Man granted wish of being Outback Bowl's Bloomin' Onion mascot
After nearly a year of campaigning, Ryan Nanni will fulfill his dream of becoming the Bloomin' Onion mascot at this year's Outback Bowl.
Nanni, who writes for the SB Nation blog Every Day Should Be Saturday, has been tweeting at Outback Steakhouse since early January asking if he could don the fried onion costume.
These guys took the "free Bloomin' Onion" thing too far. #OutbackBowl pic.twitter.com/9F8G2y4ajw
— Florida Gators (@FloridaGators) January 3, 2017
It started off as a joke, but Nanni became more determined as the game got closer.
But now that we’re getting closer to the game itself…I like REALLY want to do this. So I’m going to try a bit of a Hail Mary (sports term) here, shameless social media style.
— Ryan Nanni (@celebrityhottub) December 5, 2017
Nanni reached out to Outback again Tuesday asking how many retweets he would need to become the Bloomin' Onion mascot, and was given a goal of 10,000. He achieved the feat in under five hours.
Those are Bloomin' big shoes to fill. 10,000 retweets! #FryinNanni
— Outback Steakhouse (@Outback) December 5, 2017
MISSION BLOOMCOMPLISHED pic.twitter.com/ksoZLMHvUU
— Ryan Nanni (@celebrityhottub) December 5, 2017
We should’ve made that harder 😂 Send us a DM so we can get your measurements to the onion fryer. #thisishappening
— Outback Steakhouse (@Outback) December 5, 2017