Tennessee Player Has Cheez-It Hair For Cheez-It Citrus Bowl

Everyone loves a good NIL deal especially when it comes with some sort of goofy tie-in. I mean, who didn't love DeColdest Crawford shilling for an air conditioning company? But I don't know that we've seen any deals manifest in as unusual a way as Tennessee wideout Ramel Keyton's deal with Cheez-it has.

The Volunteers will be playing against the Iowa Hawkeyes in the Citrus Bowl at Orlando's Camping World Stadium (which was — and should still be called — the Citrus Bowl).

Cheez-It used to have its own bowl game at the same stadium, but that morphed into the spectacle that is the Pop-Tarts Bowl. Still, Cheez-It was not ready to pull out of the City Beautiful entirely and came aboard as the new title sponsor for the Citrus Bowl,

Anywho, that's part of the reason why the snack food giant cut an NIL deal with Keyton.

Of course, Cheez-It needed to get something out of the deal, and it turns out that they bought themselves a bit of real estate around Keyton's left temple.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we have a hair Cheez-It.

"The @cheezit got me #feelingthecheeziest," Keyton wrote with a photo of his new do.

My favorite part is that he added "#AD" so everyone was well aware that this was a paid endorsement and not just something he did out of love for the Cheez-It game.

Ramel Keyton's Hair Cheez-It Is The Latest Bit Of Fantastic Bowl Season Nonsense

You can't blame Keyton for doing what he can to get a little bit of cheddar (*Pauses for standing ovation*), but I can't figure out what it is Cheez-It gets out of this. I love a nice bag of Cheez-It goodness, but seeing one of those delicious squares made out of a dude's hair didn't exactly make me hungry.

Plus, that looks like an actual-size Cheez-It. That's hard to see unless a cameraman is really tight on Keyton's face and he just so happens to be helmetless when that happens.

However, I love this kind of bowl game nonsense like this or the famous mayo bath after the Duke's Mayo Bowl.

I mean, just last night I watched a Pop-Tart willingly kill itself in front of a stadium of people so it could be consumed by the Kansas State Wildcats.

Bizarre? Yes, but I loved every second of it and so did America.

We may reach a point where we hit critical mass for all this gimmicky nonsense, but until we do, I'm going to enjoy every second of it.

What a ride it is...

Follow on X: @Matt_Reigle