Thanks for the best birthday ever, Winnipeg

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 06/10/2009 (5844 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

I’ve had a lot of birthdays in a lot of different places and done a lot of different things, but I take my hat off to my friends and the people in Winnipeg for making my 35th the most memorable one yet.

In Vancouver I had a surprise birthday party once where one of my friends gave me a can of wrapped Alphagetti. In Buffalo I once had a birthday dinner with an Italian family that I still haven’t properly digested, and in D.C. I once did the high-society thing complete with the stretch limo, the politicians and a roasted suckling pig with an apple jutting out of its mouth. But not only did this year’s celebration in Winnipeg exceed all of these evenings, it was not a birthday in the strictest of senses; it was a birthweek and it began on Monday eight days ago.

As I sat down in the final minutes preceding my weekly radio show, I was first given a gift and a card by one of our longest serving fans and most visible supporters. She gave me some cologne and deodorant — a subtle hint if there ever was one — and some dog treats which myself and my boy Sam have been fighting over ever since.

Before the hour-long show had concluded and while we were live on the air, Kim Babij from the Fabulous Blue Bomber show delivered a cupcake cake, with 35 cupcakes supporting a faux football field, which my co-host Glen January acutely observed was in the fashion of an American field, but delicious and outstanding nonetheless. After thanking all the callers who offered their salutations on the air and divvying up all the cupcakes to the first 30 fans in attendance, it was onwards and upwards to the real deal on Tuesday.

Practice for the most part was uneventful. When you have played ball for 13 years you really don’t have to worry about being taped to the goalposts any more or getting a shaving cream pie in the face, but apparently I do have to worry about singing telegrams. At the end of practice when we gathered together at midfield for our sendoff, “FiFi” the French maid interrupted the sermon and assailed me with velvet flowers and a rubber chicken, in reference to my nickname of ‘big bird.’

It was a drawn-out and lengthy embarrassment in front of my teammates and I now know I have none other than Jon Oosterhuis to thank and pay back in kind for this deed.

But by the time you get to your 35th big show it isn’t about the presents or gifts of humiliation anymore. It’s about spending time with the important people in your life and revelling in how they chose to spend this day with you — and I have to admit — this year was more special and creative than any I can recall. My girlfriend left me with specific instructions on that day to be ready to go by 6:30 in the evening. After last year’s limo ride and dinner I was thinking much along the same lines and when the doorbell rang, I was expecting a man in a chauffeur’s hat not a chef’s hat. Turns out she had contacted my favourite restaurant in Winnipeg, Bistro 7 º, and somehow convinced Chef Alexander Svenne to come to the house and prepare and serve me my favorite meal of ricotta and sage gnudi, followed by braised beef short ribs, vanilla crème brulee for dessert, and a bottle of champagne to wash it all down. That was the kind of thoughtful experience everybody should get a chance to enjoy in their lives.

On my way home from a drink with friends that evening, we happened to drive by the digital billboard close to Portage and Main and witness, once again, how my buddy Ace Burpee chose to raise the bar in terms of wishing me a good one. To this day I do not know where he gets the time or budget to pull this off, but birthday wishes were once again advertised very publicly all across the billboard and very much appreciated.

I would be remiss if I didn’t thank all the people who left good wishes on my Facebook wall and the friends and teammates that joined myself and another good friend at my home on Saturday night to celebrate without my neighbours even calling the police. Of course the week was all the more sweeter after our second win in a row Friday night, but either way, I’m extremely fortunate and blessed to be living and working in a city surrounded by some pretty incredible people.

Doug Brown, always a hard-hitting defensive lineman and frequently a hard-hitting columnist, appears Tuesdays in the Free Press.