Last night was so much fun, and it was a pleasant surprise after this long and cold spring! As the rest of Milwaukee is dreading more cold, cloudy days, deep into May, the Bucks came out blazing against the Boston Celtics. As the game seemed to be in hand, TNT was excited to show us just as much off the court, as on.
Enter David Bakhtiari
I’ll admit, I didn’t see it live, but all of a sudden Twitter erupted with the video of the Packers tackle, chugging two beers and instantly pumping up the crowd and pointing to Aaron Rodgers, who was sitting across the court.
You could tell the crowd was fired up and was going to revel in the sense of pride for a beer-chugging Packer.
Personally, I think the headline was buried a little and we need to appreciate that he had two beers ready to go - do you know how hard it is to keep two jumbo beers upright and safe when you’re sitting court-side? That’s way too much pressure for a guy like me, I’d be waiting for my Larry David / Shaq moment to occur.
That alone was a pretty good start to the night I’d say, but it quickly got better when ‘a rando’ passed Danica Patrick a drink. When TNT put the camera on her, she was opening her purse, and I immediately thought, “I hope she doesn’t pull out anything personal or weird” because the camera was pretty tight on her. But then, out pops a $20 and the next thing you know she’s trying to give the guy money, obviously he is refusing to accept it and wine starts getting handed out to her and the lady next to them.
Sometimes it’s amazing how perfect these little interactions happen on TV during the small breaks in the game. As you can imagine, it caused some confusion on twitter and people where asking “Who is this guy?” and “What’s Aaron going to do about it?”
At this point, I’m loving every minute of twitter and could just call it a night. The Bucks are blowing out the Celtics to win the series and move onto the Eastern Conference Finals, I’m not tired, I had a Zevia and nothing could make it better - except for bacon.
As the pride of Wisconsinites continued to shine, with Brewers MVP’s at the game, Packers chugging beers and the Bucks never looking better, an Associate Editor for The Ringer who was in town to cover the game tells a story of meeting a guy with 48 lbs of bacon in his car!
I’m not sure why, but it was a bit of relief, to be proud of where I’m living after being so cynical of it lately, it hasn’t been above room temperature outside for nearly 7 months, plus, I haven’t seen the sun in like two weeks - UGH!
But for whatever reason the things that make me sick of this city and state are some of the same reasons it makes me so happy. Why does a Green Bay Packer chugging beer put a smile on my face and make thousands of people happy? Why does a guy supposedly buying a drink for someone warm my heart with Wisconsin hospitality? Why does a guy driving around with bacon in his car and giving it to a Californian who is visiting for the first time make me laugh so hard?
Whether your sick of the weather, turned off by the blue collar attitude or you think it’s not cosmopolitan enough, it’s undeniable that there is a warmth to Wisconsin. It’s a feeling of camaraderie that can be started with a simple beer, a small gift, or a free drink.
There might be hint of ‘wanting other people to like us’ buried deep down in our roots, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that we are warm, simple, generous and want to share the good time with others. Even thought it was based in alcohol and food, the underlying spirit of the three events was hospitality. We simply just want the people who are visiting and playing for our teams to feel like they were hosted well.