Hopefully you didn’t need an expert’s opinion to think that the total solar eclipse was cool as hell. But, in case you’re still on the fence, Josh Dobbs is here to help. Dobbs is a veteran NFL quarterback—already a sick job—but he also has experience working with NASA during his free time. That’s how he got his out-of-this-world nickname (the Passtronaut), along with a reputation as the football world’s go-to science guy. The man did major in aerospace engineering at the University of Tennessee, after all, finishing school with a perfect 4.0 GPA.
Dobbs has spent time with the Steelers, Jaguars, Browns, Lions, Titans, Cardinals, and Vikings since being drafted in 2017, and signed a free-agent deal with the San Francisco 49ers earlier this offseason. But he spent Monday far away from the gridiron, posting up at a NASA facility in Cleveland to take in the eclipse. After it was all said and done, the 29-year-old dialed up GQ to both marvel at the cosmic phenomenon he had just witnessed—in the path of totality, no less—but also to explain how a professional athlete became a part-time rocket scientist.
It was incredible. I didn’t know what to expect. But it was incredible in a lot of aspects. First, the eclipse itself was really cool. I’d never seen a total eclipse. In 2017, the [path of totality] wasn’t anywhere near where I was living. The next one is in like 20 years and it’s going to be out in Montana/Wyoming—not anywhere near where I'll probably be living, either.
To experience it in a city, it was literally pitch black at 3:15! It was really cool to experience something you’ve never experienced. The second part was just seeing how big the turnout was. I’ve obviously always loved space and aviation since I was young, but that’s not the story for everyone. Being out there, they had to cap it at 35,000 people at the Great Lakes Science Center and stop letting people in. There was that much interest in the city! People were experiencing the eclipse together, but also learning what NASA was doing with all their aerospace programs. Sharing stuff that I’m passionate about, meeting the people who are driving the pace car in the right direction, and seeing the community engagement? That really made it a special event.
A little bit of both. I was doing some promotional stuff to bring eyeballs to the event, but I was also just taking it all in. I was learning, too! I explored the museum. They have a cool flight simulator where you can land the space shuttle like you’re coming back from space.
I was pretty hyped! Like I said, I didn’t really know what to expect, but when I got home yesterday I was like, That was so cool. Going back and watching it, it’s just cool to realize you documented it from start to finish. At 3:14, it kind of looked like dusk, and two minutes later it was completely black. It looked like it was 11 pm, street lights were coming on. Two minutes after that, dusk again. It was crazy to see how perfectly the moon blocked out the sun, and then that one little sliver when it moved just a little bit and made it bright again. So, yeah, I was pretty hyped. It was cool, man! For the next one, if you can get in the path of totality, do it.
A little bit. I had an interview on Cleveland radio. The guy was like, “Sell me on this total eclipse.” I’m like, “I don’t know what there is to sell you on! It’s going to be 3:15 in the afternoon, when the sun is usually out, but it’s going to be pitch black. You’ve never seen that! Ever.”
You have to respect natural events. You’re here on earth, living the life that you are, and the timing of everything? It gives you a unique perspective. We have so much stuff going on, but sometimes your life can seem so small in comparison to how large the universe is.
During my second year in the league I was set up with an externship through the NFL Players Association. That was my first introduction to NASA. I was going to be up in Goddard [a NASA space research laboratory near Washington, DC]. But that same offseason they actually had a government furlough, so NASA shut down and the externship got canceled. That was a blessing in disguise, because it gave NASA time to plan out a more hands-on experience.
So, that next offseason, I externed down at Kennedy Space Center, where I worked on the Artemis mission. That’s a rocket that goes to the moon and eventually to Mars. The next year, my externship was with NASA’s RASSOR group, basically a little rover for regolith, which is moon dirt. They’re building it, and my job was to study the rover and the various commercial rockets that will be going to the moon in the next year or two, and figure out which rocket best suits the rover for going up to the moon.
When I was in Cleveland, my main project [with NASA] was finding ways to make STEM cool and relatable for the youth. If you’re good at sports, and you also really love math and science, you don’t have to choose! You can do both!
You know, I tell people that it’s just like any job. You go to school and you learn a certain discipline. Engineering, journalism, football, whatever it is. You learn the discipline and then apply the concepts during a test. But when you get to the job, it’s going to be completely different from what you learned in school. It takes some on-the-job application of what you learned in school.
So, yeah, it’s a lot of math. But the biggest thing I’ve learned—and my experience is a little different than a normal intern’s, because I do have a job—but I learned how it works, how an organization like NASA runs differently than something like SpaceX, and what they’re both striving to accomplish within the aerospace community. Seeing the timeline of their goals, and what they’re trying to accomplish over a certain amount of time, it’s been a tremendous opportunity. NASA is king. Seeing how they run and regulate the aerospace world, I mean, they go to the moon! And Mars!
They have a ton of questions. Their favorite things to ask are, did we really go to the moon? Do aliens exist? Where is NASA hiding all the secrets? Those are the top three I get on an average day in the locker room. I have fun with it. When I was in Cleveland last offseason, I took some teammates over to NASA so they could see what they do. Once they started asking questions, I actually put fliers in people’s lockers saying, if you want to learn NASA secrets and find the aliens, meet me tomorrow at 3:00.
I duped them a little bit, but I got them over there! It was an educational field trip, and it was cool for the NASA engineers to feel the support of their hometown team, because there’s a lot of Browns fans over there.
There’s a lot of guys! Amari Cooper was fascinated. I’m not saying he’s a non-believer in the moon landing or aliens or any of that stuff, he’s just very curious. He asked some really good questions. David Bell—a receiver in Cleveland—was probably the biggest skeptic that I came across, which is crazy because he went to Purdue! They’re the school that’s graduated the most astronauts in the United States! C’mon man, you went to Purdue. You can’t go out like that.
All that is to say, everyone is interested. Even in the cities where I didn’t get to take guys through a NASA experience—like in Jacksonville when they heard about it, they said they’d love to go, but then Covid hit—a lot of guys are interested and they’ve never had any connection to space. I guess, through me, they do now. Sharing my stories in the locker room, people gravitate toward that. It’s great to expand their horizons and shine some light on the great work that the people in the engineering world are doing. They’re literally changing the trajectory of civilization!
As long as I come back! There’s two sides to that coin. There’s guys like Elon Musk. He’s literally said that his goal is to go to Mars and not come back. I’m not on that side. But, if the opportunity presented itself, I’d love to go. I think it’d be a heck of a ride.
Yeah, I have. That first month after the season ended, that was the first time I was able to catch my breath after everything. Last season was crazy! I didn’t really expect that craziness going into the season. I don’t think anyone does. At this point, you just have to live day by day and be ready for anything this league can throw at you. My story—obviously it was cool with all the recognition that I got, being able to play well under weird circumstances—but what I enjoyed most was the perspective it gave the average NFL fan while also opening up some doors for myself to prolong my career.
When you actually look around the league and hear most players’ stories, over 75% of them have similar stories to mine. They get drafted, they spend a fixed amount of time at their first location, and from there it’s various teams, different situations, and the player trying to figure out what’s best for their career. That’s the majority experience! Glad you’re here, let’s go try and win this football game, and figure it out after that. I think the average fan thinks it’s Pat Mahomes or Ben Roethlisberger, who play somewhere for 15 years, retire, get their gold jacket and move on.
In the last couple years, I haven’t gotten consistency from the situations I’ve been in. Some of that was my own choosing, and I’m not oblivious to that, either. I’m looking forward to getting to San Francisco, because they’re one of the most consistent organizations in the league over the last five to seven years. With the team coming off a near Super Bowl victory, whatever I can add in order to help us get over the hump, that’s my goal. I’m excited to get out there and get back to work. When I talked to [general manager] John Lynch and Coach Shanahan, it just jumped out as a great opportunity for myself. We all want to live that, but that’s not the nature of this game or this business. Hopefully this upcoming year, we don’t have to live in three cities!