydrated. "It’s totally changed the game for me, being hydrated.”
While he puts a lot of emphasis on his H2O intake, it's the water he provides for others that makes a splash.
Long founded Waterboys, a clean water initiative, in 2013. It brings life-sustaining drinking water to communities in need, both domestically and internationally.
"Drinking water, if you're pragmatic, is one of the best ways to change the world, and to advance communities and societies," Long said. "How do you develop as a society if your women are gathering water, if your kids are sick and they're not in school, and if you can't farm and if you can't be active participants in the economy. Clean water is huge."
When Long's not tackling thirst, he's talking football on his podcast, Green Light. When broaching the topic of the NFC East he roots for the Eagles, who he won a Super Bowl with in 2018, but it was the Washington Football Team he picked to win the division and thinks they matchup up well against the Buccaneers.
"I love Ron Rivera, I’ve always respected him. I love Alex Smith, I played against him in the NFC West. I followed his whole thing like everybody else," Long said. "I really like your rookie running back, I love your D-line because they play hard. You guys match up pretty well against Tampa. I don’t know how that game goes, but I know that’s not who Tom would rather play coming out of the East."
Like Long, Washington's thirsty, but instead of for water it's for a postseason victory.
