(CNN) — Shaquille O’Neal is many things, but you cannot say he goes back on his promises.
Before Monday’s College Football Playoff National Championship game, O’Neal bet fellow “Inside the NBA” panelist Ernie Johnson that Johnson’s alma mater, the Georgia Bulldogs, would not beat the Texas Christian University’s Horned Frogs (TCU).
The stakes? The NBA Hall of Famer would eat frog legs live on TV.
Unfortunately for the four-time NBA champion, the Horned Frogs were beaten emphatically 65-7, as Georgia won its second consecutive College Football Playoff championship.
And on Thursday’s TNT coverage of NBA action, it was time to pay up. Johnson — wearing a Bulldogs helmet — entered the set holding a silver platter with a cover over it.
Underneath were some frog legs which O’Neal duly tucked into. “I’m a man of my word,” O’Neal said mid-chew.
While O’Neal looked to be enjoying himself, the same could not be said about his fellow panelists.
Kenny Smith voiced his displeasure at eating frogs as a vegetarian. On the other side of the fence, Charles Barkley said: “Frog legs are good, I’m not gonna lie.”
With food still in between his teeth, O’Neal gave his verdict. “I just wanna let y’all know, these frog legs good. These are the best frog legs I’ve done had ever.”
As he completed his on-air snack, the 2000 NBA MVP said what most of us were thinking: “You didn’t think I was gonna do it, did you?”
Let’s hope, for Shaq’s sake, that the Colorado Buffaloes or the South Carolina Gamecocks make it to the College Football Playoff National Championship game next year.
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