Vikings QB Joshua Dobbs boosts NASA profile with NFL success - ESPN

For Minnesota Vikings fans, the emergence of 28-year-old journeyman quarterback Joshua Dobbs these past few weeks has been exciting to watch, not to mention fodder for a fresh round of memes, the appearance of space-suit-themed outfits in the stands and the craze over the coolest new nickname in football: «The Passtronaut.»

But for NASA, Dobbs' meteoric rise has created a different kind of buzz. And while «The Joshua Dobbs Effect» might not be an actual scientific finding, there is some evidence that Dobbs, a quarterback and aerospace engineer who is now 2-1 with the Vikings heading into Monday night's game against the Chicago Bears, has generated a wave of new excitement — in science.

When NASA's Glenn Research Center in Ohio posted about Dobbs on X in early November, user engagement soared. The post received more than 3 million views, and the account's followers increased by 216% compared to the previous week's gain. In 2022, the center said, the average number of engagements per post was 176.

And since Nov. 5, when Dobbs stepped in for injured rookie backup Jaren Hall and guided the Vikings to a 31-28 win at Atlanta, U.S. searches for phrases such as «Is Josh Dobbs an astronaut» and «Josh Dobbs NASA» have skyrocketed, according to Google Trends.

Those in the space business have taken notice.

«Nerds are cool,» said Scott Colloredo, director of engineering at NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida. «Josh has made engineering cool. We want to ride this wave as long as we can.»

Though he isn't an astronaut yet, Dobbs has said publicly that he wants to go to space. If he does, he wouldn't be the first professional football player turned NASA scientist to do so. That honor goes to Leland Melvin, who graduated in