Hall of Fame Rapper Sponsors USA Women's Water Polo Team

The United States Olympic Water Polo Women’s Team has a new fan—and sponsor—in rapper and hype man Flavor Flav.

Olympic gold medalist Maggie Steffens took to Instagram to request support for the US women’s senior water polo team. The team, which has three consecutive gold medals, doesn’t receive as much attention as other women’s sports. Many of its teams members have to work multiple jobs to pay for equipment and pool time to practice, according to Steffens. Because of this, they rely on sponsors.

When rapper Flavor Flav saw her post, he felt he had to do something about it.

“as a girl dad and supporter of all women’s sports — imma personally sponsor you my girl,” the rapper commented on Steffen’s post. “,,,,whatever you need. And imma sponsor the whole team. My manager is in touch with your agent and imma use all my relationships and resources to help y’all even more. That’s a FLAVOR FLAV promise."

Flavor Flav becomes the first celebrity to sponsor an Olympic team, and he’s signed to a five-year sponsorship.

Recently, Flavor Flav participated in a practice with the women’s national water polo team, adorned in a basketball jersey that read ‘USA 24’ and his infamous clock necklace, designed by Rock’n Stones with the USA water polo emblem in it.

In an interview with CBS, Flavor Flav added that his role would be to hype the team up at the opening games and cheer them on.

“Also, just to add, hopefully, this will open up the doors for other celebs, like myself, you know, to sponsor other Olympic teams,” Flavor Flav added.

In addition to sponsoring the team, Flav secured tickets to Taylor Swift’s concert in Paris for the team with help from Swift herself.

While it’s been proven that celebrity endorsements can bring attention to events and initiatives, some are wondering what this means for the future of the sport. Is his endorsement enough to have a major effect on the sport’s appeal to the general public?

Sometimes increased visibility is what a sport needs to bring attention to it. By endorsing the women’s water polo team, Flavor Flav takes the pressure off of them to pay for their own equipment and pool time. This could lead to the team having more time and resources to promote women’s water polo, host camps, and make the sport more accessible to those who wish to participate.

In a world where little boys and girls want to be like their favorite celebrities, it would be nice if more followed Flavor Flav's lead and helped bring attention and financial assistance to teams that are otherwise overlooked.

The women's water polo team will play their first Olympic game in the Group B preliminary round on July 27th in Paris, France.

Check out stadiumrant.com for the best in fan-run journalism.