For the first time in 11 years, my Brian Dennehy Google News alert finally paid off as I saw that he’d started a new job as the chief marketing officer for Nordstrom, and that at least sounded a little better than making cameos on random TNT dramas. It turns out, though, that Nordstrom’s Brian Dennehy isn’t the same one who played Tom Callahan, Sr. Instead, the Dennehy in question is a 40-something bro who just so happens to be locked in a 23-year old – he wishes I’d stop right here – game of tag with three of his old prep school buddies.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Dennehy and his friends gathered for a reunion in 1990, when they signed a “Tag Participation Agreement” that laid the groundwork for an annual game that lasts the entire month of February. While that sounds pretty simple, the friends are spread out across the country, which makes their scheming all the more impressive.
If only Kate Upton would agree to sign my “Seven Decades in Heaven” contract. Dare to dream.
Among the stories revealed by the WSJ, the highlights include your standard home invasion and stalking, but these guys will go to great lengths to keep their tradition alive.
One February day in the mid-1990s, Mr. Tombari and his wife, then living in California, got a knock on the door from a friend. “Hey, Joe, you’ve got to check this out. You wouldn’t believe what I just bought,” he said, as he led the two out to his car.
What they didn’t know was Sean Raftis, who was “It,” had flown in from Seattle and was folded in the trunk of the Honda Accord. When the trunk was opened he leapt out and tagged Mr. Tombari, whose wife was so startled she fell backward off the curb and tore a ligament in her knee.
“I still feel bad about it,” says Father Raftis, who is now a priest in Montana. “But I got Joe.”
On one hand, this is a pretty great story. On the other hand, this makes me even more depressed that I can’t even get my fat ass off the couch to go get drunk and play kickball with my own bros. Oh well, maybe after a few more hours of Seinfeld reruns.
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