At least you went down guns loaded, or guns blown, whatever.

Since it is NFL football Sunday, I thought I would share this nice little malaphor uttered by the Buffalo Bills quarterback, EJ Manuel.  After being benched in favor of Kyle Orton, he made it clear that he wants another chance.

“You don’t worry about the repercussions. If something happens, at least you went down guns loaded, or guns blown, whatever. You just go out there and let it rip. That’s what I’ve been practicing out there this week, against our defense, so just allowing myself to go out and make plays naturally.”

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/11629515/ej-manuel-buffalo-bills-says-wants-different-player

This is a mash up of  “went down fighting” and “go down with guns blazing”,  both meaning putting up a fight.  The malaphor results in exactly the opposite meaning – went down with guns loaded, i.e., did not put up a fight.   The “whatever” perhaps was an exasperated searching in his mind for the correct idiom.  That happens to me a lot.  Whatever.    A big thanks to John Costello for hearing this one and passing it along.  The sports world comes through again!