Chillin' Wit' Dan McQuade: Blogger sparked Cosby firestorm
His YouTube video of comedian Hannibal Buress went viral. He spends Sunday sipping Jack & Coke at Locust Rendezvous before Eagles game.
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FOR PRETTY MUCH all his 31 years, Philly hometown boy and news-blogger extraordinaire Dan McQuade has spent football-season Sundays in just about the same way.
As a kid, the Far Northeast native would go to church with his parents like any good Catholic Philadelphian, then they'd grab breakfast somewhere and head home to watch football on TV.
This Sunday isn't much different. McQuade, whose primary gig is news blogging for Philadelphia magazine, dons his kelly-green throwback Eagles jacket and heads out of his Center City apartment to brunch at Little Pete's on 17th Street with friends (they're planning to eat there every Sunday until the legendary diner's impending closure, he says). Then he heads to nearby Locust Rendezvous for a quick drink ahead of the much-anticipated Eagles-Seahawks game.
Sipping on a Jack-and-Coke, McQuade reflects on an October posting of his that propelled the Bill Cosby sexual-assault-accusations story into the national spotlight. The magazine's website carried McQuade's video and story of comedian Hannibal Buress dissing Cosby during a show at the Trocadero.
Because the allegations first surfaced almost a decade ago, McQuade says, he didn't expect his post on Buress' Cosby punch line to go viral.
"I think it's funny, you know, I didn't spend any time on this. I just recorded a comedy bit and then wrote about it the following day, and it's like my most-read story of the year," he says.
The Cosby bit isn't McQuade's only brush with Philly's special breed of journalistic fame: He fondly recalls a sidesplittingly funny piece he wrote last year in which he mapped Rocky's run as it appears in the montage during Rocky II - which turned out to be a 30.6-mile trek crisscrossing the city, and spurred the city's first Rocky 50K race. This weekend, McQuade says, he was excited to attend the second.
McQuade heads home to catch the Eagles game, but his prediction - a 31-17 win over the Seahawks - would turn out to be a little off.
"Sometimes I like watching it at home, because other Eagles fans can be annoying," jokes the Holy Ghost Prep and Penn grad, whose dad, Drew McQuade, is assistant sports editor at the Daily News. "Just watching at home, I only have myself to annoy me."
- Morgan Zalot