\u266c Jet2 Advert \u2013 \u2708\ufe0fA7-BBH | MAN \ud83c\uddec\ud83c\udde7<\/a> <\/p>\nIt was Hogan who first posted a TikTok video during preseason practices captioned, \u201cFall camp so rough we got a locker room cat\u201d that lit Pudge\u2019s viral fuse.<\/p>\n
Hogan\u2019s Instagram and TikTok videos of Pudge have combined for up to 5 million views. What began as a locker-room gag \u2014 which alone has 254,000 likes as of Thursday \u2014 skyrocketed within days. Before Bowling Green\u2019s opening game against Lafayette, Pudge had popped on ABC and CNN. By the end of Week 1, the school estimated more than a billion people had encountered the football program, much of it thanks to a cat.<\/p>\n
For Carlson, his cat\u2019s fame barely scratches the surface of what Pudge\u2019s company means. Pudge was a living fragment of his Chicago-area home that accompanied him across state lines, curling close after the hardest summer of his life.<\/p>\n
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George Carlson\u2019s cat helped him get through the toughest time of his life. (Courtesy of Ty Hundley \/ BGSU Athletics)<\/p>\n
Carlson lost his mother, Cristen, to Stage 4 ovarian cancer on July 29, 2024. She was the voice Carlson dialed without fail, the presence that calmed him through the monotony of long-snapping drills and the solitude of special teams life. When she was gone, silence pressed in on him from every angle \u2014 broken only by the improbable purr of a smoosh-faced cat.<\/p>\n
\u201cGeorge was really able to take a piece of my mom with him to school and have that reminder that she\u2019s always watching over him,\u201d said George\u2019s sister, Avery. \u201cWe all see a little bit of my mom in Pudge every time we look at him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pudge, plucked from a South Chicago breeder in 2023, became Cristen\u2019s last great gesture. Avery remembers their mother insisting on a shorthair, George\u2019s favorite breed, believing the cat would comfort George when she no longer could.<\/p>\n
\u201cCristen was always just pro-George,\u201d said George\u2019s dad, Jim, who is a veterinarian. \u201cShe helped him with everything \u2014 not just football. \u2026 (His mom\u2019s death) was really difficult for him because of the relationship they had.\u201d<\/p>\n
After Cristen\u2019s passing, Carlson\u2019s house in Bowling Green threatened to swallow him whole with its silence. But when he cracked the door each night, the hollow never had a chance to settle. Pudge stationed at the doorway, tail flicking like a conductor\u2019s baton, keeping grief at bay.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I didn\u2019t have Pudge, if I couldn\u2019t come home to him,\u201d Carlson said, \u201cI don\u2019t think I would have made it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The routine turned into salvation by repetition. Carlson shrugged off his bag, slumped onto the couch, and Pudge would clamber up his chest and slump across his torso. Some nights he pawed at the string of Carlson\u2019s shorts; on others he folded into the crook of his arm, revving up a purr that vibrated like a lullaby.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat cat would do anything \u2014 move heaven and earth \u2014 for George if it meant making him happy,\u201d Avery said.<\/p>\n
Once Carlson, who has been on scholarship at Bowling Green since 2022 and earned a degree in individualized business, ushered him in to lighten camp\u2019s toil, Pudge lolled across gear bags. He wedged into empty lockers or climbed atop laundry carts, taking on a unique role as Bowling Green\u2019s 108th roster member.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe helps people get their minds off of the tough day and the long weeks we go through,\u201d said Hogan, who is allergic to cats, yet still willingly welcomes Pudge.<\/p>\n
Falcons cornerback Jalen McClendon\u2019s first experience with a cat when he was younger went horribly off-script, as a babysitter\u2019s gold-eyed feline scratched him raw.<\/p>\n
\u201cPudge helped me see a different version of a cat,\u201d McClendon said. \u201cHe just brings a different type of light. \u2026 Pudge makes you feel at home. I can be relaxed, like, \u2018Pudge, what\u2019s up?\u2019 And for dudes, those small interactions can make a guy\u2019s day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eddie George, the 1995 Heisman Trophy winner turned Bowling Green head coach, is also allergic to cats. But sneezes and watery eyes weren\u2019t enough for him to exile the furrowed little emperor who earned full diplomatic immunity. And became a sensational college mascot.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce you see the attention, you lean into it,\u201d said Taylor Jefferson, Bowling Green\u2019s director of marketing.<\/p>\n
Lean in, they did.<\/p>\n
Soon, Pudge cruised in his own \u201cCatmobile\u201d \u2014 a golf cart tricked out with whiskers and ears \u2014 parading through tailgates like Falcons royalty. He headlined \u201cPudge Parties,\u201d where his flattened face turned into campus currency in the form of hoodies, buttons, stickers, selfies and even sorority invites.<\/p>\n
In just about three weeks after launching his Instagram page, Pudge generated 1.3 million Instagram impressions. His shadow stretched wide, with Bowling Green football\u2019s X account doubling last year\u2019s engagement in August alone, according to assistant athletic director for strategic communications Vincent Briedis.<\/p>\n
Since then, Bowling Green\u2019s Monday marketing meetings have revolved around Pudge, working with the Carlsons to develop a health and safety plan that accompanies Pudge as he attends games, home and away. The Falcons sit 2-2 on the season after stunning Liberty 23-13 and flashing fight against Cincinnati and Louisville.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople think this is the best thing that\u2019s happened to college football,\u201d Briedis said. \u201cYou see the pet that is as endearing as Pudge \u2026 it\u2019s part of the pageantry of college football. You don\u2019t see locker room animals in the NFL. \u2026 People that have no ties to Bowling Green, no ties to the Mid-American Conference, they\u2019re loving it.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Pudge the Cat has even traveled to away games this season. (Courtesy of Ty Hundley \/ BGSU Athletics)<\/p>\n
Pudge has even clawed his way into a name, image and likeness empire. It started with Influxer, a clothing brand that specializes in NIL, selling 104 Pudge T-shirts in about 10 days for $720, with Carlson reaping the returns. Carlson also has his own line for Pudge, which moved more than 100 shirts in just 27 hours, with part of the proceeds going to the Humane Society of Wood County, a nonprofit shelter and adoption center serving Northwest Ohio.<\/p>\n
Soon, Carlson\u2019s inbox was jammed with offers from cat food giants Temptations and Purina, Churchill Downs and even a 20,000-person Cat Expo in Cleveland, where Carlson is projected to pocket more than $4,000.<\/p>\n
EA Sports even added Pudge to the video game as a card that boosts toughness.<\/p>\n
The fame isn\u2019t just corporate. Two weeks ago, The Clay Pot Bistro in Bowling Green served him a catnip mocktail, a lobster and salmon entr\u00e9e and a whipped-cream dessert.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe eats 100 percent when he\u2019s awake,\u201d Carlson said. \u201cEvery single time, he\u2019s going to the food bowl. He\u2019ll be playing with his ping pong ball, go to food. He\u2019ll wake up from sleep, food. \u2026 He\u2019ll stick his whole face into the bowl, he\u2019s just an oddball.\u201d<\/p>\n
When the video game avatar powers down and the last crumb is licked from his bowl, Pudge finally claims his reward: burrowing next to Carlson and dozing off to sleep, tucked away from the spotlight at last.<\/p>\n
And in that quiet \u2014 George tucking in his best friend before another day of cat mania \u2014 the absurdity of college football\u2019s strangest star softens into something simpler.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy mom,\u201d Avery said, \u201cis really somewhere losing her mind right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
(Top photo courtesy of Bowling Green Marketing & Brand Strategy)<\/p>\n