At Thursday night’s Australian Open match, Ash Barty bulldozed her way into the finals in a historic win against American Madison Keys.
However, Barty had the limelight stolen by an unsuspecting sporting legend in the crowd: former Australian cricket captain Steve Waugh.
TV cameras panned to Waugh and showed him tucking into an ice cream cone, licking his lips and giving a nod of approval.
The rough and tough sporting champ, who became known as the Ice Man in his playing days after coining the term “mental disintegration” to sledge opponents, let his guard down for a brief moment and the internet was flooded with hilarious reactions.
Sports reporter Steve Smith tweeted, “Steve Waugh spent several minutes mentally disintegrating that ice-cream before devouring it.”
AFL personality Titus O’Reilly chimed in saying, “Even eating an ice-cream, Steve Waugh looks intense.”
Many also made the connection to the famous Seinfeld episode that shows George Costanza devouring a messy ice cream sundae at the 1993 US Open, and TV cameras catching the whole feast.
Steve Waugh given the George Constanza treatment… spotted eating an ice cream at the #AusOpen @wwos #AusOpen2022 pic.twitter.com/8hD86klzZh
— Anthony Clark (@AnthonyClarkAU) January 27, 2022
How good Steve Waugh pulling a Costanza at the tennis pic.twitter.com/6vAcb3ue3z
— James Lamb (@James_M_Lamb) January 27, 2022
Today host Karl Stefanovic was left in stitches after seeing Waugh’s sweet treat, breaking out in laughter on the morning show.
Karl said in empathy, “Having been at an NRL match and had 400 shots of me on the coverage eating pies, I kind of get it.”
Image credits: Channel Nine – Australian Open
This article first appeared on OverSixty.