Months after sitting courtside for Lakers, Brodie the Goldendoodle on glass for Stanley Cup
Cliff Brush Jr. is a lifelong resident of South Florida and a diehard fan of the Florida Panthers.
With the team hosting Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals on Monday night, Brush knew he had to bite the bullet and pay for a seat on the glass at Amerant Bank Arena.
Brush didn't go alone. His internet-famous, 80-pound goldendoodle Brodie was there in his lap. And why wouldn't he be? Brodie has accompanied Brush to a number of sporting events, including courtside for the Knicks-Lakers game at Crypto.com Arena in January.
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“‘Wherever I go, Brodie goes’ is usually one of my rules," Brush said. "I do get a much more enjoyable and fun experience if he comes along, and he’d rather be with me than at home by himself.”
Even on a night as big as this one — the Panthers claimed the franchise's first Stanley Cup championship — the shaggy dog wearing noise-canceling earmuffs still garnered plenty of attention.Fans came down to pose for pictures and one of the Florida players banged on the glass to say hi.
"The guy that sat next to us, he texted his daughter, ‘I’m sitting next to a dog,’" Brush said. "She texted him back, ‘Any chance that it’s Brodie?’ She’s at a soccer camp and she FaceTimed us with like 10 of her friends and they were all freaking out.”
Brush said the social media accounts he shares with Brodie have around 15 million followers across all platforms, so such encounters aren't unusual for the pair.
"The people that were sitting behind us, it was an older couple that sent a picture to their daughters," Brush said. "And their daughters said that they follow us and love us, so [the couple was] happy to be involved and happy to have Brodie’s man bun obscure their view just a little bit.”
Brodie and Brush attended several Panthers playoff games this year in a suite belonging to Celsius Energy Drinks, a sponsor of the team and goldendoodle, but this was Brodie's first time in the front row. Brush said he was a very good boy.
Read more: Panthers defeat Oilers in Game 7 to win their first Stanley Cup title
“During the game when the action was kind of far away, he was more interested really in the people behind us," Brush said. "But as soon as we had action in front of our glass on our side of the rink, he was watching the puck go back and forth. It was really cute.
"And the whole arena counted down from 5 at the end of the game. Once the arena erupted I was bouncing him up and down, cheering the team on, so he was celebrating with everybody.”
And even during the biggest moment in Panthers history, some of the fans were more interested in the pooch.
“Once they won, everyone from the upper bowl swarmed down to the lower bowl aisles and we were blocked in for probably 30, 45 minutes," Brush said. "All the players’ families were walking out on the aisle literally right next to us, so there were tons of kids that were celebrating with their family on the ice but they were staring and looking at Brodie and asking for pictures with Brodie on the other side of the glass. So we kind of celebrated with the families.”
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
