“Thanks Mom, But 3K People Bought Me Beer”

PHOTO CREDIT: Sam Crowder

Sam Crowder knows how to stand out in a crowd.

And while his mom may or may not have sent him beer money, more than 3,000 strangers did. All sent via Venmo.

During football season, every Saturday, ESPN airs its pre-game show “College GameDay,” hosted at a different school each week. Football analysts and experts banter and speculate the major matchups and story lines. Behind them? Students cheering and making all sorts of noise.

This Saturday’s (Sept. 10) episode at the University of Tennessee, Crowder was in the crowd, along with his sign pleading his mom for beer money — “Hi mom! Send beer money!” — and touting his Venmo username.

Did mom send beer money? She didn’t have to! According to Venmo, more than 3,000 people — and counting — sent him money. Even Venmo threw in an extra $50 for good measure — or, in this case, good signage.

By Saturday night, Venmo tweeted out that 2,000 users paid him. That tweet was retweeted about 1,300 times. As of Monday morning, the number of generous beer money donators? Up past 3,000.

As for all that generosity, there is speculation that some “donations” were as small as $0.01 since Venmo has no minimum transaction amount. Hopefully, people had it in their hearts to zip over a few bucks to Crowder, whether he needed it or not.

We’re thinking drinks — and even maybe some pizza — are on Crowder.