Jeff Piercy
CFL.ca
Have you ever tried to find a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow? Who hasn’t? Have you ever tried to find a pub in Dublin, Ireland showing the Grey Cup? Well I hope not, because it is a waste of time and energy.
And if I may be sarcastic for the next 350 words or so, why would they have the Grey Cup game on? That isn’t football! Football isn’t played with helmets and shoulder pads and touchdowns! Football is Tottenham beating Blackburn 1 – nil in Champions League action in the UK.
ME: “Excuse me good sir, do you know if any of the networks here are carrying the Grey Cup?”
BARTENDER: “The Grey Cup? What is that?”
ME: “It’s like the Super Bowl, but in Canada.”
BARTENDER: “Oh no no no, I don’t have any idea.”
ME: “Well would you mind checking?”
BARTENDER: “Sorry laddy, but Tottenham vs. Blackburn is on, and I couldn’t change the channel if I wanted to. These folks would eat me alive.” (There were about 15 flat screen TV’s all with the same game on!)
ME: “Well perhaps you could suggest another pub that might be showing the game?”
BARTENDER: “Yeah try either O’Grady’s or O’Reilly’s or O’Flanaghan’s.”
Now this is the part in the story where I put my oversized wool coat back on, pull the hood up over my head, and exit the building into the wind and the rain that is Dublin in the winter on my quest down the cobblestone road to find O’Grady’s pub.
ME: “Excuse me good sir, do you know if any of the networks here are carrying the Grey Cup?”
BARTENDER: “The Grey Cup? What is that?”
ME: “It’s like the Super Bowl, but in Canada.”
BARTENDER: “Oh no no no, I don’t have any idea.”
ME: “Well would you mind checking?”
BARTENDER: “Sorry laddy, but Tottenham vs. Blackburn is on, and I couldn’t change the channel if I wanted to. These folks would eat me alive.”
ME: “Well when this game is over, do you think we could try to find the 96th Grey Cup Classic?”
BARTENDER: “No no no sorry laddy, we’d miss the post-game analysis.” (There was one goal scored in 90 minutes…)
ME: “Gotcha.”
And so it went for the entirety of the evening until I retired from my quest unable to find the game, and not a Guinness in my stomach.
Rejected, demoted, discouraged.
That is until I stumbled onto CFL.ca and found all of their coverage of the Grey Cup festivities and preparations.
Marwan Hage isn’t a pot of gold, but after a tough day he’s the next best thing!
Jeff Piercy is in his fourth CFL season. He was a second round pick in the 2005 Canadian Draft.
