WASHINGTON, March 12 (UPI) -- White House spokesman Robert Gibbs began Friday's briefing in a Canadian hockey jersey, payment for bets on the gold medal U.S.-Canada Olympic hockey tilts.
"I am a little warm," Gibbs said, who lost a double-or-nothing wager with Dimitri Soudas, prime minister Stephen Harper's spokesman, on the Olympic hockey finals for men and women, Canwest News Service reported.
At first, Gibbs pledged to wear a Canadian jersey -- his name stitched on the back -- during an off-camera briefing after picking (wrongly) the U.S. women's hockey team to take the gold during the recently concluded Winter Games in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Gibbs upped the ante, saying he'd wear the jersey for the first 15 minutes of an on-camera media briefing if the Canadian men's team upended the U.S. team in the hockey finals.
At the briefing, the press secretary modeled the sweater, turning around so the media representatives could catch the 39, the same number worn by Team USA goalie Ryan Miller. Gibbs eventually removed the Canadian jersey to reveal a Team USA jersey.
The Gibbs-Soudas wager was a side bet to the action between U.S President Barack Obama and Harper, with Obama promising to buy Harper a case of 24 Molson Canadian beer, Canwest said. Gibbs said Obama fulfilled his bet Friday -- and also sent a case of Yuengling beer from America's oldest brewery in Pennsylvania.
