National Football League

Dolphins' A.J. Francis wants to become an Uber driver

Published Apr. 23, 2015 9:08 p.m. ET

foxsports

By Jason Rowan

Miami Dolphins defensive lineman A.J. Francis applied to becoming an Uber driver on Wednesday in one of the odder stories of the NFL offseason.

Francis, measuring in at a massive 6-foot-5, 330 pounds, says he’s a user of the mobile-app-based transportation network and figured since he had the time, why not give it a shot, cracking a joke on Twitter about the process:

Just applied to be an @Uber driver... I hope my background check goes well.

Francis recently bought a Dodge Charger and figured it would be fun tooling folks around Fort Lauderdale.

“I’d go wherever they pay me to take them,” he said. “The customer is always right.”

As buzz began to build around Francis’ bid to become an Uber driver, the NFLer felt compelled on Thursday to ask the company to speed up processing his application so the entire thing didn’t seem like a joke, posting on Twitter:

@Uber can Yall hurry up and accept me as a driver so these people saying I already am one can at least be factually correct lol

Francis, an undrafted free agent out of the University of Maryland entering his third NFL season, earned $318,000 last season and reportedly is set to earn a base salary of $515,000 after the Dolphins re-signed Francis as an exclusive rights free agent last month.

While the salary earned by Francis both last year and will earn this coming season may be a somewhat meager income comparatively speaking to what the biggest stars in the sport make, it is nevertheless a pretty substantial income when compared to what the average person earns.

So, why the part-time job?

Francis, who said he has always worked odd jobs, put it plainly in an interview with the New York Daily News.

“It would be a cool way to get some extra cash,” he said.

While that’s all well and good, Francis’ comment on Twitter regarding the reason behind his (potential) offseason side gig is fantastic.

“People ask me why would you want to be an @uber driver if you play in the NFL… You know what’s better than NFL money? More money,” Francis tweeted on Wednesday.

The fact that his Uber application became such a huge story blew Francis away, prompting him to make the following observation on Twitter.

“The fact that this became a massive news story forever proves that football players aren’t seen as human lol,” Francis quipped.

Indeed.

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