Family wager reaches staggering proportions
In-laws’ double-or-nothing bet ends at 24,576 beers
Tim McMullen and his father, Herb, were on their way home to Calgary late Saturday night, soaked and chilled to the bone, having witnessed their beloved Stampeders’ win streak against the archrival Edmonton Eskimos come to an end.
Then the text messages started coming. “FINALLY!” one read. An exuberant stream of beer glass emojis followed. Tim sighed. His phone continued to vibrate as they drove through the rain back to Calgary.
It’s hard to let 24,576 bottles of beer slip through your fingers, but it’s possible.
On June 15, 2012, Tim, a 43-yearold service industry consultant in Calgary and his 47-year-old brother-in-law, Rich Sharpe, an oilpatch worker, wagered a six-pack of beer over a meaningless Canadian Football League pre-season game. Calgary won 20-17 and a forgettable game went into the ether. From there, a monster was born.
“We’ve (bet) before, but we’ve never done it for this many games,” said Sharpe, a Fort St. John, B.C., resident who came to Canada in 1990 as a member of the British military. He’s as much an Eskimos fan as the entire McMullen family is tied to the Stamps.
On Labour Day, September 2012, Sharpe weighed his options, shrugged and put it to Tim: Double or nothing? Tim accepted.
That day, Eskimos kicker Grant Shaw missed a 48-yard field goal attempt into a strong wind and the Stamps won 31-30. The six-pack doubled. Double or nothing again? Tim accepted. Four days later in Edmonton, Shaw lined up from 42 yards with the Esks down two with no time on the clock and thudded the ball off the upright.
“The nightmare continues,” Shaw said after that game.
As the beers-owing grew to 24, the nightmare was just beginning for Sharpe and the Eskimos.
“On and on it goes,” Tim said, laughing.
He laughs a lot when he recounts how quickly this snowballed.
“Because it’s just double or nothing, double or nothing, it kept going,” Sharpe said. “He’d remind me every time we played and let me know how many I actually owed.”
The Eskimos lost all three regular-season meetings with Calgary last year and were then decimated by the Stamps in the West Division final, extending Edmonton’s losing streak in the provincial rivalry to 13 straight games. Do the math and the numbers quickly get out of control. The Stampeders’ 16-7 win on Labour Day last week doubled the total from 12,288 to an astonishing 24,576.
“After a while, I just hoped he didn’t want all these beers,” Sharpe said. “Otherwise, we’d have to remortgage the house.”
During the last three seasons, the bet took on a life of its own. Friends and family knew about it and so did the row of season-ticket holders who sit around Sharpe and the McMullens.
When the McMullens were on their way up to Edmonton on Saturday, Tim sent Sharpe a text for laughs.
“I want to cash in. I want 24,576 beers and I want them cold,” Tim said. “He texts me back and says ‘You better get your Class 1 drivers’ license so you can drive a semi up here for the beer.’ He sends me a picture of a skid (pallet) of beer, which was stocked up. He said, ‘Right now, I owe you seven of these.’
“I’m thinking, ‘That’s a ton of beer. I’d be drinking three beers a day for the rest of my life. It’s never going to happen.’ ”
In the middle of the drive, almost 25,000 beers deep into the bet, Tim turned to his dad and said the unthinkable.
“I say, ‘You know what dad? I was born a Stamps fan, but I have a feeling Edmonton’s going to win today,’ ” Tim said. “He told me to get out of here and I said, ‘The bet comes to an end today. I guarantee you Edmonton wins.’ ”
A few wet hours later, the Eskimos 27-16 winners, Sharpe’s texts streaming in continued to break the silence of that long drive home.
“Honestly, I’m kind of sad that it’s over,” Tim said. “I could care less about the beers, but I mean everyone I work with knows about this bet. It had become a legendary thing in that sense.”
Back on even ground, Sharpe is hoping for a new streak and Tim is eager about a new bet.
“This will go on forever,” Tim said. “As long as we’re running around this Earth, we’ll always have a six-pack going on (the game).”