Hulu’s sports comedy Chad Powers is filled with cameos from the football scene. Episode 1 begins with appearances by sports commentators Kirk Herbstreit and Chris Fowler. The trailer reveals that former New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning will also make an appearance. Manning serves as an executive producer on Chad Powers, alongside his brother Peyton Manning. The show is inspired by a segment from Manning’s Eli’s Places series, where Manning participates in walk-on football tryouts at Penn State in disguise.

Nevertheless, the premiere episode of Chad Powers also showcases a surprising cameo from the realm of internet notoriety. This cameo features Haliey Welch, known as the “Hawk Tuah Girl.” Welch gained fame in the summer of 2024 when her advice to “spit on that thang” during a Tim & Dee TV interview went viral. She parlayed that virality into a career, selling merchandise, launching her podcast Talk Tuah, and landing a cameo role in Chad Powers that already seems somewhat outdated due to the rapid nature of internet meme trends.

Welch appears less than five minutes into Chad Powers, when disgraced quarterback Russ Holliday (Glen Powell) encounters her at a club. He is excited to meet her, exclaiming, “Hawk tuah, spit on that thing!” with delight. However, Welch is not impressed, responding to Russ, “Please don’t tell people we met.”

Welch’s irritation with Russ for shouting her catchphrase and failing to know her name reflects Russ’s own experience with internet fame. Following his championship loss meltdown that went viral, Russ was forever labeled as the “scumbag quarterback.” Similarly, Welch will always be recognized as the “Hawk Tuah Girl.”

Chad Powers was filmed from August to October 2024, a time when Welch was at the height of her popularity. However, since the completion of the show, she has faced her own downfall reminiscent of Russ Holliday’s.

In December 2024, Welch introduced her own cryptocurrency memecoin, $HAWK. Although it started off valuable, the coin rapidly declined, resulting in allegations of a rug pull. Welch vanished from the public eye following the controversy. When she released a statement about the rug pull, she faced backlash online. The latest episode of Talk Tuah, dated May 20, 2025, is entitled, “Haliey Welch Tells All – Crypto Incident.”

Welch also discussed $HAWK’s collapse at a live recording of Talk Tuah at VidCon 2025, remarking that if a man had been responsible for the crypto rug pull, he “probably would have been promoted.”

With walkouts from the VidCon taping and the internet’s criticism of her cryptocurrency scandal, it is evident that Welch has transitioned from an unlikely internet sensation to a viral disgrace. This creates a peculiar foreshadowing for her cameo in Chad Powers, with her disdain for Russ offering an unexpected glimpse into her own future.

Chad Powers is now available for streaming on Hulu.