Sailor the Touchdown Dog and Frisbee Rob head for NFL halftime show in Atlanta
CALGARY -
It didn't take Sailor the Touchdown Dog long to make it to the show.
On October 23, at McMahon Stadium, Sailor – a border collie and greyhound mix – and Rob Macleod, aka Frisbee Rob, set a new record for the longest catch at a live sporting event: 109 yards.
It wasn't entirely out of the blue – Frisbee Rob has already set six Guinness World Records, so he clearly knows what he's doing.
And when the Stampeders posted a video of the greatest pitch-and-catch duo since Brady and Gronk, it didn't take for the world to discover the duo, either.
"That went huge on the Stampeder (web) page," Macleod said. Then ESPN added the video to their TikTok page, and it went viral.
"That's when people really started to pay attention," said Frisbee Rob. "It just went wild."
Next thing they knew, they were invited to play catch during halftime of an Atlanta Falcons game this Sunday, when the Falcons take on the Super Bowl champion Bucs, led by Brady and Gronk.
And while a new world record is always something lurking in the back of Macleod's mind, an NFL field like Atlanta's presents a few challenges.
"An NFL field is 10 yards shorter than a CFL field," Macleod said, "and so at the Stamps game, we ended up a yard short at the end zone – so our goal here is to go end zone to end zone."
"But it's also lower altitude in Atlanta than in Calgary," he added, "So the disk doesn't fly as far. I won't really know until the rehearsal Sunday."
Macleod knows it's a big step up in eyeballs to do an NFL halftime show, but he's taking it all in stride.
"Whether I succeed, whether I fail what does that really mean?" Macleod asked. "People just want to see a show up and try something and I think that's what it's all about."
As for Sailor, Macleod suspects he has a dog that feeds off a big crowd.
"Stampeders was really our first big crowd," he said, "And I think he ran faster. It seemed like he really fed off the energy. He was so focused on the disc."
McLeod says the fantastic Frisbee feats he executes with Sailor has given him a platform to encourage others.
"I just want to show people what's possible," he said.
And to draw attention to safety for those inclined to pick up a Frisbee themselves. "There's a lot of people that throw discs that are not dog safe," he said, "and so the most positive thing that's come out of this that I'd say is people knowing that there are dog discs and pointing them in the right direction."
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