“..one of the big things about Covid, is that it’s really forced people to be innovative. With all this time spent inside, you have to think: when the world opens back up, what am I going to be doing? Because you don’t just come back from this the same way you were before.”
Last The Messenger checked in with eSports correspondent Connor Cunningham, 25, he was considering taking his rising Twitch stream eastward. Now, he’s at the 1-yard line – days away from teaching English as a second language for the next twelve months in the heart of South Korea.
Though first, it was high time to celebrate his boyhood-beloved football franchise’s Super Bowl LVI victory in a Seoul Quarantine Hotel.
“During halftime, it was 10 a.m. Monday morning here,” the Hauppauge native reflected. “I logged my temperature into an app (done twice a day, from February 11-to-February 21, per Covid guidelines) and just had to look and ask, ‘what is my life? How did I find myself in this situation?’”
The New York University graduate with sports media aspirations began teaching himself the “Hangul” language once accepted into EPIK (English Program in Korean) this October.
He inherited the Rams fandom family tradition from his father, Robert, who first gravitated to the since-returned-to-the-West-Coast team in the 1970s – inspired by the relationship between standout running back John Cappelletti and his Leukemia-stricken younger brother.
What sealed the deal: Cappelletti wore Robert’s lucky Number 22.
“My mom was born on the 22nd, I was born on the 22nd, Terminal 22 was where I went for my flight out of Dallas/Fortworth to (South) Korea; it’s followed us everywhere,” Connor said.
Robert was in attendance for the Rams-won 2000 Super Bowl. But now, in 2022, the father-son duo have finally attended a playoff victory together after bearing in-person witness to the Patriots defeat over the Rams a few Super Bowls ago, and a Mets 2015 World Series loss.
On-hand at Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium for the Rams’ round-one win over Arizona mere weeks before his departure date, Cunningham grew as humbled as he was ecstatic.
“At one point, they started playing the theme from (The South Korean Netflix series) Squid Game, and it snapped me back to reality: this is the last game of any team I like that I’m going to watch live for a very long time. Just tried to take it all in, and enjoy it as much as I could.”
Though he didn’t get to experience the win alongside a familiar assortment of family and friends, and amongst a feast of wings, nachos, and Branchinelli’s, Cunningham takes his unchosen fish cutlet, rice, pickle and corn cheese – “which is exactly what it sounds like” – in stride. He knows full well those he’s closest to are with him in spirit wherever the long and undefined road dares to take him next.
“I know Connor has been studying Korean culture for a while now, so I hope that getting to experience it firsthand will be a deeply rewarding experience,” said Chris Matteo, 25, one of Cunningham’s oldest friends from the neighborhood. “I’m sure he’ll learn a lot and come back from Korea a changed man with many stories to tell.”
With orientation week on the horizon following the completion of his 10-day quarantine this upcoming Monday, he already has plenty.
