Two Guys and a Goatee

The “Goatee Gamble” is on.

Over the Twitter transom last night, ABC News Chief White House correspondent Jake Tapper (jaketapper) proposed a friendly MLB wager with his NBC News counterpart, Chuck Todd (chucktpolitical) : If the Philadelphia Phillies win the National League Championship, Todd must shave his goatee; if the L.A. Dodgers win, Tapper must grow one. Yep, the  #GoateeGamble has been hashed.

Todd seemed a bit uneasy about the fate of “the goatee,” complaining in a Tweet, “so I’m supposed to be put the goatee in the hands of one-time Phillie castoff Vicente Padilla? Really?”

But Tapper also appeared to pull back a bit on his challenge, suggesting a “compromise soul patch.”

To get a sense of what each newsman might look like should he lose the whisker wager, the B&C art department–relying, as always, on the magic of Microsoft Paint–created mock-ups of a hairless Todd and be-goateed Tapper. Take a look:

As for my loyalties, sorry, Chuck–I am a fan of the Yankees and no fan of goatees, so I look forward to seeing that baby-smooth chin.

UPDATE: The folks at C-SPAN dug through the network’s archives and found this screen grab of a goatee-less Todd on Washington Journal. They say it is from November 1999. But Todd looks like he just graduated from high school. Sorry Chuck!