TrueBlue4ever

Just curious, if you don't mind sharing, what is your annual salary (before taxes)?

Don’t blame him. I’ve been wanting to tell some select critics to f*ck off myself.

I am of the belief that the team chose to rest up down the stretch as much as anything. Their first round play would indicate that they are not “fundamentally broken” like the nay-sayers would proclaim. Pushing hard to 114 points last year left us worn out by round 3 last year. It didn’t do Tampa or Calgary any good to pile on the points in the regular season. I see no indication based on their play in this series that Maurice has “lost the room” or that we are being outclassed by our opponent. The series had been remarkably tight, as it should be for two teams that each had 99 points. And it isn’t over yet. People need to stop firing the coach after each individual loss in a 7 game series.

Big difference between Stanley Cup contender and “the guarantee” 4 years out. But that’s all anyone seems to see. We have SC caliber talent, but so do Tampa, Boston, Washington, Pittsburgh, Toronto, and now arguably NYI and Columbus (given their results in the first round) in the East, and Calgary, Nashville, Vegas in the West. San Jose, minus the goaltending woes no one saw at season’s start, have as much talent as anyone. And given their second half play, one could make an argument that St. Louis and Colorado have that caliber of talent too. And Dallas has the defence and goaltending that could carry them a long way. Point is, only one team can win - you don’t fire a coach just because you don’t make the conf. finals. 27 teams aren’t firing their coaches this year. We have not been outplayed in this series, we certainly have not had a lot of luck on our side. Even with talent, so much needs to happen to win a Cup. A lot more than a magazine article proclaiming it to be so a half decade ago.

Have to revise my hate meter (told you it was a constantly shifting scale). Removing my Tortarella hate for now. Dude has been very entertaining in these playoffs, even smiled after he got beer dumped on him during a game. Now, we’ll see if Oscar the grouch returns if they start losing, but I also saw that he took in an abused and neglected horse and nursed it back to health on his farm, and also has 3 rescue dogs he took in. Can’t hate on him anymore. That leaves me an extra hate point, which I will add to the Winnipeg Jets fans, specifically he “Fire Maurice” brigade who disappear after a win but come roaring back after a loss, no matter the circumstances. This kind of blind idiocy is why I avoid message boards for 24 hours after a loss.

This was the worst thing that happened to our fan base. Gave us completely unrealistic expectations. This team is not Cup or Bust yet. Firing Maurice right away because we lost to a hot goalie and a team that was tied with us in the standings will not propel us forward.

Season should be 80 games. 8 Divisions of 4 teams into 2 Conferences. 2 games against teams in opposite conf, 3 against same conf non-divisional opponents, and 4 against divisional opponents. One division champ and 4 wild cards. Season runs from October 1-March 31. Playoff games every other day alternating conferences until the finals, season done by May 31 at her latest. But yhat won’t happen either.

I am reminded of the movie “The Fugitive” where Tommy Lee Jones interviews the cop after the train crash: ”Care to revise your statement, sir?” ”What?” ”Do you want to change your bulls#it story, sir?”

Don’t judge a line by one shift, clearly.

Good thing Maurice did not split them up.

One man’s take: A very different position to judge in the 30’s-50’s era than today as run blocking and your two-way role on defence were so key as opposed to route running and catching on today’s role, and I won’t repeat the bios I posted. But Pitts was the best receiver of the group and was a two-way all-star multiple times, so he gets my vote. As my runner-up, Grant and Marquand were the receding leaders for the club when they each played, Funston was a key underrated cog in the dynasty years, and McCance’s 7 Cup appearances in 8 years will not be duplicated, but Jeff Nicklin earns my back-up spot for his play on the field (4 straight all-star nods) and his sacrifice off it. His bio says it all.

Bud Grant beat out Cal Murphy to be the all-time head coach. Murphy was voted in as GM.

NOTE: There will be 1 winner, but choose 2 players and the second place finisher will go into the run-off for the "5th receiver" position. NOTE #2: Some of these players careers pre-dated the keeping of stats, so please read the attached personal bios of each as well. Aside from Neill; Armstrong, all are Blue Bomber Hall of Fame members. Here are the bios: Stats will be broken down into receptions-yards-average-longest-TDs for the career, with the best single season total for each in parentheses with the corresponding year following the career numbers. CFL all-star nominations not awarded until 1962. Neill Armstrong – 44 gp in 3 seasons (1951, 53, 54), 122-2108-17.3-100-19 (56-1024-18.3-100-10 all in 1951), 2 time divisional all-star (1951, 53), led league in receiving yards in 1951, 1 Grey Cup appearance (1953), Wikipedia bio is limited, later would coach the Edmonton Eskimos Farrell Funston – 74 gp in 8 seasons (1959-66), 220-3749-17.0-75-32 (60 rec.-9 TDs both in 1963, 892 yds.-75 long both in 1961, 23.7 avg. in 1959), 2 time divisional all-star (1961, 63), 4 Grey Cup appearances (1959, 61, 62, 65), 3 time Grey Cup champion (1959, 61, 62), team nominee Most Outstanding Player (1963) Bio: https://www.bluebombers.com/2017/04/17/farrell-funston/ Bud Grant – 64 gp in 4 seasons (1953-56), 216-3200-14.8-62-13 (68 rec. in 1953, 970 yds.-15.4 avg. both in 1956, 62 long in 1954 and 1955, 5 TDs in 1953 and 1954), 3 time divisional all-star (1953, 54, 56), led league in receiving yards in 1953, 1 Grey Cup appearance (1953), CFL Hall of Fame (builder) Bio: https://www.bluebombers.com/2017/04/10/bud-grant/ Bud Korchak – 82 gp in 6 seasons (1949-54), 94-1572-16.7-xx-14 (34 rec.-7 TDs both in 1951, 551 yds. in 1952, 22.6 avg. in 1950), 3 time divisional all-star (1951 – 2nd team, 52, 53), 2 Grey Cup appearances (1950 ,53) Bio: https://www.bluebombers.com/2017/04/18/bud-korchak/ Bud Marquardt – 54 gp in 7 seasons (1935-41), no receiving stats available, 3 time divisional all-star (1937, 39, 40), 5 Grey Cup appearances (1935, 37-39, 41), 3 time Grey Cup champion (1935, 39 ,41) Bio: https://www.bluebombers.com/2017/04/10/bud-marquardt/ Ches McCance – 40 gp in 8 seasons (1937-43, 45), no receiving stats available, 2 time divisional all-star (1940, 41), 7 Grey Cup appearances (1937-39, 41-43, 45), 2 time Grey Cup champion (1939 ,41), CFL Hall of Fame Bio: https://www.bluebombers.com/2017/04/10/ches-mccance/ Jeff Nicklin – 54 gp in 7 seasons (1934-40), no receiving stats available, 4 time divisional all-star (1937-40), 4 Grey Cup appearances (1935, 37-39), 2 time Grey Cup champion (1935, 39) Bio: https://www.bluebombers.com/2016/11/11/lest-we-forget-the-jeff-nicklin-story/ Ernie Pitts – 194 gp in 13 seasons (1957-69), (NOTE –switched to defensive back in 1965, receiving numbers are from 1957-64, 66), 337-5525-16.4-107-54 (68 rec.-1126 yds.-16 TDs all in 1959, 21.2 avg.-107 long both in 1958), 6 time divisional all-star (1957, 59, 60, 65, 66, 68), led CFL in receiving yards in 1959, 6 Grey Cup appearances (1957-59, 61, 62, 65), 4 time Grey Cup champion (1958, 59, 61, 62) Bio: https://www.bluebombers.com/2017/04/25/ernie-pitts/

Laine had 5 goals and 7 assists in last year's playoffs. You are thinking of Ehlers, who still has never scored a playoff goal.

Hate meter is on high today - https://www.tsn.ca/tiger-wins-the-masters-for-15th-major-title-1.1290580 https://www.tsn.ca/americans-survive-finland-in-shootout-to-win-gold-after-controversial-ot-1.1290626 A Blues win tonight and I just may break every radio and TV in my house just to tune out the annoying analysis of it all.

I would have ranked Pitts as a strong contender for one of the top 3 wide receiver/alternate spots.

The Bombers never had a tight end earn a divisional or CFL all-star nod from 1968 to 1980 when the league tracked that position, and Paul Marlkle had only 900 career receiving yards and 80 catches in his 3 seasons with the Bombers from 1970-72. Don’t think he makes the cut when stacked up against the Tony Gabriel’s of that era. But I will say that the “end” position of the 1930’s-1960’s that was the pre-cursor to the tight end position did produce some talent (Pitts and Grant should rightfully be placed there instead of wide receiver, along with Jeff Nicklin, Neill Armstrong, and Bud Marquand). So I will acquiesce and add an “end/tight end” category as well, with one starter and a second choice who can compete in the generic “5th receiver” spot. Our offence will now have 14 men on the field (sounds like a ‘Rider game). If you feel Markle deserves to be among the candidates, tell me which slotback to remove, since the tight end of the 1970’s was closer to a pass catching slotback of the 1980’s than a run blocking end of the 1950’s.

We had season tickets on he east side and bought 2 more in the east temp seats. My dad and I used the good seats in the first half, and traded off with my brother and his friend for the second. The wind came right through the back of the bleachers and feet were exposed to the elements, the second half was a miserable experience by the end of it.

Bios and "one man's take" will be out for next week, for now just putting out a starting list to generate discussion and see if I missed anyone. But I can say Rick House was the slot opposite Poplawski, and our top Canadian 3 times and tops in the league once. Wilcox was our go-to slot in the 90's and a 4 time Most Outstanding Canadian on the team (winning the league wide award once and being runner-up another time), and he also put up the second or 3rd best single receiving year in Bomber history (behind Stegall's 2002 and James Murphy's 1986 year respectively). Edwards was known as "Baby Milt" and quietly had some of the highest career numbers a Bomber has ever put up. For wide receivers, James Murphy was the greatest receiver we ever had and the guy who held every club record before Milt came along. Bud Grant led the league 3 times in receiving before switching to head coach in the 1950's. Pitts and Nielsen were 1960's and early 70's stars with multiple all-star nods and team awards. Holmes was the leader of the receiving corps in the Brock era. Boyd played second fiddle to Murphy in the mid-80's, and Gordon was the understudy to Milt in 2000-01 before Bruce came in.

My initial take is definitely Stegall and Poplawski are locks at slotback, the third spot is an interesting battle between Edwards, House, and Wilcox. Diving into their stats may help with the ultimate choice. Murphy is locked in a one wide receiver spot, and some interesting candidates for the other position and the #3 runner-up. Pitts and Nielsen may pull ahead of a crowded second tier that includes Boyd, Gordon, Holmes, and Grant (factoring in their respective era-based successes). Older players will have less flashy numbers due to changes in the style of the passing game, so remind your self to consider their success against others of that same era. If I'm lucky I can get the bios done by the end of the weekend, but don't hold me to it. I'll do my best.

Leo Lewis and Charles Roberts are deservedly running away (no pun intended) with the poll, so it is time to move on to the receiving corps. I will split up the candidates into slotback and wide receiver categories, but as some were referred to as wingbacks (which morphed in to the slotback position) and flankers (which as best as I can tell was the original wide receiver position), I may inadvertently have put a receiver in the wrong category, so please alert me to any errors. Also, the CFL listed every all-star as a wide receiver (even Stegall, a career slotback), so my slotback list is pretty much from my memory, and wide receiver is my default where I wasn't sure. Regarding the list - to keep the candidate list from spinning out of control, I was going to limit the number of candidates in each category to 10. In fact, I came up with 9 slotbacks and 12 wide receivers, and chose not to include a further 7 receivers (all wideouts) due to the constraints of the list. I will tell you who I have omitted, and why (in my rationale anyway), so if you feel that one of the receivers on the omitted list (or someone else I have not mentioned at all) deserves to be on the final list, tell me, BUT tell me also who they should replace, because I am not making the candidates' pool bigger. And singular big moments do not equate to an all-time career, so Alfred Jackson and his 307 yard receiving game do not warrant inclusion on the candidate list My basis for initial inclusion was any receiver who is in the club's hall of fame, or had at least one CFL all-star nod in their career. I have left off a few receivers who did win the club's rookie of the year award - in those cases I felt their one good season was not enough to establish them as an all-time great. I hope no one will begrudge me leaving the likes of Mitch Running and Eric Guliford off the list because of that. So the ones I left off the list despite meeting the baseline criteria in some instances are: Derick Armstrong - only 2 seasons here, only one 1000+ season, and an acrimonious departure David Williams - chemistry with Dunigan, but only one decent year here, and did a lot more with the BC Lions, so not enough career mileage to warrant a nom Geroy Simon - accomplishments with other teams do not factor in, so his Hall of Fame career with BC is a moot point. He only topped 700 yards once in his 2 seasons here. Chris Matthews - rookie of the year, but his 1 & 1/3 seasons in Winnipeg were too brief compared to other candidates. NFL success not a factor to consider Albert Johnson III - his receiving numbers were pretty pedestrian and his time here limited, he was more of a return specialist (which already earned him a spot on the all-time team) Eugene Goodlow - hard to keep him off this list, but his phenomenal 1981 year (100 catches - first ever to do that, and 1494 yards with 15 TDs is brilliant) on its own does not get him into the conversation of all-time great based on lack of longevity. He basically had only that one year of stats (injured 5 games into the next season, had he finished out that year on the pace he was at, I probably would have added him to the list). Arland Bruce III - "Runako Reth" only had one 1000+ yard season and 2 years in Bomber colours, and his achievements elsewhere do not count. NOW, BEFORE YOU TELL ME STEGALL AND POPLAWSKI ARE WINNING THIS, SO DON'T BOTHER DEBATING - YOU WILL PICK THREE FROM EACH GROUP. With the advent of the 5 receiver set, I will take the top 2 slotbacks and top 2 wide receivers and place them on the team. The #3 choice at each position will go head-to-head in a subsequent run-off vote to be placed in the "5th receiver" spot. The slotbacks: Gerald Alphin, Terrance Edwards, Rick House, Gord Paterson, Joe Poplawski, Tom Scott, Milt Stegall, Jim Thorpe, Gerald Wilcox The wide receivers: Darvin Adams, Jeff Boyd, Clarence Denmark, Farrell Funston, Robert Gordon, Bud Grant, Mike Holmes, Bob LaRose, James Murphy, Ken Nielson, Ernie Pitts, Perry Tuttle

Merci beaucoup! Gave my blood pressure a workout for sure coming up with some of these. Great fun venting my spleen.

I know it. I would be content to see Toronto get a second NHL franchise so that "average" fans could actually cheer on a home team in person, rather than watching on TV while corporate meetings go on in the 200 level. The only problem is we'd have to hear how much better T.O. is than everyone else because we can support 2 teams, and my hate would rise even more. It's a vicious cycle. This is why you can't have nice things to play with, Hogtown!

Very kind of you. I tend to run on a bit. Thanks for your patient reading.