Notre Dame crushed Navy Saturday morning, as expected, turning the "Emerald Isle Classic" in Dublin, Ireland, into a lopsided, 50-10 rout behind 293 yards rushing and a touchdown pass from redshirt freshman quarterback Everett Golson. But the breakout performance of the day clearly belonged to the… shall we say, enthusiastic gentleman who crashed the pitch in the third quarter and proceeded to dance a proper jig in the end zone.
From the reaction of CBS announcer Gary Danielson to the nonplussed security guard to the unusual decision to actually show the interruption on the live broadcast, the scene unfolded about as perfectly as it could have. The only thing missing was a tiny man dressed in a leprechaun outfit emerging from the goal post and showering the dancing man with clovers.
Actually, I am in no position to assess the authentic of said jig. But if this drunken interloper looks familiar, it's probably because he's the same drunken interloper who made the viral rounds earlier this year for making a series of drunken bird calls during a trophy presentation at the U.S. Open golf tournament in San Francisco. But that was only the most visible of his exploits: According to his website, 40-year-old James Andrew Dudley of Wallasey, United Kingdom, has shown up everywhere from Shakespearean productions to jazz festivals under the guise of "Jungle Bird," an attention-seeking persona he created in the name of spreading awareness for his cause, stopping deforestation. Today, in his own words, Dudley was attempting to "score a touchdown against KFC," a frequent target, by appearing on national television in a t-shirt that read "KFC – STOP Deforestation."
Somehow, I'm guessing that message failed to translate to most of the viewing audience. Maybe by the time he's finished with his next project – reading an open letter to KFC's CEO, David Novak, outside of 100 KFC restaurants worldwide – people will have finally woken up to the problem.
