Karma meet Bombers

I did not wear the orange jersey, other than when I received it, because first, New Era, who made the jersey, made a fantastic jersey for this, and secondly, the jersey color has a lot of significance to First Nations people and I dd not want to dilute its impact by wearing it for acting or around town.

The occasion for wearing it came up when we discussed the Labor Day game and decided we would wear them both. Kennedy to honor his family who went to residential schools and had their names changed there, and me to show support for him and others who went through the experience and to rebut those who say the residential school experience was not bad at all.

Of course, Kennedy threw me a curveball by asking me if it was possible to get some autographs from Zach Collaros and other Bombers – Willie Jefferson, Kenny Lawlor and Mike O’Shea. Kennedy wanted them to autograph his jersey and I contacted the Bombers before their first visit to Regina and did not get a reply but thought nothing of it – I have covered football teams on the road and sometimes getting such a request is easier said than done.

However, my cousin Camy Lynn, who is Cree/Saulteaux, makes beadwork and although I had never actually seen her work except in pictures, I asked her if she could do up four neck lanyards at a cost of $50 apiece so Kennedy could present them to the four Bombers as a thank you for the autographs.

I contacted the Bombers and told them what Kennedy had in mind and they suggested meeting the team at the Hotel Saskatchewan, leaving the jerseys for them to sign along with the lanyards. I was working a 14-hour shift on Saturday, but because it was important to Kennedy and since out of the two of us, I was the only one who had dealt with a CFL team on a professional basis, I agreed to forgo sleep to go with him.

My cousin was bringing the lanyards in on Saturday night so I told the Bombers, I would drop them off during my brief break and we did that, and I did the rest of my shift. We were told the Bombers would be leaving for the stadium at 2:45 pm and we picked up the jerseys at 3 from the Hotel Sask.

The problem was nobody had signed them. The team had said that due to monitoring of air conditions (the smoke from the forest fires made cancellation of the game a very real possibility) they didn’t get the jerseys signed. They take the lanyards though.

So we went to the game and got our next surprise. We go to Pil Country which is in the end zone, a standing room only place, and wanted to go to the bottom level so we would be easy to spot for my relatives and Kennedy’s grandchildren who were watching on TV.

However, the Riders were not allowing people in Bomber jerseys to go to the bottom level, either because of prior bad acts or it just didn’t look good for the home team to have visitors in the most visible part of the stadium.

We were not wearing blue though, we were wearing orange, the residential school survivor colors. We ended up in the second row of Pil Country with Bomber fans who told us that they were told only people with Saskatchewan addresses could go on the lower level. Uh, I have been back in Saskatchewan since 1989 and Kennedy has been living in Saskatchewan all of his life.

Between the Bombers stiffing Kennedy on the autographs while taking the lanyards, which cost us $200; and the Riders stiffing us on our usual place on the lower level, it was a weird place to be beside Bomber fans who wondered why we were wearing orange and we told them we were BC Lion fans still drunk from the night before.

Kennedy was rightfully ticked off and after the game, he asked me to ask the Bombers to send the lanyards back since they were intended as a thank you for the autographs but since no autographs were forthcoming even though they had a day to get them, Kennedy wanted to give the lanyards to some Elders instead,

The lanyards were amazing and well done and everyone I showed the lanyards or pictures of them were impressed, including Kennedy who said they were the best he had seen. I am very proud of my cousin whose work can be seen and she can be contacted at beasbycams on Instagram and Camry’s Bead Designs on Facebook.

I was ticked at the Riders and sent an email saying while I could understand not letting fans in blue jerseys on the bottom level, we were wearing orange and were honoring residential school survivors. I said the CFL has been attempting to build bridges to First Nations but to be refused to go to somewhere we had paid season ticket prices for because we wore orange jerseys made their outreach to First Nations seem like just a PR stunt.

To add insult to injury, a picture of us with Bomber fans was taken and apparently used by the Bombers to file a complaint about how their fans were denied the opportunity to go to the bottom level of Pil Country, which is the closet to the field and the one players are most likely to interact with.

A day after I sent the email, I got a reply from the Riders, apologizing for refusing us to the lower level, especially after I pointed out orange is not the same as blue, and inviting us to take part in a pre-game on-field experience for the September 15 game against the Elk. We accepted and now await the return of the lanyards so we can give them to someone who will appreciate them.

So how about that game?

I thought at the start of the year the exhibition game the Riders played against the Bombers, Labor Day game would be the measuring stick of whether the Riders would be contenders or whether they would have to blow the whole thing up at the end of the year. The Bombers have owned the Riders for about three years and the Riders needed to be more than competitive with the Bombers, they needed to show the Bombers they were not in the Riders’ heads anymore.

The Bombers have back-to-back Grey Cups, but not a three-peat, and there have been signs the window may be closing on their run. The first sign came when the Lions beat the Bombers 30-6 in Winnipeg, something the Bomber fans said shocked them. Listening to the Bomber fans, they were almost the embodiment of a great line former Rider defensive lineman Scott Schultz said of the BC Lions – they were fat and sassy and uh, entitled to what they seemed to feel were their entitlements, like offside calls, questionable behavior being ignored by the refs while playing the victim card when they felt wronged.

Let’s get the Pete Robertson incident out of the way. From where I was standing, I had no idea what had happened until I watched the replay of the game because they did not show the replay in the stadium. I did hear the beaking that had been going on all game between the two sides, and even Collaros was beaking off.

This does not excuse what Robertson did, which was stupid and selfish, but the dive by Collaros rivaled anything the Toronto Football Club would produce in MLS and his temper tantrum on the sidelines towards the officials just brought up this whole idea of entitlement by the Bombers. After 29 years with no Grey Cup, their win four years ago was kind of a sympathy pity thing, which made a great story with the concussion prone Collaros finally breaking through after choking with Hamilton.

Beating Hamilton again in the Grey Cup apparently made the team think they had a divine right to getting calls and winning all the time, at least until thank Jebus the Toronto Argonauts showed a younger and hungrier team will beat an older and complacent one in last year’s Grey Cup.

I am not taking anything away from Winnipeg, whether through better living through Andrew Harris’ chemist or just being more dedicated to playing a more physical style to run the ball and protect their quarterback, the Bombers earned their two Grey Cups.

However, teams do adapt and unless you adapt with them, teams will find that reputation alone is not enough to ensure victory. The Riders beat the Bombers with their third string quarterback, losing an offensive tackle and safety, and while the game was very entertaining, it should not have been that close.

The Bombers for some reason wanted to keep throwing deep, looking for the highlight reel, when the more realistic path to victory was going on the ground. Collaros had only completed five passes through three quarters which explains his hissy fit on the sideline. After a three-year run with two of the most outstanding players, he was not used to not getting his way.

Labor Day was a reversal of the last three years where the Bombers had won the psychological battle before the game had started. The Riders were not scared of the Bombers, or their reputation, or even their fans. Even if the Bombers win on Saturday in the rematch, it seems the Bomber reign of terror is ending.

The entitlement of the Bombers is best demonstrated by their treatment of Kennedy who requested autographs. Taking the lanyards, which were understood to be a thank you for the autographs, but not providing the autographs, is to my mind an incredibly arrogant gesture of entitlement.

For the most part, CFL players are incredibly humble and very good with fans. When the CFL held its fan week in Regina (a great idea to promote the league that was sadly discontinued) I met, shook hands and got autographs from Warren Moon, Mike Reilly and Anthony Calvillo. Moon was a gentleman; Reilly was a bit uncertain about this guy wearing a Rider practice jersey until I told him I admired his leadership and playing ability and it was not his fault he was playing for unappreciative teams. Calvillo was probably most leery of his reception in Regina, but he and I are both thyroid cancer survivors and when I told him that and how my Dad had died from anaplastic thyroid cancer, we compared notes on coping after our operations.

So, I have had good experiences with players who are not Riders, and that does not excuse the way the Bombers treated Kennedy. The Riders to their credit acknowledged their mistake and made good, and I hope the Bombers do the same, because karma has a way of catching up and biting you on the ass.

So, this week, we have Hamilton going to Ottawa. Hamilton is coming off a miserable performance against Toronto in the Labor Day game and this week Duke Williams, the receiver who set a record in Saskatchewan for drawing a penalty while in civilian clothes on the sideline last year, said he was out of it in Hamilton.

No one will deny Williams is a talented receiver, but he appears to be a bit of cancer in the locker room when he is not the star receiver or getting a lot of catches and yards. Hamilton was trying to make things easier for Bo Levi Mitchell by adding a target like Williams, but with Mitchell out for likely the season, Williams is no longer the go to guy and his behavior this week is just a sign Hamilton is imploding in the year they are playing host to the Grey Cup.

Ottawa on the other hand is on their third or fourth string quarterback but seem like more of a competitive team and perhaps the important word is team. – than Hamilton is right ow. Dustin Crum is a scrambling quarterback who can also throw for Ottawa and their defense, while not great on depth, at least has a system and purpose.

The news Williams will likely not play is just a sign, kind of like the iceberg before the Titanic hit it, that Hamilton’s season may be winding down. Ottawa strikes me as more of a team, even though they are likely less talented than Hamilton on paper, but then the game is played on artificial turf, not paper and for that reason, I think Ottawa wins this 26-23.

Montreal goes to Toronto and Cody Fajardo had an entertaining game against BC, but then his penchant for throwing interceptions came to bite him at the end of the game. Many questioned my thinking Montreal was going to be competitive this year, and maybe I spotted them too much credit considering the uncertainty over whether Chad Kelly would be better than the real thing in Toronto.

Montreal must look at this game as a statement game. If they cannot hang, never mind beat the best team in the league, I suspect that Fajardo’s psyche will begin to lump Toronto in with Winnipeg as teams he cannot beat.

Fajardo has his moments, but he also has his brain farts which cost his team games and I think Montreal will be competitive with Toronto, but their lack of finish will haunt them in the end and Fajardo will do something, anything, to cost his team the game in the fourth quarter and Toronto will beat Montreal 30-24.

Calgary goes to Edmonton for the rematch of their battle of which is worse – dysentery or genital warts. Edmonton was on a two-game winning streak and should have won the Labor Day game, but Calgary pulled it off in the fourth quarter to win and perhaps end Edmonton’s faint hopes of catching Calgary and perhaps challenging for a crossover berth.

Jake Maier is perhaps the only starter to have played all the games for his team this year and while Maier is cursed with a receiving corps consisting of lepers, he does have a running game and not bad defense. Edmonton will attempt to give their fans the strange thrill of a two-game home winning streak, but I suspect Chris Jones’ Cinderella impersonation comes to an end with a 25-23 Calgary win over Edmonton, even though I would love an Edmonton win to keep both Alberta teams out of the playoffs.

Finally, we come to the rematch between the Riders and the Bombers, and I chuckle at the opening spread for the game and the feeling the Bombers will avenge their quarterback and the Labor Day game that was rightfully theirs.

Those expectations and entitlement mask the reality the Riders, especially their coaching staff, are playing for their jobs and wanting to put food on the table for yourself and your family is probably a more powerful motivation for winning than feeling entitled to winning.

I would expect to see the Riders do what they can to take advantage of an older, fatter offensive line and force Collaros out of the pocket where he feels most comfortable. The Bombers hopefully looked at the tape and think that perhaps this time they will run the ball more and pound the Riders into submission, which is what I would suggest, but never underestimate the impact of ego in a game like this.

Collaros’ snarky post-game interview once again played the victim card but ignored the fact Collaros was not moving the ball until the fourth when the safety got injured and the Bombers went deep, much like diarrhea. However, the Riders refused to follow the Bomber script by allowing them to tie the game in overtime and while the Bombes will make noises about righting the wrong of Labor Day, they may find that like Putin in Russia, just because you feel entitled to something, does not mean someone else will give it to you.

The Riders have been a pleasant surprise the last two weeks, with Jake Dolegala coming in and apparently the playbook is being loosened up for him to use plays he really likes. Dolegala is an inconsistent passer, but he has something the Rider players are responding to and here is an interesting stat.

The Riders last two games, against two of the top three teams in the CFL, the Riders are averaging over 30 points a game. Maybe part of that is due to BC and Winnipeg not respecting the Riders, but the coaching staff may be saving their jobs by tooling the offense to take best advantage of the talents of its quarterback and receiving corps.

They say stats don’t lie and I think Winnipeg will fool themselves that the head butt was why the Bombers lost and ignore the schematic defense the Riders ran that flustered Collaros. If the Bombers think the suspension of Pete Robertson will ensure their victory, they obviously did not look closely at the film.

I always like to look at trends and I can’t help but ponder what is going on with the Riders averaging over 30 points a game in the last two games with Dolegala starting. If the Bombes blow the Riders out, that would not be a surprise, but I think karma will make the Bombers pay for stiffing James Kennedy and the Riders will win 30-25.