The marketability of Gardner Minshew

A year ago, nobody other than Pac-12 fans knew much about Gardner Minshew II. The one-year starting quarterback for the Washington State Cougars was finishing up the Senior Bowl and getting ready for the NFL Draft.

Flash forward a year, and Minshew has a year of NFL staring experience under his belt as his legendary football story continues. Now that the rest of the football world knows all about Minshew, and he’s about to get opportunities he could only dream of this time last year.

Minshew, as you know, took a road trip in a rented RV after the season ended and documented his trip on Instagram. He recently returned the motor home and headed to Miami, where everybody who’s anybody in football currently resides as Super Bowl LIV approaches.

Minshew may still be on a rookie contract, but his marketability is through the roof. With a personality like his, and his incredible football story, it’s no wonder. Couple all of that with his easy going attitude, his mustache, the jorts, the aviators, his southern drawl, not to mention his exploits on the field this season, and you have someone who finds fans anywhere.

The Florida Times-Union explored Minshew’s marketability and described a recent night in Miami:

Inside a reserved section of the Concrete Beach Brewery, a maximum crowd of 75 people paid $50 apiece to hobnob with Minshew, listen to a question-and-answer session with legendary NFL writer Peter King and ask their own questions afterwards.

While there were a couple Jaguars’ fans occupying a front-row table, the bar patrons were an NFL melting pot. Houston resident Debbie Brannon, who logged 26,000-plus miles to see every Texans’ road game in 2019, sat 20 feet away from Minshew. She dressed like a cowgirl from head to toe in colors of the Jaguars’ AFC South rival.

Other fans wore team gear from the New England Patriots, Pittsburgh Steelers, Philadelphia Eagles and, of course, Super Bowl participants Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers. Among the people who asked Minshew a question was a 50-ish-looking man who dressed like Chiefs’ coach Andy Reid and had an identical mustache.

Minshew — dressed in light blue jeans (no jorts), a peach-colored, long-sleeve shirt rolled up past his wrist, a dark brown Stetson hat and sporting a neatly-trimmed full beard – didn’t have to play to the audience. He simply won them over as he often does, with a mixture of honest assessments about his career and some witty one-liners.

It won’t be long until these Minshew meetups or appearances are more than $50 a person.

Minshew was also on The Dan Patrick Show, where he talked about his freedom at the line of scrimmage with Mike Leach:

We all knew Minshew would be a big draw. The rest of the NFL world caught on this past season, and it looks like Minshew is just getting started.

It’s too bad this didn’t count because MY GOODNESS

The San Francisco 49ers or Kansas City Chiefs might need her tomorrow.

Domination

This is cool:

Links

Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Gardner Minshew predicts winner of Super Bowl LIV [Video]
Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Gardner Minshew predicts the winner of Super Bowl LIV between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers.

Jaguars’ marketable Minshew could be a future boon for advertising partners - Sports - The Florida Times-Union - Jacksonville, FL
The NFL has gotten a small glimpse of rookie Gardner Minshew’s potential as a quarterback. His possibilities as a future pitchman could be lucrative as well.

Former Clark Fork and San Francisco 49ers tight end Ron Heller remembers winning a Super Bowl with Joe Montana | The Spokesman-Review
This story has nothing to do with WSU but it's still really cool. Small town Idaho hell yeah.