Celebrity Flag Football Brings Superbowl Shine to Cal Memorial Stadium
A return to CMS for Cal favorite Keenan Allen
The week leading up to the Super Bowl has turned downtown San Francisco into a festive zoo, with media members, athletes, and content creators all finding out that the Bay Area is in fact, still a paradise and lovely to behold, and not a smoking crater that makes Gotham look like Pleasantville.
With so much activity, and so many activations spread across the Bay (Fall Out Boy played the Regency last night?) It’s no wonder that a bit of the shine made its way to Berkeley, where Cal hosted the annual celebrity flag football game at Memorial Stadium. The rosters were littered with musicians, athletes, and influencers, led by NBA Hall of Famer Dwight Howard and Grammy-nominated rapper Quavo. Berkeley Mayor Adena Ishii was in attendance, as well as several city council members, and Congressman Eric Swalwell. Half time featured a best of three tug-of-war between Berkeley’s police and fire department, with the fireman besting Berkeley PD. After the tug-of-war, a foot race to promote food banks took place, with the man in the carrot costume taking first place.
Current Cal players, including recent transfers, were in attendance, with standout transfer running back Adam Mohammed making the most of it, interviewing legendary back Adrian Peterson, among others. Speaking about it just a few minutes later, he smiled, saying “It was a surreal moment”. Mohammed has settled into Berkeley nicely, and seems to be enjoying himself, “I’m loving it here, especially getting out and exploring the food, especially the Mexican food.” An Arizona native, the praise isn’t hollow. He’s a positive and energetic guy that Cal fans will love on and off the field.
Former Cal and current Chargers wideout Keenan Allen was the sole football player currently rostered to take the field. Allen was so at home, he took defensive snaps in untied cleats, making key plays in the red zone for Team Quavo. Although Allen hadn’t yet had a chance to meet with the new staff, he was in high spirits and excited to be home, shouting out his favorite order at Durant Food Court staple Gypsy’s (“The Godfather”).
The culinary excellence of the Bay Area seems to be on everyone’s mind this week. Passing Dwight Howard’s press scrum, you could hear him singing its praises, shouting out Ayesha Curry’s restaurant International Smoke.
The game itself was a scoring bonanza. Team Quavo, which featured Keenan Allen, KJ Jackson, NLE Choppa, Katie Feeney, and Roscoe Dash, among others, took an early lead that they would hold for the majority of the game. Dwight Howard’s side, which featured Adrian Peterson, Izzy Geraci, and Doug Flutie, pulled even and were briefly in the lead, but three late game interceptions sunk them in the end. Team Quavo bested Team Dwight Howard 82-67, and Quavo took home the MVP.
Things I learned last night at CMS:
Quavo was a skilled high school quarterback, and throws a nice looking deep ball (he’s a bit of a deep lob merchant). His connection with Savannah Bananas player KJ Jackson was undeniable. KJ is the kind of guy that absolutely breaks your local basketball run, then you find out he’s an athlete you weren’t clocking for, and it all clicks.
Watching Dwight Howard start the game at QB, lobbing passes to flag football star Isabella Geraci made sense. Watching Doug Flutie throw a touchdown to Dwight Howard was weird.
Watching Doug Flutie give up two interceptions to Keenan Allen made sense. The one he gave up to Roscoe Dash also made me feel weird.
NLE Choppa is tall and fast, and makes some hilariously bad decisions playing football. Loves a lateral, really wants to run horizontal instead of north-south. Still, he’s a real YAK threat when things line up for him.
Adrian Peterson’s athleticism is still something to behold. He is the quickest 40 year old I’ve ever seen.
Keenan Allen finally got to play defense in Berkeley, which we thought he might do but never did.
Keenan channeling his inner Zach Maynard behind center.