Back in January, Oklahoma’s Raegan Beers went viral after a 95-47 victory against Mississippi State. However, it wasn’t because of her stellar 15-point, 11-rebound performance. It was because the Oklahoma basketball X page posted an image of her sitting on the bench.
That’s it. Just a photo of her sitting there with her back to the camera.
Now you get it.
The day after her jersey photo went viral, Fanatics made Raegan Beers’ jersey available to purchase on its website as part of the “NIL Pick-A-Player Women’s Basketball Jersey” category. Following that, Beers signed her first official NIL jersey deal with Fanatics, and sales of her merch immediately went through the roof.
The irony of the whole thing is that she can’t even name a brand of beer, let alone does she actually drink any.
“Can you even name one beer?” ESPN reports someone asked her at practice.
“Isn’t there one called COVID?” Beers answered.
“No, it’s Corona!” a teammate shouted back was her teammates and scouts laughed.
“Ohhh my bad. I don’t drink beer. I don’t know these things,” Beers replied.
She’s not kidding. ESPN reports Beers and her three siblings were kept away from social media until their last years of high school because they were brought up in a Christian home with a father who was a police officer. They also accepted the Beers family’s decision to abstain from alcohol due to religious beliefs, despite their last name.
“It was comment after comment about drinking beer and wanting to buy my jersey, and of course, how the jersey will become a staple in fraternities,” Beers said. “But the funny thing is that for me and my family, this is just our last name. Growing up, people knew me, and us, as the Beers family. Things like this obviously cross our minds, because we know what our last name is. But it’s just funny. The family that doesn’t drink is the family that goes viral for that.”
Raegan Beers’ brother Rocky just transferred to Oklahoma for football so there will be another Beers jersey for fans to buy in the near future.
Last year, Beers wore the number 52, and she didn’t get nearly as much attention. Perhaps 15 is a more achievable and relatable number of beers? Something for her brother to keep in mind when he gets his uniform number for the Sooners’ football team.
