MELBOURNE, Australia \u2013 You never know who you\u2019ll meet when you plop down on a couch to watch NFL football.<\/p>\n
Thursday, I met Cliff Riley. He is 99, which was unbeknownst to me at our casual meet-and-greet.<\/p>\n
He is fascinating. \u00a0He has his own Wikipedia page. He served in World War II. His mom lived to 112. He played Australian Rules football and cricket at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, site of the 49ers\u2019 season opener against the Los Angeles Rams in the NFL\u2019s first regular-season visit.<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t know anything about Riley as I took a neighboring seat to watch the NFL season opener between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots, which finished up on a screen above a fireplace inside the Commonwealth Golf Club.<\/p>\n
We got introduced. I immediately stood up to shake his hand. Sure, use proper manners, but this man\u2019s friendly smile also oozed a well-lived and respected life.<\/p>\n
The 49ers\u2019 playing at the MCG came up in conversation, and whereas 100,000-plus fans are expected for the NFL debut here, Riley offered a unique perspective. He joked about what it was like playing cricket and footie in such a big, historic venue before sparse crowds.<\/p>\n
There wasn\u2019t much time to learn more about him. Ol\u2019 Cliff had a tee time to fulfill, and off he went. But we ran into each other a few minutes later down by the pro shop.<\/p>\n
\u201cG\u2019day. Have fun, will you,\u201d said Riley, reinforcing what pretty much has been my life motto.<\/p>\n
Crossing paths with such a beacon of light is something to appreciate, even more so than a dawn-patrol round of golf with colleagues and sinking a birdie putt on the penultimate hole.<\/p>\n
One of our hosts, Trevor Harvey, told me his father used to sell newspapers at the MCG when American military (Marines, U.S. Army Air Forces) were housed there during World War II in 1942-43. The troops would buy all the newspapers so that his father, Bruce, could pick up food for them in town.<\/p>\n
Trevor later filled us in on Riley\u2019s life and his upcoming centennial. In his honor, I\u2019ll say I shot a 99 on my scorecard, give or take a few balls that got lost amid the cockatoos.<\/p>\n
FIREFIGHTER KINDNESS<\/p>\n
Locals have been so chipper and nice. Example: The fire station next to my hotel does not sell T-shirts as memorabilia or for fundraising. But when I told Firefighter James that my son, Grant, was just starting classes at a U.S. fire academy, he rushed into the building and came out with a vintage Fire Rescue Victoria T-shirt for him.<\/p>\n
James is from Geelong and knows nothing about American football. Asked to pick between San Francisco and Los Angeles, he replied: \u201cSF.\u201d Even he knows better than to call it San Fran.<\/p>\n
INMAN-ABOUT-TOWN<\/p>\n
Just some quick observations before game time:<\/p>\n
\u2014 Game week officially has a Super Bowl vibe. The grounds surrounding the MSG certainly have the security and hospitality tents similar to the NFL\u2019s end-of-season banquet.<\/p>\n
\u2014 It shouldn\u2019t have been surprising to see an influx of 49ers, Rams and NFL fans on the eve of the game. But lines to enter the NFL\u2019s second-story pop-up store stretched a block in both directions \u2013 all to overpay for merchandise.<\/p>\n
\u2014 Sometimes it\u2019s OK not to rush into the heart of Melbourne\u2019s Central Business District. Needing a better table to type on this laptop, I searched for local caf\u00e9s and bars. Right around the corner was a spot with an A+ vibe \u2013 and no other patrons, which made for a chillaxing time, at a spot called Angry Dog.<\/p>\n
\u2014 Look both ways when crossing a street, especially in Australia with an opposite traffic flow to Tasman\u2019s.<\/p>\n
\u2014 The 49ers worked out an Aussie who has tried to switch sports from rugby league. Ben Te Kura is 6-foot-7, 269 pounds. This was announced by the team a day before its opener. Had it been earlier, this could have further bolstered the 49ers\u2019 global fan base.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MELBOURNE, Australia \u2013 You never know who you\u2019ll meet when you plop down on a couch to watch…","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":223,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"csco_display_header_overlay":false,"csco_singular_sidebar":"","csco_page_header_type":"","csco_page_load_nextpost":"","csco_post_video_location":[],"csco_post_video_location_hash":"","csco_post_video_url":"","csco_post_video_bg_start_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_end_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_volume":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[243,246,165,166,244,245,250,251,252,247,248,249,121],"class_list":["post-222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-49ers-hq","tag-bay-area","tag-california","tag-california-golf","tag-football","tag-inside-sports","tag-latest-headlines","tag-nfl","tag-san-francisco-49ers","tag-santa-clara","tag-santa-clara-county","tag-south-bay","tag-sports","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@fogolf\/117319875044657432","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}