All eyes will be on Indianapolis on Sunday for the Super Bowl, but after the game, Ball State's mascot will get his chance in the spotlight.
Charlie Cardinal will appear on "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" following the game.
The mascot, or at least the one out of five who secretly portray him and will attend the taping, knows few details about what will happen during the show. But from what he understands, it will open with a live shot outside the studio at Monument Circle. Charlie and members of the Ball State marching band will help lead the audience into the studio.
Charlie said details were vague, but that he hopes to meet Fallon and Sunday's guests Adam Sandler and Andy Samberg — and he especially hopes to meet them as himself.
"That's one of the bad things about being Charlie, you meet a whole bunch of people, but for the most part they never meet the true you," he said. "They just meet the big friendly bird. It's kind of odd. You get kind of used to it."
Ball State won't be the only Indiana college represented at the Super Bowl, Indiana University's marching band will perform with Madonna, but Charlie said he doesn't know of any other mascots being invited to Fallon's show.
"I'm very excited cause I didn't have any Super Bowl plans other than hanging out here in Muncie," he said. "It's definitely an experience because I get to go down to where the Super Bowl is being held with the potential to meet celebrities which I hope happens. It's hit or miss, I guess."
Even if he doesn't get to meet any celebrities, Charlie said he's happy to get a free catered lunch when he's there and have the opportunity to be in Indy for the game, even though he doesn't know where he'll be watching from.
"I'm going to get a free meal out of it, so I can't complain," he said.
Out of all the students who portray Ball State's mascot, this Charlie was picked to go on the show based on seniority. It's his last semester at Ball State, and he said he plans to go out with a bang. Charlie said Ball State's Indianapolis center is less than a block away so he "might have to go down there and stir up some ruckus."
"This is my last hoorah," he said. "I have this and I have the Mid-American Conference Tournament and those are the last two big things that I know that I'm doing. I'm going to make the best of it."
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