Oops. One moment, quarterback Graham Mertz and his Wisconsin teammates are dancing in the locker room, Duke’s Mayo Bowl trophy firmly in hand.
And the next, a sudden hush falls over the group. The trophy is lying on the floor, in a thousand pieces. That certainly wasn’t the plan.
“Yeah, I dropped it,” Mertz said. “That’s on me. It happened.”
How the trophy got broken. (Via @juliusdavis32) pic.twitter.com/0485w8G2YN
— Zach Heilprin (@ZachHeilprin) December 30, 2020
The Badgers won the trophy by toppling Wake Forest, 42-28, on Wednesday in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl. Mertz threw one touchdown pass and snuck in for another two rushing scores. And Wisconsin’s defense did the rest, turning a tight first half into a no-doubter by picking off Demon Deacons quarterback Sam Hartman four times.
Then, the team earned that trophy.
“We just wanted everybody to have a piece of that trophy,’’ Wisconsin coach Paul Chryst said (via ESPN).
Mertz had a way to fix the trophy, though, taking advantage of all the mayo bottles laying around. All he needed was some duct tape to secure the bottle to the base.
@GrahamMertz5 Your Trophy is better than The other one pic.twitter.com/ObBjtv6TVq
— Wisconsin Badgers Nation (@nation_badgers) December 30, 2020
That trophy may stand out like a sore thumb in Wisconsin’s trophy cabinet for years to come. But at least the story of how it ended up that way will be memorable.
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