A long time ago, I was sat in Wieden+Kennedy Portland, watching the Women’s World Cup with the NIKE team.
It was fun – we were all enjoying the match – when LTA [a legend at Wieden] said to me and the person I was sat next to, who I didn’t know …
“I’m surprised you’re sat next to each other”.
When I asked why, he said …
“Because of the teams you support”.
And that was the moment I discovered my sofa mate, Patrick, was a fucking Derby County supporter.
Worse still.
He was actually from Derby.
We both had the look of utter disgust on our faces.
Derby.
For fucks sake.
Anyway, despite his absolute shortcomings in football team, we got on and managed to show our maturity by rising above it.
I never saw Patrick again.
I was based in Shanghai and then he left Wieden.
That said, we stayed in touch via social media – especially when Forest were playing Derby – so a few weeks ago, when Patrick suggested we catch up and talk about what we think will happen in the league now COVID-19 is messing with everything, I was thrilled.
And while it had been a long time since I’d seen him and I continued to like him as a person, the fact is when you talk to a Derby County fan – even one based in the US – there are certain protocols to observe, which this photo from our zoom chat captures perfectly …
My favourite bit was how he responded to someone who asked how a conversation with a Forest and Derby fan had gone down ..,
MORTAL enemies!
But, given the testing time we’re in I’m willing to put that aside, for now.
That being said, Rob wasn’t even TRYING to make friends …
Another example of Forest getting one over the sheep.
Great chatting with you Patrick – while I doubt you’ll ever want to do it again, I hope we do.