College football’s bowl season is a silly time.
Sure, an expanded playoff means 2024 was the backdrop to more games that actually affected the national championship picture. But the bulk of these exhibitions remain matchups between teams with little history between them in a city neither is typically close to.
With 47 bowl games in Division I, it’s become a priority to make these games stand out as an attraction beyond football. The Duke’s Mayo Bowl embraced this early on. The extremely online brand of sandwich lubricant took over what was formerly the Belk Bowl in 2020 and added its own bells and whistles to the event.
That includes a fuzzy-eyebrowed jar of mayonnaise roaming the sidelines and a post-game condiment shower for the winning coach. On Friday, those two forces met — and it turns out the man inside the mayo jar wasn’t your typical performer. It was a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Shouts to Tubby… Flavor Flav
— CJ Fogler (@cjzero.bsky.social) January 3, 2025 at 10:02 PM
That’s right, Tubby was actually legendary hype man Flavor Flav — a fact that stunned Minnesota head coach P.J. Fleck. Fleck immediately embraced the Public Enemy hype man to give the world a loud “yeaaaaah booooyyyyyyyy” before accepting his fate as a man set to be doused in watered-down mayonnaise.
This latest turn represents another scene in Flav’s third act. He’s gone from member of a legendary rap group to reality television star to, now, amateur sports benefactor. He spent his summer helping fund the U.S. Women’s Water Polo Team’s trip to the Summer Games in Paris. He also paid discus thrower Veronica Fraley’s rent to help her afford the trip to her first Olympic appearance last summer.
His appearance at a mid-tier bowl game was a reminder sports are ludicrous and wonderful. Fleck’s joyful exuberance at the reveal Flavor Flav would be in attendance to watch him get coated with eggs and vinegar is proof the things we love can be incredibly stupid and that just makes us love them more.