Justin Jefferson was trying to let the Minnesota Vikings general manager in on the joke.

Disguised as photographer Darius Frost for an Amazon Prime video, he asked Kwesi Adofo-Mensah if he was one of the people who decided that Jefferson was worth $140 million. After the photo shoot, he asked Adofo-Mensah where Jefferson was and if Frost and Jefferson had the same diamond teeth.

Finally, after calling him back into the room and taking one more picture, Adofo-Mensah realized the man standing immediately in front of him was his superstar receiver in disguise.

“Shout out to Kwes, just going along with it,” Jefferson said after practice on Thursday. “He definitely didn’t know who I was or what was going on during the time.

“We got him good.”

The full 28-minute episode features Jefferson going to a flag football game undercover before revealing his talents. In it, he said it was nice to feel like a regular person.

“This job comes with the [lack of] privacy, and just a lot of things that I’m not really able to do anymore,” Jefferson lamented. “It was good to be in the mix of everything and people not noticing who I am, asking for pictures, autographs, and just really let me be.

“I definitely didn’t feel like that in a very long time.”

It may sound disingenuous that Jefferson wants to be a regular person, given how many people would love to be Justin Jefferson. Who wouldn’t want to be the league’s best receiver with a signature dance? He’s a 26-year-old multimillionaire who’s been in Madden commercials. Still, he wants to be just like you and me.

That may be hard to believe. However, in Netflix’s 2023 show Receiver, Jefferson revealed that he lives a subdued daily life. It’s only when he puts on his jewelry and sunglasses and becomes “Jets,” his alter ego, that he flashes personality.

“Justin is cool, calm, and collected. I’m chill, I play video games, and be to myself a majority of the time,” Jefferson told the Netflix crew. “But when I start putting these chains on, start putting the teeth in and all of the jewelry and all of that, I mean, then it starts to become Jets.

“Jets is the most confident. That’s my swagger. Not cocky, but he has the confidence in himself to go out there and perform at the highest ability. I like looking good while I go play.”

Jets may not want to be a regular guy, but Justin yearns to mix in with the masses. He’s expressed that in Receiver and his Prime Video series. He also lives it by avoiding receiver drama and off-the-field issues.

It’s that duality that allows Jefferson to be one of Minnesota’s most unique sports figures. He has the work ethic and talent to get open on nearly any play, but he has the humility to avoid drama when quarterbacks don’t target him. He wears million-dollar chains and $200,000 grills, but lived in a $439,000 townhome.

There is a genuine part of Justin Jefferson that yearns to be a regular guy. Someone who can leave his home, sans jewelry, and walk anonymously amongst the general public. However, that’s nearly impossible for a player who’s created a polar magnetic field between himself and opposing corners.

For one day, though, he blended in so well that the man who signed him to a $140 million contract didn’t recognize him. In a world that knows him as Jets, Darius Frost allowed him to be Justin again.

Tom Schreier

Tom Schreier is the founder and proprietor of Zone Coverage. He created Zone Coverage with the goal of mixing new age media with old-school journalism. His goal was to create an economically sustainable platform for sports content for Minnesota fans. Before Zone Coverage, Tom wrote for Bleacher Report and Yahoo! Sports before joining 105 The Ticket in 2014.

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