Former Houston linebacker Connor Barwin took out a newspaper ad this week to thank Texans' fans for supporting him during his four years in Houston. Only Barwin didn't just thank Texans fans, he also thanked Timothy the popcorn guy, Jaguars quarterback Blaine Gabbert and bread.
Why thank a popcorn guy? Why Gabbert? Who or what is bread? Barwin took some time recently to explain some of the most puzzling thank yous in his ad.
"Timothy the popcorn guy is an old man who randomly will be at any kind of small show in Houston," Barwin told USA Today. "He kind of walks around with this brown bag of popcorn and he's always sharing it with everybody."
As for thanking Gabbert, this one's a little more obvious, "This was just me trying to have some fun," Barwin said. "Obviously, he's my favorite quarterback in the NFL because I sacked him the most."
Four of Barwin's 19 career sacks came against Gabbert in one game, a 20-13 Houston win over Jacksonville in November 2011.
Barwin also thanked bread and cheesecake in his ad, but he wasn't thanking types of food, he was thanking actual people, who happened to be nicknamed bread and cheesecake. "Cheesecake is a person. He's a doorman at three or four different venues," Barwin said, before explaining bread. "A random buddy of mine... He got me involved in church summer league basketball. He always said if he had made it to the NBA, his nickname would have been white bread."
If Barwin, recently signed by the Eagles, ever leaves his new team, there will be a silver lining for the people of Philadelphia: they'll have a cool newspaper ad to look forward to.
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