johnzo

I'll always maintain that Coach Jones did a pretty freaking amazing job in 2018, squeezing twelve wins out of a 4-5 win roster. If he'd won COTY, I wouldn't have complained. But Jones the GM, hoo boy, he took a dump in the seed corn and then set it on fire. They're gonna be digging out there for awhile.

I don't think I've ever seen a Bomber who could ignite a rally like Jovon Johnson. Anything good that happened between 2008ish-2012ish, he was usually the guy sparking it.

ZC over Lulay is madness. How many games did Collaros even finish in 2018? Lulay isn't nearly what he used to be but he won some games last year without looking completely busted like Collaros did.

going back to Collaros is almost cruel. It's his business, of course, but all indications are that that guy's head is broken and he needs to be moving on to the next chapter. Good luck to him. I hope he doesn't wind up even more screwed up than he already is.

Manny is done.

If both Matthews and Adams are healthy, where do you line them up? Put em both at wideout, move one to the slot?

I don't think that Argos are particularly hot properties when it comes to endorsements. I think I saw James WIlder hawking insurance once...

Looking forward to Rod Black calling at least four more John Bowman retirement games.

Birmingham. San Antonio. Memphis. hmmm.

Wow, Moosehorn has a 1st Ave S and a 1st Ave N, but no 2nd or up. https://goo.gl/maps/wLBfqW5pkaK2 (when I get bored I just look at places on Google Maps. It's an amazing time we live in.) Think I spotted SF27's heritage house, but not sure.

Comparing modern kickers with pre-2005ish kickers is tricky -- the standards are so much higher now. that said, I'd like to see Medlock in the mix because Kennerd was just barely an average kicker even by the lower standards of his day. Westwood wasn't that great either. And both have some serious playoff stink on them. Can't be an all-timer if you're not clutch.

Cameron was huge in the 1988 Grey Cup. On a day when points were at a premium, when the wind was howling and our O was stalled badly, he repeatedly bailed out the team with field-flipping punts. Very rare that a punter is a difference-maker like that. He's like Stan Mikawos. He was as steady as the sun for a long time, he had a moment of title glory, and his work enabled his team to be great.

some guy in an Arsenault jersey bent on revenge.

My first impulse after Brown was Fleming because that guy was like a Terrance Edwards, a lonely legit CFL player who shone on some really really bad no-hope teams. But I think my non-Brown pick is Mikawos, he was a fixture during the glory days, especially in 1990 when our defence was freaking unreal. That doesn't happen without a real good push up the middle.

yeah, I see Riders fans from time to time around Seattle. Ran into a few of them at the hockey bar during the flying snowmobile grey cup. After they won I bought them a celebratory round (we'd been talking some **** all night, but in that friendly way) and then I told them that I would always call it the flying snowmobile grey cup because that's the only part of it I think is worth remembering. There is also a dude running around Seattle who wears a Loffler jersey, my wife has seen him 2x but I've never run across him.

Not likely. http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/10/irs-the-gop-propublica-budget-cuts-enforcement-billions.html

A podcast series about my hometown, murder bay. Sad, tragic, and infuriating. https://www.canadalandshow.com/shows/thunder-bay/

Those 25-yard endzones were so dope. Love those 30-yard TD passes from the 5. Check out 2:28:08 ... the Lions bite so hard on a fake to Reaves that Huffer bootlegs to the wide side for 18 yards! Reaves was in their heads that day. Couldn't stop him.

My favorite play is at 1:01:47 when the Lions finally go to the screen to slow down the Bomber pass rush -- but Aaron Brown has it scouted, he blows up the BC back, we recover the fumble and score the 14-0 touchdown with a minute to go in the half. Damn, this is a great game to watch. this video is cued to the the play in question.

not saying anything bad against Willard (or even against his kids) just saying that once the Reaves name was gold in Winnipeg, but now it's a heel name.

This game is against the Don Matthews / Roy DeWalt era Lions. They were the Stampeders of that era, a powerhouse team with great depth and zero weak points. BC Place was rough on visiting teams, with sellout crowds generating unprecedented noise and making Cal Murphy and Tom Clements sour in the media. From 1983-1987 the Lions were 60-23-1, losing the Grey Cup in 1983 and winning in 1985. We very rarely beat them. IMO we got kind of lucky during the 1984 Western Final because DeWalt was injured and he was the only guy the Lions couldn't easily replace. This game shows what the Bomber defence of the glory days could do at its absolute best. Ty Jones in particular was beasting and feasting. BC had -50 yards of net offence after the first quarter and -2 at the half. Tom Clements wasn't very sharp on the day but it didn't matter, our D was so dominant, Reaves hit the century mark by halftime, and Hufnagel had a real nice fourth quarter to get the save. If you're gonna vote in the all-time MBB team polls, watch this. Several all-timers and candidates here -- Jones, Poplawski, House, Cameron, Murphy, Boyd, Norman, Reaves ... weird to look back at a day when a Reaves wasn't a heel in Winnipeg...

yeah, nothing's more dull than watching a guy manufacture first downs in traffic

T. Jones was not a middle linebacker -- the Bombers played 3-4 in those days and Jones would usually line up outside and get at the QB, leaving the dirty work inside to guys like Delbert Fowler, James West, or Aaron Brown. I think you could make a case to list Jones as a DE, since that's where he was listed when he debuted in 1983 and even though he was rostered as a linebacker, he never really played as one -- he was there to get in the backfield and wreak havoc. Picking just four linebackers on this team is gonna be tough, but I think Leggett belongs in that conversation, even if he kinda plays a different position than guys like Greg Battle did.

I dunno who is going to go out to see the Seattle XFLers. It's a super bad week to announce a new team in Seattle, the NHL in Seattle announcement has been huge, bigger than I ever thought it would be. The only sports coverage I saw about the XFL was whether its schedule might bump any Sounders dates or force the Sounders to play on a field marked for gridiron.

Seeing my very first semi-big live show in a couple weeks -- the Pacific NW promotion Defy is doing a show called #onedge in Seattle and they're bringing in some Lucha Underground alums (Pentagon, Brian Cage, Shane Strickland, Jack Evans) and some guys I don't know yet (Chris Ridgeway from the UK, the American Gunz, Artemis Spencer, Schaf, Brody King) Totally stoked to see that lineup -- Chris Ridgeway looks like a vicious guy, a good match for Pentagon. A little bummed that they teased Rey Fenix in October but it turns out he's dinged up and on the shelf for the rest of the year. Fenix is awesome, my favorite luchador, a guy who moves like a cirque de soleil performer. Hey, here's a question for TUP: how long does it take for two seasoned pros to put together a match? Asking because both Pentagon and Chris Ridgeway are from out of town and they both look like they've got pretty busy schedules, so they might not have much time in town together before match time and yet they are headlining, so they gotta put together a match that's a big deal...