Craig Melvin is fulfilling the hilarious end of his NFC Championship bet with Savannah Guthrie.
After betting that the Washington Commanders would beat the Philadelphia Eagles on the road to the Super Bowl, Melvin, 45, got a temporary tattoo of his Today coanchor. “My 10-year-old daughter wore one of these fake tattoos and we couldn’t get it off for six months,” Carson Daly joked on the Monday, January 27, episode of the morning show before applying the tattoo on the back of Melvin’s neck. “If this doesn’t come off easily, don’t worry.”
Melvin’s punishment tattoo — which he has to wear for an entire week — features a pic of Guthrie, 53, sporting an Eagles beanie and holding the team’s logo. In addition to the tattoo, Guthrie also celebrated her team’s win by giving Melvin a Saquon Barkley jersey.
“Oh, my gosh. It looks so good, Craig,” she quipped after seeing Melvin’s temporary ink. “Congratulations.”
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Melvin, for his part, stated, “I wish I could see it,” to which Guthrie hilariously replied, “Don’t worry, you’ll see it on TV.”
Daly, 51, proceeded to snap a photo of the tattoo to show Melvin. “Let this be a lesson. Don’t gamble,” Melvin stated.
Before the big game, Today fans got the chance to vote on the coanchors’ bet punishment, choosing between the week-long tattoo, doing a “shoey” (a.k.a chugging a drink from a shoe) or holding an “Ask me about the bet I lost” sign on the New York City subway.
“Craig, you could be going full Jelly Roll,” Al Roker joked on the Friday, January 24, episode, referring to the heavily tattooed country singer. “Yeah, I guess, you’re right,” Melvin responded. “But that’s not gonna happen because the Commanders are gonna prevail.”
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While Melvin was confident the Commanders would “prevail,” the Eagles won on Sunday, January 26, with a score of 55-23. The Philly team will face off against the Kansas City Chiefs at Super Bowl LIX next month, as the Chiefs defeated the Buffalo Bills in the AFC Championship Game on Sunday.
Guthrie recruited her daughter Vale’s help to break news of the bet’s results to Melvin via social media. “So Mr. Melvin, where are you planning to put your tattoo?” Vale, 10, asked in an Instagram Story video uploaded on Sunday. (Guthrie shares Vale and her son, Charley, 8, with her husband, Michael Feldman.)
Guthrie and her family decked themselves out in Eagles gear to cheer on the team. “Game faces #eagles,” she captioned a pair of family selfies via Instagram.
Melvin made his playful bet with Guthrie during his first few weeks as the new coanchor of Today following Hoda Kotb’s exit. Kotb, 60, announced her departure from the show in September 2024 and hosted her final episode on January 10.
“Craig, you were made for this job. You were literally made for this job. You are that kind of good,” she told Melvin during a November 2024 episode of the NBC morning show when he was announced as her replacement. “You have all the things that this job needs. You’re the right person for it.”
