Raiders' rookie suffers wrath of Canadians for 'Winnipeg, Alberta' shirt
The NFL touched down in the fine city of Winnipeg on Wednesday to prepare for a preseason game between the Oakland Raiders and Green Bay Packers hosted at IG Field.
It’s the first time the NFL will play a game in Winnipeg, an attempt to build a larger fan base north of the border.
Well, the trip started off with a bit of a fumble for the Raiders.
Looks like @DanielCarlson38 and @AJCole90 are ready for 🇨🇦 pic.twitter.com/Is0m7MqoY3
— Oakland Raiders (@Raiders) August 21, 2019
Two Raiders players, Daniel Carlson and AJ Cole III, picked up some Winnipeg gear before the trip in an attempt to show some love for the city and their fans and Cole III quickly received his first Canadian geography lesson. His shirt features a Winnipeg skyline with the province ‘Alberta’ printed underneath. Nope!
The Twitter-verse spotted the misprint and poked fun at the rookie punter who has had a whirlwind rise to the big leagues, signing with the Raiders as an undrafted free agent on a tryout out of mini-camp in May.
We can probably chalk this up as a true rookie mistake.
The Winnipeg Blue Bombers had a great reply to original tweet, including a subtle dig at the Oakland organization that is scheduled to move to a new stadium in Las Vegas in 2020.
We can’t wait to visit you in Oakland, Nevada 😏
— WPG Blue Bombers (@Wpg_BlueBombers) August 22, 2019
In true Canadian fashion, the Blue Bombers followed up saying they would come bearing gifts for the Raiders. “We have a welcome gift for you, we didn’t want to ruin the surprise but… It’s t-shirts. A whole lot of new t-shirts.”
Cole III was eager to apologize and make light of the situation, throwing in a few geography jokes to go along with the light-hearted mishap.
apologies to the citizens of Winnipeg, Manitoba... just a kid from Atlanta, Florida playing football in Oakland, Nevada with a low geography IQ @Raiders https://t.co/oh0i2tJbNR
— AJ Cole III (@AJCole90) August 22, 2019
Cole was asked if he bought his misprinted shirt at a cheap flea market, and put the blame on Amazon "if amazon prime counts as a cheap flea market, guilty as charged lol."
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Winnipeg’s Mayor Brian Bowman even chimed in and welcomed both NFL teams to Canada, saying that Winnipeg and Alberta are both great places to visit.
It’s all good @AJCole90, Winnipeg and Alberta are BOTH cool places! Welcome to our city. We hope you and the other players from @Raiders & @packers enjoy your time in Canada. 🇨🇦 @NFL @TSN_Sports @doniveson @nenshi
— Mayor Brian Bowman (@Mayor_Bowman) August 22, 2019
Any publicity is good publicity at this point. Thursday’s game is still wildly undersold according to the Winnipeg Sun who estimate 20,000 people will attend, less than the last Blue Bomber game. Maybe fans think the game is in Alberta?
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