ORLANDO, Fla. _ Life is good if you're Blake Bortles.
A year ago, he was in danger of getting benched in favor of journeyman quarterback Chad Henne. Today, he is walking on sunshine after signing a three-year, $54 million contract with the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Where did all those dark clouds go?
Bortles picked himself up as the 2017 NFL season went along, grinded it out, and was a Tom Brady comeback away from leading the Jaguars to their first Super Bowl appearance.
He's come a long way from his days at Oviedo (Fla.) High School, where he graduated in 2010. Bortles has since beefed up his star-power resume at UCF, and is now working toward that end in the NFL.
Away from the aforementioned grind, Bortles has hosted football off-season camps at Oviedo High School and in Duval County in partnership with JaxPAL. He also has plans to partner with the Arc Village Jacksonville, an independent-living facility designed to maximize community inclusion for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. (There's a backstory we discussed).
I caught up with him before the start of his camp in Jacksonville recently. It was hot and coffee wasn't in our game plan, but Bortles brewed up some interesting tidbits about his personal life, including his take on social media. We got an X's and O's question out of the way before getting into other stuff you probably don't know.
