Is Daunte Culpepper a Person, or a Thing? He's Both

Lane Kiffin, the young head football coach of the Oakland Raiders, on offering veteran quarterback Daunte Culpepper a tryout commented, "Obviously, Daunte is something that we've been looking into for a little bit."

Ok, Culpepper is certainly not a thing, he's a person, yet to say he is "something" is not incorrect. "Something" may be used either as an indefinite pronoun or noun. In the clause,
"Daunte is something," "something" is a predicate noun linked back to the subject, "Daunte." The "something" that signifies Daunte is more definitely stated as prospect, or an opportunity for improvement for the Raiders.

To be fair, Kiffin had earlier said on the subject of the tryout, "Any time that we have a chance to investigate something that can help our team win, we're going to do it." In this context, Kiffin clearly uses "something" to mean opportunity for improvement in the shape of a person. Some grammarians might say here that "something" is used as Meiosis, or ironical understatement. Most of us have used the expression, "Wow, he (or she) is really something." We understate for effect. What we really mean is, "Wow, he (or she) is really a good quarterback prospect, opportunity for improvement, actress, mathematician" etc.

If Kiffin had spoken more directly, something that football coaches don't like doing because they love understatement, he might have said, "Daunte is someone we've been looking into for a bit." We may add, if Culpepper pulls the Raiders out of the basement, that would really be something.