Jeff Piercy
CFL.ca
Since the beginning of time humans have pondered over many perplexing questions. What is the meaning of life? What happens when we die? How many rubber souvenir footballs can you sign before your sharpie runs out of ink?
Well I am happy to report that I discovered the answer to one of these questions last night at a sponsor appreciation dinner. You see, the meaning of life is… ok ok a sharpie will only sign 25 balls before it ends up on the floor.
And there were plenty on the floor by the end of the night yesterday. Such events are just one of the ways in which we, as an organization, attempt to give back to the people that support the team. It is a unique opportunity for the players to get to know the team’s sponsors, and hopefully reinforce the feeling that their investment in the team has been a good one.
We, as players, also try to get out into the community as much as possible, sometimes on behalf of sponsors, to meet and thank our fans. It is, after all, the fans who both pay our salaries with their ticket sales, and motivate us on game days.
Whether we are helping coach at youth football camps, visiting children’s hospitals, or just shaking hands at events around the area, it is very important for us to get to know the people that wear our colours 12 months a year. Some have been season ticket holders for decades, and some haven’t even been around for a decade, but they are all part of Tiger Town.
I will say, however, that these meet and greet events in the city are not always without incident. I fondly remember a time when I was doing an appearance in the community with a teammate of mine at a Pioneer gas station.
Pioneer was donating a portion of its gas sales to the United Way, and we were pumping gas for people enabling them to stay out of the wind and rain. As we attempted to warm up inside, a young gentlemen approached us, explained that he ran an escort business, looked at my teammate and said, “You’ve got a great physique! Would you ever like to do something like that?”
I burst out laughing and ran out of the building to pump some gas so I don’t know how the conversation ended, but I think as off-season jobs go that must be “Plan C” at best.
Maybe “Plan B”.
Jeff Piercy is in his fourth CFL season. He was a second round pick in the 2005 Canadian Draft.
