Professional football is a young man’s game. There ain’t no getting around that. When your average retiree is getting out of the game because of a failing body at around the age of just 30, if they’re lucky, that’s a fact you can be sure of. And like most things to do with boys-only culture and environments, playful jibes are as much a part of building camaraderie as mateship and leadership is.
So when the ageist barbs wear a little thin, even after you’ve retired, how do you get back at your old squad?
Former Essendon Bombers player Mark McVeigh has your answer. Putting together a crack team of Nan’s and hiring a really, really good special effects makeup artist, the man affectionately known as Spike transformed himself into a pretty believable looking Nanna in order to get his own back from some of the side’s current younger blokes.
Things get really good when Jason Winderlich – who was in on the joke – accidentally flattens poor old Mrs Spike Doubtfire (a completely rubbish name that thankfully was never spoken aloud, lest the ruse be immediately seen through).
Though there’s no denying that it’s a really, really well done prank, it still doesn’t hold a candle on the original, and the best, “Elite player puts on old person makeup to school unsuspecting young people” prank, in the form of NBA star Kyrie Irving‘s simply phenomenal character Uncle Drew – presented here in all three currently existing parts because it’s too darned good, and also because Happy Friday!
