The Duke’s Mayo Bowl, which, remarkably, is a real thing that exists (I’m more of a Hellmann’s guy, but to each their own), was contested Wednesday afternoon with Wisconsin defeating Wake Forest at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte.
The Badgers, who earned their Mayo Bowl invite on the strength of a 3-3 regular season record (because 2020), erased an early 14-0 deficit en route to a convincing 42-28 victory. Wednesday’s triumph marked Wisconsin’s sixth win in its last seven bowl appearances (the Badgers ran into a buzz saw in last year’s Rose Bowl, falling to Justin Herbert’s Oregon Ducks in Pasadena).
However, this year the Badgers won’t be bringing any hardware back to Madison. That’s because some klutz, later identified as quarterback Graham Mertz, dropped the trophy in the visitor’s locker room, breaking the Badgers’ reward for beating the Demon Deacons into a million pieces.
Suddenly living out the plot to the nursery rhyme “Humpty Dumpty,” Wisconsin players were left scrambling, desperately trying to salvage what remained of their shattered trophy. Ever the problem solver, Mertz, who threw for 130 yards on 11-of-17 passing (64.7 percent) in the winning effort, brainstormed the creative solution you see below, displaying engineering smarts and marketing savvy in equal measure. This, ladies and gentlemen, is product placement in its purest form.
Many were disappointed Wisconsin coach Paul Chryst wasn’t drenched in a celebratory mayonnaise shower after the win, though luckily the Badgers still made good use of their condiment supply.
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