Marcus Mariota already is part of the lore of a famous statue, having won the 2014 Heisman Trophy. Now he has something that might not be so prestigious, but is edible.
After signing on with Subway restaurants as their latest "Famous Fan," Mariota unveiled a life-size food sculpture Wednesday in his hometown of Honolulu. The main ingredient of the structure: guacamole.
That made the Oregon quarterback and likely early pick in next week's draft laugh loudly.
"It's really funny," Mariota said of the statue made by food sculptor Jim Victor. "The actual message is that Subway has come out with guacamole, and I like guacamole, and so the statue is made of all the ingredients in guacamole.
"When they first showed it to us at the house, my mom, she made sure I got a photo with it."
Mariota joins Robert Griffin III, Ndamukong Suh, Mark Ingram, Anthony Barr and Jarvis Jones as NFL players who have been immortalized in meat, poultry and vegetables. He was a natural choice, the Subway folks say, because Mariota is a regular at their restaurants; Mariota says he ate at Subway "nearly every day in college," along with several teammates.
"It really is cool to be part of that group that has had this done for them," he said.
While it's uncertain how high in next week's draft Mariota will be chosen -- he might go No. 1 overall to Tampa, and isn't likely to slip far, if at all -- there's no question where he'll be on draft day. In Hawaii.
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