# Shawn Oakman Cotton Bowl photo

> A Cotton Bowl photo became a dialogue meme that fans reused 6 years later.

- Owner: null
- Kind: Meme & format
- Sector: Sports
- Seed date: 2015-01-01
- Peak date: Week of Jan 2, 2015
- Date basis: Dates use the stated precision; chart positions are date anchors.
- Spread Score: 31 (Niche, provisional), v1.2
- Mechanics: Remixable template, Response chain, Creator relay, Platform jump, Press loop

## Summary

Sam Garrison posted Oakman’s Cotton Bowl photo on January 1, 2015. Users rewrote it as conversations where others backed down. Twitter and Facebook captions drew sports coverage; CFL fans reused the format when Toronto signed him in 2021.

## Timeline

- 2015-01-01 — Cotton Bowl broadcast (TV) — The coin-toss broadcast showed Oakman beside Michigan State players before the photo became a meme.
- 2015-01-01 — Sam Garrison (@gare_bear413; now @sammyg_burner) (X) — Sam Garrison posted the coin-toss photo with a joke about Oakman eating people for breakfast.
- 2015-01-01 — Facebook users (Facebook) — Users shared Oakman captions on Facebook as well as Twitter on game day, Bleacher Report later reported.

The full timeline, metrics and sources are on the case page, or via the Pro API (https://howitspread.com/developers).

Canonical URL: https://howitspread.com/cases/shawn-oakman-cotton-bowl-photo

Cite as: How It Spread (2026). “Shawn Oakman Cotton Bowl photo.” Case HIS-00499. Spread Score v1.2: 31/100. Updated 2026-10-14. https://howitspread.com/id/HIS-00499