johnzo

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...

I love this whole ridiculous league of ours but I love the bombers the best. I love the Als because they play in an adorable stadium in a beautiful city. I love the allcaps because I lived in Ottawa for the death of the Rough Riders and the 15000 or so die hards who reliably showed up to watch a no-hope three-win team are true fans who deserve success. I love Toronto because the double blue is ******* sharp, and also if I don't love them who will? I love Hamilton because all the Ticats fans I have met in other CFL stadiums have been cool chill people. I respecr Saskatchewan because somehow they got a 12-win season out of a 4-win roster. And whenever I meet CFL fans in the USA, 3 out of 4 of them are roughies fans and they're usually cool. Haven't got much use for the Alberta teams, I guess, and BC is meh.

Since he was born in the USA, he's more like our Ben Cahoon. I remember how people used to ***** and moan that Cahoon wasn't really a non-import, back when he and Calvillo were killing us 3x yearly...

Here ya go!

Speaking of 1983, Youtube user Werner Miles has uploaded a bunch of 1983 CFL games, including our western final loss that year: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOkyALs3xT-LNvo0HaFDyFA/videos?pbjreload=10

September 24, 1983. My very first live Bomber game, with my mom and dad. I grew up in the wilds of Northern Ontario so being in a crowd of 25,000 roaring partisans was something new and amazing to me. We beat the green riders 50-19. It was a perfect time to board the bomber bus because Dieter Brock had been traded the week before and the team was finally evolving from contender to champion. Nickie Hall started and got a big cheer when he was introduced, but he got dinged up so Tom Clements finished. Willard Reaves ran completely wild, something around 175 yards. I remember vividly the giant flame that shot up out of the stands when the Roughriders scored. As an 11-year-old, I thought it was super cool, but as an old guy now I can't believe that was actually a thing that happened, it looked pretty dangerous. Since then I have been lots of places and seen lots of things, but I still feel like a little kid when the blue and gold take the field -- doesn't matter if it's Clements and T-Jones or Harris and Bighill or even Goltz and Muamba.

How do you know that it wasn't the video replay official who changed the call from lateral to incomplete pass? They don't announce when that guy helps out on a call.

Gotta say that the refcam was pretty cool today ... it's so easy to complain about missed calls, from the refcam you could see exactly why the hit wasn't called on the field. Tough to appreciate how chaotic and crowded the game is from the couch or even the stands..

Hmm .. Seattle to Calgary is a direct 2.5-hour flight... Looks like a 2-night saturday-monday stay, no good flights on Sunday....

Neufeld gets a semi HH for taking a shot at Edem right after Edem took that unpenalized crap shot at Wolitarsky on the sidelines. plus one for good intentions, but minus a bunch for costing us a field goal.

Some HH love for Darvin Adams -- he didn't stretch the field, but he had three second-down conversion catches, all of them in traffic.

yeah, by the 2018 CFL rules there have been lots lighter hits ruled to be RTP, so if the ref hadn't been blocked by the saskie OL, that would've been flagged for sure. Hope Bridge is okay. All bests to him.

that is not a flagship advertiser for a pre-kickoff spot in a playoff game