46 SPORTS ILLUSTRATED | SI.COM
Scientists believe that 10,000 years ago, deer mice
had dark fur. As Nebraskan sand hills formed, so did a
mutation that created lighter pigmentation for fur. The
split, and the breeding of lighter mice on the sand hills,
allowed the population to thrive.
The researchers hauled in tens of thousands of pounds
of steel plates, slotting them either into earthy brown soil
or brighter, sandy terrain to formulate eight quarter-acre
enclosures that would each house about 100 field mice,
approximately half of which were dark brown and half
of which were tan. As expected, the dark mice were evis-
cerated by hawks and owls on the sandy terrain, just as
the lighter mice were targeted on dark soil because their
color stood out. The ones whose fur color matched their
environment stood a better chance to survive: natural
selection in a nutshell.
After some DNA sequencing, the team discovered that,
over the course of just a few generations, each enclosure’s
surviving mice had better equipped their children for a
long life in their new habitat. The remaining dark mice
were more likely to carry a gene that aided in the pro-
duction of a dark pigment to their fur. The lighter mice
surviving had a different copy of the gene that would
make their fur lighter.
“It provides more concrete evidence of evolution and
it does make you think about, like humans, we are the
product of this same exact process,” Hoekstra says.
“I don’t think about that on a day-to-day basis but every
now and then I’ll think, Wow, we ended up here through
this process. A little bit of chance, more or less random
mutations appear, and every once in a while you get
something that’s beneficial that gets swept through
the population.”
Hoekstra, Barrett and their team were able to show
that, rather than over thousands of years, this evolution
could occur—in this case—over just three months. That
predators will not necessarily cause extinction. That,
faced with mortal threats, something innate can drive
a species toward a better future.
The next generation can be harder to hunt.A
T HIS PRO DAY last spring, one month before he
became the draft’s No. 2 pick, Zach Wilson faked
a wide handoff to his right and began a deep, looping
bootleg to his left that served as the preamble to the
marquee throw of his showcase.
When his right, back heel brushed the left hash mark
of the 36-yard line, 10 yards behind the original line of
scrimmage, he made a short hop while reversing his
lower body until his legs formed an almost perfect Y
shape. It was a vulnerable position, one that seemed
to provide almost no foundation for a standard throw.
Yet, there was Wilson, with both feet elevated off the
ground as he whipped the ball 45 yards to the right,
against the momentum of his body, hitting his receiver
perfectly in stride.The play caused the announcers broadcasting the event
to stop mid-sentence. A whooping sound, not unlike the
rallying cry of professional wrestler Ric Flair, broke the
silence inside BYU’s field house as Wilson cemented his
position as the No. 2 pick in the draft.
“He did that, and then this is how quickly things move:
Other quarterbacks started putting the throw into their
pro days,” BYU coach Kalani Sitake says. “Even my kid
went out into the backyard and was trying to do it.”
It was a Rodgers Foot Pop, one of the clearest exam-
ples that the move had been passed down to the nextgeneration. Beck, who trains Wilson and, as a player,
trained with Rodgers, was the link.
“I had the opportunity to be around Aaron a lot, be with
a lot of the guys that were with Aaron on the Packers, so
you got to hear why he does what he does,” Beck says.
“He told it to the guys he would train with. Then we
train a bunch of those guys. So, Zach wasn’t just seeing
it and trying to replicate it; it was actually knowing why
Rodgers does what he does.”
After Wilson’s throw went viral McEvoy received a text
from one of his students who said that the pass reminded
him of a drill they did regularly. McEvoy’s student starts
for a high school junior varsity team.QBEVOLUTIONCOMING SOONER
Williams ( below) flashed the Foot Pop
in his first win; scouts were wowed
when Zach Wilson (right) used it.GR
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