Dennehy looked up as his now-wife yelled 'Run, Brian!' Mr. Dennehy's bedroom, burst through the door and flipped on the light. 'I'm like, 'Oh, man, I could get arrested.' ' He pulled up to their place at around 2 a.m., sneaked into the garage and groped around in the dark for the house door. The game was on.One year early on when Mike Konesky was 'It,' he got confirmation, after midnight, that people were home at the house where two other players lived. Someone came up with an idea to revive the game for one month out of the year.Patrick Schultheis, then a first-year lawyer, drafted a 'Tag Participation Agreement,' which outlined the spirit of the game and the rules (no 'tag-backs,' or tagging the player who just tagged you). Tombari and the feeble finish to his tag career.

'I was 'It' for life.'Ībout eight years later, some of the group were gathered for a weekend when the topic turned to Mr. 'The whole thing was quite devastating,' says Mr. There wasn't enough time to tag someone else. But when he got there, the friend, tipped off by another player, was sitting in his parents' car with the doors locked. He plotted to tag a friend, who had gone home early that day. He was 'It' in 1982, heading into the last day of high school. 'But I got Joe.'It could have been worse for Mr. Tombari, whose wife was so startled she fell backward off the curb and tore a ligament in her knee.'I still feel bad about it,' says Father Raftis, who is now a priest in Montana. When the trunk was opened he leapt out and tagged Mr. You wouldn't believe what I just bought,' he said, as he led the two out to his car.What they didn't know was Sean Raftis, who was 'It,' had flown in from Seattle and was folded in the trunk of the Honda Accord. Tombari and his wife, then living in California, got a knock on the door from a friend. 'You're like a deer or elk in hunting season,' says Joe Tombari, a high-school teacher in Spokane, who sometimes locks the door of his classroom during off- periods and checks under his car before he gets near it.One February day in the mid-1990s, Mr.

Wives are enlisted as spies and assistants are ordered to bar players from the office. They form alliances and fly around the country. The last guy tagged stays 'It' for the year.That means players get tagged at work and in bed. There are no geographic restrictions and the game is live for But men in their 40s can't easily chase each other around the playground, at least not without making people nervous, so this tag has a twist. Much closer.The game they play is fundamentally the same as the schoolyard version: One player is 'It' until he tags someone else.

But because of a reunion, a contract and someone's unusual idea to stay in touch, tag keeps pulling them closer. Then they moved on-to college, careers, families and new cities. Dennehy and nine of his friends have spent the past 23 years locked in a game of 'Tag.'It started in high school when they spent their morning break dartingĪround the campus of Gonzaga Preparatory School in Spokane, Wash. Dennehy doesn't have a particular interest in corporate security. In his first week, he pulled aside a colleague to ask a question: How hard it is for a nonemployee to enter the building? What is the name of this movie, you ask? Yes, you guessed it: Tag.It Takes Planning, Caution to Avoid Being 'It'Ī group of friends has spent the past 23 years playing an elaborate game of 'tag.'Įarlier this month, Brian Dennehy started a new job as chief marketing officer of Nordstrom Inc. Apparently someone found the epic story of 30-year tag game so alluring that they decided to turn it into a movie-and now that movie, starring Jon Hamm, Hannibal Buress, and the guy who played Jason Bourne that one time, is heading to theaters. The game is still going, five years after the article, but things are about to reach a whole new level. 'I still feel bad about it,' says Father Raftis, who is now a priest in Montana. Tombari, whose wife was so startled she fell backward off the curb and tore a ligament in her knee. What they didn't know was Sean Raftis, who was 'it,' had flown in from Seattle and was folded in the trunk of the Honda Accord. You wouldn't believe what I just bought,' he said, as he led the two out to his car. The WSJ article is a heartwarming tale of adult companionship, dumb games, and anecdotes like this:

Tag movie official rules