Quote:
Originally Posted by cabletech94
Sounds like a story I need to hear!!!!
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I was roughly college aged and met up with some family at training camp in River Falls. My little cousin (about 12 years old at the time) wanted to get autographs, so we did the usual fan thing where we bombard the shuttle that dropped guys off at the dorms and the dining hall. Usually only ever got rando undrafted twats from that group.
Anyway, on the second day I went off with my cousin between practices while the rest of the fans were trying to do the same shuttle strategy. We were by ourselves, but then saw two dudes walking towards us on the sidewalk. And one of them was Moby Dick! Err I mean.... Tony Gonzalez!
So the kid runs forward and does the adorable little "Mr. Greene... want my Coke?" voice and asks for his autograph. Tony keeps walking. Ignores him. The kid asks again. Still nothing. The guy who was walking next to him must have been some nameless trainer or whatever who worked for the team, because he said, "Now, Tony... remember what Mr. Hunt said about being nicer to the fans?" Tony gave him a scowl and says, "Ok, kid. What do I sign?"
"Could you sign my two hats?" Tony goes, "I'm only doing one. Pick one." My cousin started stammering a bit, "Well, uh, I was hoping you could do both because one is for me and the other is for my family in..." "WHICH ONE, MAN?!!!"
The trainer dude softly goes, "Tony....." so Tony grabbed both hats, signed them, and shoved them back at my cousin. He speedwalks past us, and I decide to be a dick and call in a high pitched voice, "Mr. Gonzalez, could you sign my shirt?" and that's when he said, "Nah, just go **** yourself."
I thought it was hilarious at the time, but now after the years of reflecting on it coupled with the lack of hardware that Tony actually gave us compared to now, my memories of Tony with the Chiefs are just of him being a giant asshole for unnecessary reasons. I get how athletes don't want as many of their autographs floating around out there, but good lord... he was given two worn hats with a bunch of other signatures on it, most of them training camp fodder. If my 12 year old cousin wanted the signatures to sell as sports memorabilia, he had already totally ruined the value of those hats. It was pretty ****ing obvious he just wanted the signature as a memory so he could say he got Tony Gonzalez's ****ing autograph. And he was a goddamn dorky little kid. It wasn't like a creepy adult such as myself was trying to get the signatures.