“It just goes down in NLL lore that Bubba Durno tried to fight the emcee in the Colorado Game.”
This was the recent quote from Paul Dawson on a recent episode of the Back of the Bird podcast. He was referring to a game that occurred in 2010 between Paul’s Boston Blazers and the home Colorado Mammoth at the Pepsi Center.
After a scrum took place on the floor, fans were shocked to see that the in-arena Public Address announcer was nose to nose with one of the Blazers players. Fans were used to seeing players and maybe even the occasional coach get into some verbal battles, but a team staffer was a new one.
Check out the video below to hear Pauly’s recollection of the event, and some video of it happening.
The player involved was Jonathan “Bubba” Durno who played three seasons for the Blazers.
As Paul explains, the PA announcer (who was also an amateur wrestler) was stationed in the visitor penalty box, and Durno took exception to something being said. The two were separated by a penalty box attendant and eventually by the referees.
The Blazers would hold on to win that night in Colorado 9-7, paced by eight points from Paul’s brother Dan Dawson. Still live on the NLL Youtube page, the original video of the altercation has more than 20,000 views, though apparently it is age restricted.
It can be found below, so click on the “Watch on Youtube” link to watch the full video.
And make sure to check out the full episode with Joey Cupido, available on Youtube or wherever you get your podcasts.
The Mammoth fans have been through it all, but they might never see anything like the Durno incident ever again.
It was a legendary night in Colorado…