Seat belt remedy: Panthers’ Jaycee Horn has been strapping in opposing WRs since school

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Throughout a late-September recreation between two south Charlotte excessive faculties, Myers Park cornerback Orlando Brown broke up a deep go in opposition to Ardrey Kell and celebrated with a seat belt gesture after “locking down” the broad receiver.

Watch a soccer recreation at any stage and also you’re prone to see a defensive again punctuating a go breakup or interception with the seat belt, a celebration that traces its origins to Columbia, S.C., throughout the COVID-19-shortened season of 2020.

That’s the place a pair of starters within the South Carolina secondary — Jaycee Horn and Israel Mukuamu — got here up with the transfer throughout a walk-through whereas the Gamecocks have been making ready to play at LSU that week.

“Loads of guys have been saying ‘strap’ on the time. So I had simply began saying seat belt. Like (once you) seat belt, you strap. We each have been eager about a gesture to do. And we got here up with the throughout the chest,” Horn stated.

“We have been going to do it whoever obtained the primary cease of the sport. We did it in apply all week. Once we did it in apply, it was only a humorous factor. After which once I obtained a cease within the recreation, I simply did it within the recreation. And it took off from there.”

After defending a first-quarter fade go ultimately zone supposed for LSU freshman tight finish Arik Gilbert, Horn pulled an imaginary seat belt over his chest and snapped it into place. The Tigers would go on to win 52-24. However when Horn’s private coach posted a video of the play on social media after the sport, a brand new transfer was born.

Let him know! @I_Am_OD3 https://t.co/pidh1Z69e6 pic.twitter.com/k4wDyrPH5s

— Jaycee Horn (@jayceehorn_10) January 3, 2021

4 years later, Horn has seen everybody from Pop Warner gamers to girls’s basketball standouts doing the seat belt after defensive stops. Inexperienced Bay Packers cornerback Jaire Alexander has added his personal flourish to what he calls the sword. In truth, Alexander claims to have began the craze, which Horn adamantly disputes.

“You possibly can verify,” stated Horn, the Carolina Panthers’ fourth-year nook. “The primary time anyone ever did the seat belt we have been enjoying LSU in Baton Rouge my final 12 months. Go see in case you see a seat belt celebration anyplace earlier than that recreation.”

Mukuamu, a security for the Dallas Cowboys, appreciates how widespread the celebration has turn out to be. However like Horn, he needs to ensure people perceive its historical past.

“It’s worldwide. I feel that’s like the very first thing DBs need to do as soon as they get a bat-down. They need to put the seat belt on,” he stated. “However bear in mind: Seat belt began at South Carolina.”

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That Horn could be on the forefront of an iconic celebration is sensible. The 24-year-old comes by it naturally.

Throughout a nationally televised recreation on the Superdome in 2003, New Orleans Saints receiver Joe Horn — Jaycee’s father — famously celebrated the second of his 4 touchdowns in a rout of the New York Giants by snatching a flip telephone he’d stashed within the padding across the objective put up and pretending to telephone dwelling. Horn’s choreographed name earned him a superb from the NFL of $30,000 — the identical quantity levied in opposition to Michael Thomas when the Saints’ receiver paid homage to Horn along with his personal mobile phone celebration 15 years later.

Jaycee Horn stated he’s not in the identical class as his dad on the subject of showmanship. “He was far more splashy than me,” he stated. “Receivers be divas, so he was undoubtedly one in all them.”

The youthful Horn credit his dad for instilling in him a game-day demeanor that’s equal components confidence and aggression.

“Loads of that comes from him and my older brother. That’s simply the type he wished us to play with,” Horn stated. “He rattling close to wished us to think about it as battle once we stepped between the traces. That’s the mentality he had, and I attempt to play with that, too.”

Joe Horn settled in an unique neighborhood in suburban Atlanta after ending his profession with the Falcons. There was a discipline that hosted youth league video games minutes from his home, however Joe had his boys play within the extra rugged Metro Atlanta league that produced such NFL stars as Cam Newton and Eric Berry.

“This league performs rain, sleet or snow within the hood,” Joe Horn instructed The Athletic in 2021. “I’ll say that with a capital H — within the Hood. And (Jaycee) grew up with that perspective.”

Horn and Mukuamu, a South Carolina native who moved to Louisiana earlier than his senior 12 months of highschool, arrived in Columbia in 2018. Each performed as freshmen and have been shut on and off the sphere.

Halfway via their junior season, the beginning of which was delayed for a month because of COVID, the 2 began kicking across the concept of a signature celebration.

“All through the entire 12 months, Jaycee simply stored saying like automotive seat, seat belt, no matter. After which someday in walkthroughs, I simply did like this,” stated Mukuamu, exhibiting a reporter the across-the-chest gesture. “It was proper earlier than the LSU recreation. We have been like, ‘It’s exhausting.’ The primary time it ever got here out was the LSU recreation. He ended up doing it first. … It simply took off.”

Not lengthy after Horn debuted it, Mukuamu adopted with one other seat belt after intercepting Tigers quarterback TJ Finley and returning the decide 56 yards to arrange a Gamecocks’ discipline objective.

The transfer might need remained an inside joke between Horn and Mukuamu had Oliver Davis, an Atlanta-based defensive backs coach, not put a video of Horn’s first seat belt on his Instagram story.

“He posted it and it was blowing up,” Horn stated. “All the children in Atlanta have been doing it. There have been different school youngsters doing it.”

Horn and Mukuamu solely performed two extra video games for South Carolina following the LSU loss. After Will Muschamp was fired in November after a 2-5 begin to the 10-game schedule, each defensive backs opted out to organize for the NFL draft. Horn revealed at his professional day he had a number of relations who contracted COVID, together with an aunt who died of problems from it.

Matt Rhule attended Horn’s professional day in Columbia, the place the junior enhanced his draft standing by working a 4.37-second 40, pumping out 19 reps on the 225-pound bench press and posting a 41.5-inch vertical soar. A month later the Panthers took Horn with the No. 8 decide, one spot forward of Alabama cornerback Patrick Surtain.

Earlier than Horn’s rookie 12 months, he and his agent Trey Smith tried to trademark the seat belt, however have been instructed a transfer or a dance can’t be trademarked. Horn had printed some T-shirts of him doing the seat belt for family and friends, however his concept to launch a seat belt-styled clothes line died with the trademark ruling.

“After that I began seeing different sports activities doing it. Then they put it on Madden. I’m like, ‘Rattling, they accomplished took my celly,’” Horn stated. “It’s what it’s. It nonetheless introduced pleasure to me to see all people doing it.”

Mukuamu has taken the identical method, even when Cowboys rookie cornerback Caelen Carson, a fifth-round decide from Wake Forest, confirmed up in Dallas with the X deal with of “@walkinseatbelt.”

“I simply let individuals journey with it,” Mukuamu stated. “We’re all DBs on the finish of the day. So it’s simply one thing cool to do.”

When Derwin James broke up Joe Burrow’s Hail Mary go on the ultimate play of Sunday evening’s NFL recreation, the Los Angeles Chargers’ security ran off the sphere doing the seat belt. Security Nick Emmanwori has stored the custom going at South Carolina, whereas Brown — the Myers Park nook and son of Chicago Bears offensive coordinator Thomas Brown — is among the many highschool gamers strapping opponents up.

“The cool factor for me is I’ve seen it in some basketball video games, girls’s basketball gamers doing it,” Horn stated. “I’ve seen little youngsters doing it on social media (in) Little League video games.

Alexander, the Charlotte native and two-time Professional Bowler, recommended he was the inspiration for all of the NFL defensive backs copying the transfer.

“All people’s doing my celebration,” Alexander instructed Inexperienced Bay reporters final fall. “Man, c’mon, man. Would possibly as nicely simply placed on 23 jerseys across the league, man. Rattling.”

Jaire Alexander on the Packers CB group: “It’s gonna be Strap Metropolis. We would as nicely go forward and begin advertising and marketing that proper now. We simply ready on 21 (Eric Stokes) to get again.” pic.twitter.com/Ie2FYvLy6R

— Matt Schneidman (@mattschneidman) July 31, 2023

Alexander’s transfer is barely totally different. He raises his arms to the sky after which brings them down throughout his chest to his reverse hip, as if placing a sword again in a sheath. Alexander corrected reporters final 12 months who referred to it as a seat belt.

“No,” he stated. “It’s a sword.”

So perhaps there’s room in NFL secondaries for each the seat belt and the sword.

“He does his personal. They do it like the place they level to the sky after which strap,” Horn stated. “However that got here from South Carolina, man. Israel Mukuamu and Jaycee Horn. Them the 2 guys that created the seat belt.”

Panthers particular groups captain Sam Franklin doesn’t do both. After making performs in punt protection, Franklin places his arms at waist stage and pushes them towards the bottom, indicating his opponents are “little youngsters.” However Franklin likes what Horn’s celebration stands for.

“You’ve gotta go on the market and have an excellent rep to place a seat belt on any individual,” he stated. “The seat belt is mainly saying, ‘I secured your child dwelling protected.’ That’s what the seat belt’s for. You’ve gotta escort them again to the sideline safely.”

After a few injury-plagued seasons, Horn is having the perfect 12 months of his profession. With seven video games remaining, Horn already has surpassed his earlier season excessive for passes defensed with 10. His 45.8 completion proportion allowed ranks fourth amongst defensive backs with a minimal of 250 protection snaps, in accordance with Subsequent Gen Stats.

So Horn has had cause to have a good time, however the irony is he hardly ever throws on the seat belt today. By his estimate, he’s accomplished it thrice this season, together with after a go breakup in opposition to former teammate DJ Moore throughout a Week 5 loss at Chicago.

The distinctive transfer he and Mukuamu got here up with within the shadow of Williams-Bryce Stadium has gotten too well-liked for Horn’s liking.

“I don’t do it no extra like that ‘trigger they took the sauce. It ain’t the identical no extra when all people’s doing it,” Horn stated. “It’s gotta be like a particular (play).”

Horn isn’t retiring the seat belt, simply saving it for giant moments. So buckle up: You by no means know when it’s coming.

(High picture of Horn: Brooke Sutton / Getty Photos)