Best Cry Ever? Ivon Padilla-Rodriguez Calls Dr Pepper ‘The Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me’, Becomes Star

At halftime of Saturday’s SEC Championship Game, Ivon Padilla-Rodriguez, a freshman at University of Nevada-Reno, won a $100,000 scholarship from Dr Pepper by winning a football-toss challenge. These kinds of challenges are commonplace but generally only televised out of obligation to a corporate sponsor -- filler after the halftime highlights as the audience waits for the second half kickoff.

But Padilla-Rodriguez got something more than scholarship money: viral fame. After throwing 13 footballs into an oversize Dr Pepper can in 30 seconds to win the challenge, Padilla-Rodriguez instantly broke into tears. Pressed for comment, she blurted, “Dr Pepper is seriously the best thing that has ever happened to me,” followed by a sobbing gasp for air.

Hilarious? Oh yes. But the emotional outburst wasn’t out of line; in an earlier interview with KOLO TV in Reno, Padilla-Rodriguez said that her family “is in a lot of debt and they can’t pay for school.” Considering that she intends to go to law school, Dr Pepper really may be the best thing that’s ever happened to her. And if she one day achieves her goal of becoming a Supreme Court justice, we’ll remember her as “the Dr Pepper Girl” whose video got remixed with Pitbull:

(Note to Dr Pepper: You may now remove Pitbull’s ubiquitous commercial from rotation and replace it with footage of Ivon saying how great you are.)

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