EAGAN, Minn. — In the minutes before kickoff Monday night, J.J. McCarthy and the rest of the Minnesota Vikings will retreat to their locker room for their final preparations to face the Chicago Bears (8:15 p.m. ET, ABC/ESPN). McCarthy will spend part of the time in front of a mirror, painting his cheeks with eye black to create an alter ego that has been nearly unbeatable since his days as a teenage quarterback at Nazareth Academy in Illinois.
“I kind of make this switch when game day happens,” McCarthy said. “That’s when the war paint comes on. It’s like I’m ready to die on that field, and I’m ready to do anything possible to get that win. It’s not going to look pretty, and it’s not going to look like someone just did my makeup for Halloween. It’s war paint.”
At 22, McCarthy is closer to his trick-or-treating days than any of the NFL’s 31 other starting quarterbacks. He is largely a mystery to the NFL audience after missing his rookie season because of a meniscus tear in his right knee. He has played 42 snaps and made 24 throws in two preseason games since the Vikings made him the No. 10 pick of the 2024 draft.
But the one fact on his résumé is that his teams almost always win. In two seasons at Nazareth (2018-19), one at IMG Academy (2020) and three at the University of Michigan (2021-23), McCarthy is 63-3 as a starter. He won an Illinois state 7A championship in high school and a national title in college.
McCarthy is only part of that team-wide success, but those who know him speak in reverential tones about his in-game moxie and competitiveness. Greg Holcomb, a Chicago-area quarterback trainer who first met McCarthy when the QB was in seventh grade, invoked one of the greatest basketball players during a recent discussion.
“There are so many things that take no skill whatsoever that can make you a really high-level football player,” Holcomb said. “You better have skill attached to it, but it’s the ones that have both of those things. It’s the Kobe Bryants of the world that are not only ultra-talented but are also so disciplined that they’re in the gym at 4:30 in the morning when they don’t have to be.
“J.J. has so many things in his toolbox that have nothing to do with his skill. He’s got both, so you’re looking at somebody who has the potential to be very elite. It’s almost like he’s got this eerie kind of aura about him that is just connected to success and winning.”
No one who watched the Vikings training camp this summer, or in 2024 before he suffered his injury, was reminded of Bryant. As often occurs with young quarterbacks, McCarthy produced his share of inaccurate passes, miscommunications and faulty decisions. Even so, many Vikings players acknowledged moments when they recognized the attributes that have helped McCarthy elevate teams on game day — and, in theory, can help him bridge the gaps while he continues his development.
“He definitely has the winning attitude, the dog mentality, just that killer mode,” receiver Justin Jefferson said.
Right tackle Brian O’Neill thought McCarthy’s best practices came on days when coaches inserted competitive elements, such as when the New England Patriots arrived for two days of workouts.
“I would not discount the fact that a lot of the times J.J — with whatever team he’s been on — tends to be a good version of himself on game day,” Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell said. “There’s a lot of guys that are talented. There’s a lot of guys that can light up the practice field every day, but the guys that can either take it to the game or maybe even be a better version of themselves in the game have the ‘gamer,’ or whatever tag you want to put on it. I think he’s got that trait.”
But, O’Connell added: “I think it’s important that he doesn’t just solely rely on that trait showing up to Soldier Field. I think he [needs to] pair that with the work that he puts in throughout the week.”
Face paint is one of several game-day rituals McCarthy says helps him prepare to compete. He knows that war analogies in sports can be excessive, and he doesn’t mean them literally. But during a conversation last week with ESPN, he used a proverb attributed to 17th-century Japanese writer Miyamoto Musashi to explain his game-day mindset: “It is better to be a warrior in a garden than a gardener in a war.”
McCARTHY HAS SPOKEN openly about his life with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), calling it his “superpower” and describing it as a condition that brings him “calm in the chaos and chaos in the calm.” Along the way, he has followed a game-day routine designed to amplify the productive elements of the condition.
The day begins with an extended version of his morning meditation. In trying to “stay as present as possible, grounded and centered,” he said he’ll rely on a variety of external stimulants. Sometimes, he’ll listen to a collection of audio tones called “963Hz.” Other times, he’ll listen to reggae icon Bob Marley. His favorite Marley tune is “Jamming.”
McCarthy also frequently uses a Shiftwave chair, a device he was first introduced to during his final season at Michigan and believes in so much that he invests in the company. Developed by former Discovery Channel host Mike North, a mechanical engineer who was searching for ways to heal a broken leg and balance his mental health, the chair is designed to apply vibrations as part of a biofeedback loop that responds to the body’s physical and mental state.
“The goal is very much putting a person into this kind of internal flow state,” North said, “where they’re able to freely flow between activate and go, and then relax, recover, reset. And so for someone like J.J., the ball snaps and you have to go. You want to be going a hundred miles an hour. But then the play’s over. You want to come down as fast as possible, think clearly, recharge, recover, and then prepare for the next play.”
McCarthy later reached out to North in hopes of learning more about how the chair works. It has multiple settings based on the circumstances, with programs that can last from five minutes to an hour.
“He told me his regimen and I wouldn’t have advised anything different for him,” North said. “It was perfect. And I was like, ‘Wow, you really understand this. You really intuitively figured out how to use this at its best.’ And I think J.J. is just an absolute superuser. He’s very tuned in. He is smart, aware, open. He’s just got this humble awareness that’s really remarkable. He’s a very enjoyable person to be around.”
The chair folds on top of itself, making it portable, and McCarthy carries it with him into the pregame locker room, even if it’s for only a few minutes of use during halftime. One way or another, however, he gets a final 10 or 15 minutes of meditation before the game begins.
JJ McCarthy reporting for work 🫡 @jjmccarthy09
📺: #LVvsMIN — 4pm ET on @NFLNetwork
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/O751MZUoSm— NFL (@NFL) August 10, 2024
During his time at Michigan, McCarthy often conducted that meditation session in uniform while sitting under a goal post — a sight that reliably drew the attention of television cameras and photographers. In the NFL, however, he meditates in private.
“I felt like it got to be a distraction,” McCarthy said. “And that’s the last thing I want it to be. I don’t do it for a show. Obviously, I would love every kid in the world to learn how to meditate, but at the end of the day, I feel like it’s about getting the effects of that practice, not showing off the practice.”
WHAT TO MAKE of a 22-year-old quarterback who quotes 17th-century Japanese proverbs, carries a meditation chair and paints his face like a warrior? For one thing, it becomes easy to overlook how inexperienced he is in some of the basic elements of playing in the NFL.
Last Wednesday, for example, was McCarthy’s first regular-season practice as a professional. Because he was on injured reserve before the 2024 season began, he was ineligible to participate in practice — a fact that quarterback Carson Wentz learned in a hurry after signing as the team’s new backup Aug. 24. McCarthy immediately began peppering him with a series of first-day-of-class questions and later referred to him as “Coach Wentz.”
“He hasn’t even prepped for a game week in the NFL yet,” Wentz said upon his arrival. “So, he was talking about, ‘OK, what’s a normal routine? What time are we going to get there?’ All the things.”
Holcomb, the private quarterback trainer, compared McCarthy’s personality to P.J. Fleck, the University of Minnesota’s high-energy football coach.
“I had a chance to meet P.J. years ago,” Holcomb said, “and at first I was like, ‘There’s no way this dude is like this 24-7. It has to be an act.’ But all these years later, P.J. is still the same guy. J.J. has those same qualities. He’s almost, like, too happy sometimes. It can almost look obnoxious.”
Ultimately, a football locker room is an unforgiving place. Players can see through a performative façade if nothing exists behind it. In the NFL, the level of play is too high to count on good vibes and competitive spirit alone.
“It can’t be the only thing,” O’Neill said. “You can’t just show up with your eyes closed and then be like, ‘Well, I’m going to go out and ball on Sunday.’ This is the NFL and it doesn’t work like that. But I’ve felt that urgency from him [in practice] in terms of getting ready to go.”
O’Neill compared McCarthy to former Cincinnati Bengals receiver Tyler Boyd, O’Neill’s college teammate at Pitt. Boyd’s high school teams were 63-1 with four state championships.
“There was a pingpong table in the locker room, and Tyler was winning every damn time,” O’Neill said. “He just kind of reminds me of J.J. We have a basketball hoop here. J.J.’s winning every game of P-I-G that we play. There’s just something about true-live competition that I see a lot in both of those guys. His best stuff comes when there’s a big stage.”
That’s when the face paint comes out and the warrior arrives in the garden, so to speak. There have been two exceptions, however, when the moment required something different — and provided an intense example of McCarthy’s inner competitor.
McCarthy grew up a fan of Ohio State football and was crushed when coach Ryan Day did not offer him a scholarship. So, when he started for Michigan against the Buckeyes in 2022 and 2023, McCarthy played without face paint.
He later explained why to Holcomb, his private trainer.
“On game day,” Holcomb said, “he wanted Ryan Day to see his entire face when he beat him.”
And beat him he did, both times, by a combined score of 75-46.
