TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) – I feel I have found the common thread that ties all of humanity together.
A delayed flight is, without a doubt, one of the worst possible situations you can encounter while at the airport.
Typically, you are unable to plan for it. You may have to miss a connecting flight and you may have to miss your brother’s graduation, that 30th birthday party, the Thanksgiving holiday.
You may even miss your football game against the Carolina Panthers.
I am kidding. I am kidding.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers arrived in Charlotte, North Carolina, with about 12 hours, give or take, to spare before they had to face their division opponent for the second time this season. However, they did sit on the tarmac for hours before they switched planes in Tampa.
I am envisioning a collective groan spilling from the seats into the aisles of that plane, a plane with some serious mechanical problems. The players must have been annoyed or uncomfortable or itching to get to their destination.
Shockingly, Tristan Wirfs, the Buccaneers rookie offensive tackle, did not fit into any of those categories.
“It was funny,” said Wirfs. “I actually thought we were in the air for a while. I was watching a movie. We started taking off the first time and I did not know we had stopped. I thought we were in the air for like an hour and a half.”
I am laughing but I am definitely laughing with him.
The stirring of his teammates caused him to become curious.
“I was like, ‘Why is everyone standing up?’ I was like, ‘What is going on?’ It turned out we were still on the ground,” Wirfs said.
Which movie had been keeping Wirfs thoroughly entertained for about three hours on that stationary plane?
“Avengers: Endgame”
“I do not know why I picked that one,” he admitted. “The flight is only like an hour and 15 minutes. I would not even have gotten close to finishing it.”
He did finish it and, after some careful consideration, he thought he should have pressed play on a second movie.
“I should have started another movie,” Wirfs said with a smile, “if I had known we were going to be there for seven hours.”
