TORONTO – Local commuter Jeff Saunders impressed passengers on a subway car when he abstained from holding the pole as the train came to a halt, sources reported last week.
As the subway decelerated, Saunders was seen standing in the middle of the car with his legs spread apart, and his hands on his hips, apparently “bracing himself.”
“He was looking around at everyone in the subway as he was struggling to stay upright, almost as if he was challenging us,” passenger Marek Eledon recounted. “It was intense.”
“A few stops back, I was standing right next to him, holding onto the pole, and he looked me straight in the eyes for a while, and then started chuckling to himself – I think it was because I was holding the pole.”
Once the subway stopped at Spadina station, Saunders exited the car while discreetly pumping his fist and muttering “yes!”
Friends of Saunders say that this is not the first time he has laughed in the face of momentum.
Former college roommate Eric Hearst recalls a similar incident a few months ago: “Man, this one time, we were on the bus, right, and, as usual, Jeff was standing in the middle of the aisle,
not holding the pole. The bus starts slowing down very suddenly, and he lost his balance
and fell to the floor. He stayed there, lying on the floor, for the rest of the trip. Then he took out a book and read it until we got off. He told me that he preferred reading lying down.”
Jason Perrin, a friend and teammate of Saunders’ on their university jacks team, told reporters that he has had enough of his friends exaggerated displays of manliness.
“Never once have I seen Jeff make physical contact with a support pole on the subway. One time I suggested he hold the pole because the bus wasn’t riding very smooth and he kept bumping into me. He started yelling at me saying, ‘You think this is a game? Eh? What do you think I am?’ I don’t know what that was all about.”
“He’s such an idiot,” Perrin continued. “You know, he doesn’t even wear a seatbelt. He says ‘seatbelts are for sissies’ and that if you can’t hold your own, then you deserve to get hurt.’ Unbelievable.”
Reporters caught up with Saunders at a downtown bus stop. When asked about his ‘macho’ behaviour, all he had to say was: “I look around here, you know, and I see all these sissies holding the poles…man, what a bunch of sissies.”
