Former Florida receiver Justin Shorter roared down the right sideline on a go route that would require him to go almost to the end zone. Anthony Richardson measured Shorter’s pace and unleashed. The ball soared high above the field at Florida’s indoor practice facility until … THUNK.

Richardson burst out laughing as the ball bounced off the ceiling high above. Then he turned to his quarterback coaches Denny Thompson and Will Hewlett.

“That’s gonna go viral,” Richardson said.

Indeed it did. Among clips posted by the SEC Network, the NFL and NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero, video of Richardson hitting the ceiling had been viewed more than a million times within four hours of the throw. Richardson joked that he saw Kentucky QB Will Levis hit the underside of the roof at his pro day last Friday and wanted to one-up his draft class competition.

“I tried to put a hole through the thing,” Richardson said.

Patriots QB Mac Jones, a Jacksonville, Fla., native who has known Richardson’s Jacksonville-based trainers for years, texted to remind everyone that he started the ceiling-scraping trend during his second pro day at Alabama in 2021.