Move Over, Madden: We Need To Talk About the Dr. Pepper Fansville Curse
Christian McCaffrey's injury situation seems to be keeping the longstanding Madden Curse in full effect, but there is a new curse plaguing college football and it is emanating from Fansville.
Dr. Pepper has had the best commercials in college football for some time now. Several years ago, we were blessed with the legendary Larry Culpepper, though once NIL became a thing, Larry was presumably killed in favor of these Fansville commercials featuring a different college quarterback every year. And while some of them have been pretty good, they're certainly no Larry Culpepper. But that's neither here nor there.
The real problem with these commercials is that it seems like they could be cursing the quarterbacks who dare to step foot in Fansville. The first ever Fansville ambassador was DJ Uiagalelei, who is simply one of the worst 5-star quarterbacks in college football history. Just absolute trash. Then came Bryce Young, who had an outstanding college career but has looked abysmal in the NFL and has now been benched just two games into his second season. Caleb Williams took over the Fansville mantle last season, in which his USC team went 8-5 before he shipped off to the NFL where he has looked pedestrian at best through two games. And then Quinn Ewers took over this year, who became the Heisman Trophy favorite before suffering an injury against UTSA last week.
So while the book is still out on those last couple guys, it definitely seems like something is going on in Fansville. If I were Nico Iamaleava or Arch Manning and I was approached by the folks at Dr. Pepper this offseason with a nice check to become the new Fansville ambassador, I would politely but firmly decline before quickly turning around and walking the other direction.
Bring back Larry Culpepper and leave these college quarterbacks alone.