Chris O’Leary meet… Chris O’Leary

When Chris O’Leary followed me on Twitter in 2010 I thought, ‘What a Chris O’Leary thing to do.’ I immediately followed him back.

Since then, my name twin and I have gotten to know each other pretty well. Chris O’Leary NYC, as I call him, grew up in Rhode Island, then moved to New York, edits a kick ass beer blog and travels a TON for his job. You might have heard of him a couple of years ago. Remember that story about a guy that got on a flight from Cleveland to New York and found out he was the only passenger on the plane? The guy that took a selfie on that empty plane, watched the pic go viral and ended up talking about it on Good Morning America? That’s my guy, Chris O’Leary, NYC.

Over the last seven years we’ve found out we have a lot of little things in common (his dad’s name is Don, my dad’s name is Dan; I like beer, he loves it) but the biggest one is our love of the CFL.

Mine shouldn’t be that surprising, but Chris O’Leary NYC’s is.

It started, he says, when he moved to Burlington, Vermont, after college in 2004. Just a 75-minute drive to Montreal and with the Expos gone, the Alouettes were the closest option for him to see some live sports. His first trip up there was for a Friday night game against the Eskimos and he fell in love with the experience at Molson Stadium. He became a regular. He’d convince friends to go with him occasionally, but he was the only one that was all-in on it. His peak fandom moment came during a U.S. Thanksgiving family reunion in Florida in 2005, when he ducked out of dinner to watch his Als lose in double overtime to the Eskimos in the 93rd Grey Cup.

On some level, he remains haunted by that loss. He says that he sees more Esks gear out in NYC (at least two to three times a year) than any other CFL team.

With his favourite QB/offensive coordinator heading into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame last night, I promised Chris I’d sneak him a covert pic of Calvillo. I don’t like to toot my own horn, but I think I came through.

This is probably the weirdest thing I have going in my life, but I embrace it.