This one comes straight from the catalogue of bizarre marriages between celebrities and former athletes, and it might be up near the top: Singer-slash-actress-slash-Black-Eyed-Pea Fergie married a former Minot State quarterback (That’s NAIA dude. NAIA!) over the weekend in Southern California, which is about as far from Minot, North Dakota as one can get.

(You know the woman on the left. The guy on the right QB’d an NAIA school.)

We imagined that’s what former QB and lifeguard Josh Duhamel had in mind when he moved to L.A., but according to this story about the marital union in the MINNEAPOLIS STAR-TRIBUNE (yes, evidently the Twin Cities’ paper of record is devoting valuable space to marriages involving North Dakota celebrities these days), Duhamel not only visits his home town regularly, he’s also intimately invested in the community, working with the Minot State Athletic Department and co-owning a restaurant on Main Street in downtown Minot. The eatery’s name? 10 North Main. We see he’s holding on to that midwestern dry wit.

In fairness to the couple, Duhamel is a minor celebrity in his own right, parlaying a career as a model and actor on “All My Children” into larger roles in feature films, eventually sharing time with Shia LaBeouf in “Transformers”. Look, it’s a step up from “Win a Date With Tad Hamilton”, okay. And he’s got a fan site. And he really does sound like a man who’s as “salt of the earth” as one can get while spending appreciable time on a Hollywood set.

“He gets back here several times each year,” said MSU (Minot State) Athletic Director Rick Hedberg. “His mother still lives here … He’s a real down to earth guy.”

That mother? Yeah, she’s a high school teacher. And his father is an ad salesman.

(The only known photo of Duhamel in action.)

Look, the good Lord knows that we don’t want to cast aspersions on Duhamel’s personality or his modest celebrity. He seems like a swell guy. Still, Fergie married this guy? Really? She couldn’t pull down an NFL wide receiver, or a Grammy winner? Aren’t there some singer songwriters still in play? Another Hank Baskett to be scooped up, before the Kendras of the world lock them all down?

(Anyone else notice that he looks a lot happier than her? We would be, too.)

Hey, more power to Duhamel, and Fergie for picking a guy she really liked. After all, they’ve been dating for three years, which is too long to be a celebrity couple solely.