Just Your Classic Story Of A College QB Forced To Apologize For Eating Sushi Off A Nude Model On A Reality TV Show

UNLV starting quarterback Max Gilliam issued an apology Monday for eating sushi off of a nude model while appearing on the reality television show “Below Deck.”

Gilliam claims the sushi idea came from the show’s producers.

“I would like to apologize for my poor judgment while on the TV show ‘Below Deck’ and acknowledge that I have made a mistake that I will learn from. While it was not my idea nor any of my friends’ ideas to eat sushi off of a model, I should have exercised better judgment and declined the idea immediately when it was brought up by the producers,” Gilliam said in a message posted to Twitter.

According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Gilliam first appeared on the show in an episode that aired last month and was identified as a “star quarterback at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas.” The show focuses on a group of crew members who work and live on a yacht and features the passengers aboard the boat.

Gilliam was one of those passengers and appeared alongside a few friends and their girlfriends. Per the Review-Journal, the first night after they board, the group “requested the sushi to be laid out on a nude model.” This season of the show was reportedly filmed in Antigua in February and March.

“This is not a reflection of my character or the way I was raised nor a reflection of the culture of UNLV Football. I would like to humbly move past this and focus my time and energy on our game against the University of Hawaii this weekend,” Gilliam wrote.

via Yahoo! Sports

Some days when you wake up and you can just tell that news is going to come out about a Mountain West quarterback eating some sushi off a naked model on a Bravo reality show. Today was one of those days.

And sure enough, here we are.

I’m not going to hit with the same ol’ take of this headline reading like a Mad Lib, because even Mad Libs aren’t that off the wall. A UNLV quarterback plus some California rolls plus a naked chick plus Below Deck on Bravo. Of course.

If the team’s quarterback can’t eat sushi off a naked model, then who can? Call me old fashioned, but if anyone on the football team should be allowed to, it’s the quarterback. Maybe I’m only saying that because I grew up in the era of The Program? And this totally would’ve been a plot line on James Caan’s ESU Timberwolves if that movie was made today. But now Mark Emmert and his team of minions are probably investigating this as we speak. Did Gilliam pay for the sushi himself? Was it an impermissible benefit? And then regardless of the answer, they’ll probably bring the hammer down hard on the UNLV football program because it’s not a blue-blood program and they can make an example of them. This will be the last time a college quarterback does raw fish body shots on TV.

I don’t watch Below Deck, but have been told I need to, which I’m sure I do. I know Andy Cohen doesn’t produce the show, but he hosts the reunions, which is good enough for me. Andy Cohen is a legend. I’d love to see Cohen somehow get Gilliam on the show and grill him about it. That would make for some great television. Or hell, add this kid to the cast of Summer House. My guy would fit right in on that show. I’m sure Hannah would volunteer and he could chase the sushi with some Loverboy.

I like how his apology included: “This is not a reflection of my character or the way I was raised.” Uhhhhhh, ya think? I’d be willing to bet your parents taught you to use a plate.