What exactly is a haboob? The newest Arizona Cardinals weigh in

Playing football, or any sport for that matter, in Arizona comes with some uncommon factors that don’t typically come into play elsewhere in the country.

There’s an abundance of scorpions — just ask Tre Boston — rattlesnakes and the occasional haboob.

Arizona Cardinals center Evan Boehm took it upon himself to make sure the newest members of the team were properly informed as to what exactly a haboob is.

From the looks of it, there may need to be a refresher course in the near future for a few of the players.

.@BIGboehmTHEORY asked folks new to AZ if they knew what a Haboob is.

The contestants: @KoreyC71, @ChaseEdmonds22, @Brice_Butler, @CJDuncan19, @MasonCole64 + @JustinPugh pic.twitter.com/cElc7AzLz5

— Arizona Cardinals (@AZCardinals) August 29, 2018

A haboob is a wall of dust ranging between several hundred and several thousand feet tall that comes in advance of rainfall.

But for most of the players asked, a haboob is pretty much the closest thing to the world ending.

“It’s when it seems like the apocalypse is coming, but really it’s only rain and sand,” wide receiver Brice Butler said.

Rookie center Mason Cole reiterated the wideout’s words.

“It looks like the world’s ending, but when you are in it, it’s kind of foggy, real windy, but besides that it looks like the world’s ending,” Cole said.

For offensive lineman Korey Cunningham, the term can’t be real.

“You’re lying,” Cunningham said when asked what a haboob is. “Were they the things in the cafeteria?”

After experiencing the weather events firsthand, the lineman still wasn’t sure what a haboob was until he started talking about the loud phone alerts he gets when a storm’s on the way.

“I thought a hurricane was about to hit, but then I was like ‘we ain’t by no water,'” the Cunningham said. “So then I asked someone at the table and they said it was a haboob and I looked outside and I thought the world was about to end.

“With all the dust in the air and it starting to get dark outside. It was kind of scaring me a little bit. But it’s just a dust storm that’s all it is.”

Out of all the players, offensive lineman Justin Pugh was the most knowledgeable and even used some cinematic inspiration to give his definition of the storms.

“There like 70-mile long, five-mile high dust storms that come before the monsoons,” Pugh said. “I feel like I’m in that movie The Mummy when the face is coming out of [the dust storm].”

But whatever you do, don’t ask rookie wide receiver C.J. Duncan what a “Haboo” is.

“I don’t know what that is,” Duncan said when asked. “Is it some kind of clothing?”

Almost, Duncan, almost.

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