In this era of video conferencing, our personal lives can blend with our professions. You’ve been on Zoom calls where a child interrupts their parent. You’ve been on others where the dog won’t quit yapping, or a cat just… appears. Well, meet Neatsy (is that how you spell it, Jeff?), one of Jeff Van Gundy’s cats. He made his national TV debut in the fourth quarter of last night’s Clippers-Mavs tilt.
“Hey, Jeff, do we need to give your cat a mic for the rest of the game?” Play -by-play man, Ryan Ruocco asked.
After Van Gundy put the frisky feline away, he said that his broadcasting colleague, Mark Jackson, is afraid of cats. According to Van Gundy, Jackson came over early in the season to cover a game and would not enter the house until all the cats were away.
Van Gundy’s cat keeps the sports world’s unofficial animal week rolling. In case you missed it, it’s been quite a few days for all kinds of four legged creatures. During the Pac-12 Championship game between the Oregon State Beavers and the Colorado Buffaloes, Bill Walton literally broke down the matchup between actual Beavers and Buffaloes. And recently, NASCAR announced that they would bring on COVID sniffing dogs for their Cup race at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
I’m all for more animal cameos this week. Maybe Jack the Bulldog is with the Hoyas in Indianapolis too?