To boldly go where no Don has gone before
ADAM ROONEY can now claim to have boldly gone where no man has gone before. At least not in a Twitter exchange with Captain Kirk. For the Aberdeen striker, this has been a pretty surreal week.
A goal against St Johnstone on Wednesday night counted as Rooney’s regular fare. Less expected was becoming involved in a debate with Star Trek icon William Shatner about who had the biggest, erm, baubles.
To explain, both men were backing a campaign by Cahonas Scotland — a charity seeking to raise awareness of testicular and prostate cancer.
After Rooney Tweeted a picture of himself holding the Christmas decorations with the hashtag #CheckYerBawbells, Shatner responded by pointing out that his baubles — boasting the flags of the USA and Canada — were bigger.
From there, the back-and-forth of pictures and jibes descended into schoolboy humour that raised the profile of the charity as well as a laugh.
‘Obviously there was a bit of craic on Twitter and I don’t think anyone was as surprised as me when I saw I had a tweet from William Shatner trolling me,’ grinned Rooney. ‘But it’s all right, we’re mates now.
‘It raised a lot of awareness about a serious problem for a lot of fellas, so it’s great that it got as much publicity as it has. It’s a bit of craic, just a bit of a laugh and a joke between the two of us. I hope he sees it that way.
‘When he first started trolling me, I thought it was a parody account when I saw it. Then I clicked on it and saw it had twoand-a-half million followers and I thought: “Aw f***, I’ll have to get back at him here, I’m actually getting abuse!”
‘I wasn’t (a Trekkie) as a kid, I actually remember him more from The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. He was in an episode of that and I used to follow the show when I was a kid. But obviously everyone knows who he is, so me and Bill are mates now.
‘We’ll leave it as it is for now. But I’ll hopefully catch him one day at a game and we’ll have to settle it somewhere privately!’
The serious message behind the social media fun is one close to Rooney’s heart.
‘I actually have some family who suffer from the issue, so obviously the more awareness raised the better,’ he revealed. ‘But I don’t think I’ll be allowed to do it every day. ‘I was worried about the timing. We’re only allowed on Twitter 24 hours before and after a game, so I was thinking: “I’m not getting fined for it.” That’s why I had to settle it otherwise more pictures were coming out. ‘It was a bit strange all right, but a lot of the lads just found it funny that I held my own. I thought I’d get a bit of stick otherwise, so it’s great that it’s kind of gone viral and raised a lot of awareness for the campaign. They’re buzzing off it, so they’ll maybe hire me next year.’
It certainly didn’t distract Rooney from his primary focus. A firm, side-footed finish got the ball rolling in a 3-0 success at McDiarmid Park, providing a first goal since September for the 29-year-old Irishman.
After losing twice in a week against Rangers, Aberdeen have now recorded back-to-back wins to remain level on points with the Ibrox club in second place.
‘We’ve obviously had a bit of a tough spell there over the last month, when we haven’t performed as we normally do,’ admitted Rooney. ‘You go through spells every year. We’ve had runs of eight straight wins and five straight defeats.
‘We just have to make sure we stick together as a group, which we do, and have enough character in the team to make sure you come back.
‘We’ve always done that since I’ve been here, put runs of games together and that’s two clean sheets, two wins and that’s more like what we’re about, really.
‘I think over the years that’s what the fans have come to expect of us. Although at times we haven’t been brilliant, we always get the three points. We’ve another tough game coming up on Saturday (against Hibs), but we’ll take confidence into it.’
It is surely no coincidence the Pittodrie club’s form seems to have stabilised on the back on Derek McInnes ending weeks of speculation by turning down the chance to take over at Rangers.
‘People obviously jump on something like that, but as players in the dressing room we had tough games and we didn’t perform possibly like we could have done,’ said Rooney.
‘Throughout the season you go through spells and someone always looks for a reason for it. That’s why a lot of people linked it, but for us as a group we didn’t focus too much on that.
‘I think everyone at the club just wanted it to end, because every week someone was getting questioned on it when a lot of it was being driven from rumours.
‘It’s just something you have to deal with in football.
‘You’d rather have speculation because you’re doing well than no one getting a mention… or getting a Tweet off Bill.’