Read our exclusive DK Metcalf interview with Jonathan Jones.
DK Metcalf loves conspiracy theories, and he’s not shy about it.
The two-time Pro Bowl wide receiver, entering his eighth NFL season and second with the Pittsburgh Steelers, gave a wide-ranging interview on the topic. Athletics Jonathan Jones.
“Yeah, I’m a big conspiracy theorist,” Metcalf told Jones. “Shout out to my quarterback.”
One of Metcalf’s most curious theories? He thinks Antarctica is “another world.”
“I think there is another civilization on earth,” he said.
In his story, Jones does his due diligence by interviewing Brent Christner, a lifelong Steelers fan and associate professor of microbiology at the University of Florida, who says there really is a civilization living in Antarctica — sort of. Christner says there’s water in the icy kilometers of Antarctica, and living in that water are microbes that have lived for hundreds of thousands of years. These microbes are so endless that something as small as a crab or a lizard cannot survive on it.
“That’s one of the problems of being in Antarctica,” Krisner says. “Every bit of food, every supply, every needle you need must go south with you.
“The Arctic is a different kind of situation. There are indigenous peoples who live there. And the Arctic is cold, but nowhere near as cold as Antarctica.”
Arctic also plays into Metcalf’s conspiracy theory. why? It’s a matter of access.
“You can go to Alaska. You can go to the North Pole,” Metcalf said. “But why don’t you go to Antarctica? Why can’t you just book a trip to Antarctica?”
As Jones points out, you can book a trip there. Antarctica tourism usually takes place between November and March, and most of it comes from South America on ships that reach the Antarctic Peninsula, the northern arm of the mainland. There are no commercial airports in Antarctica, but the ones that do exist are controlled by governments that play right into Metcalfe’s theories.
“Why is there a secret meeting – well, not secret, but why is there a meeting in Antarctica between every world leader of every country?”
There is no confirmation that such meetings took place. Although, to be fair, off-the-book meetings where world leaders discuss a secret civilization would not have such records. Besides, the lack of corroborating evidence is what makes conspiracy theories so interesting, isn’t it?
“Of course there are some famous visitors who go down to Antarctica. When they come down, they get the royal treatment and they’re put in helicopters and shown all the cool places,” Christner said. But there’s nothing going on there like the G7.
Even Christner says we know more about the surface of Mars than what lies beneath the planet’s southern tip. Jones, perhaps thankfully, didn’t ask Metcalf about his thoughts on the Red Planet.