Favourite and least favourite Bomber

[do or die]

22 minutes ago, Eternal optimist said:

Yeah, the 2001 Grey Cup stings sure, but my absolute least favorite player, ever? People are forgetting some of the good things he did:

1. He referred to Regina's faithful as "a bunch of banjo-pickin' inbreds", and followed it up by 'apologizing' with "... the vast majority of people in Saskatchewan have no idea how to play the Banjo", you could argue he basically invented the Banjo Bowl, which is awesome. Also this is still funny to me today.
2. He's #6 on all-time playoff scorers as of the 2017 record book (this is the most recent available on CFL's site).
3. He played his entire CFL career with Winnipeg, and stayed here, he was also born in Manitoba (Dauphin).

Would you honestly say you hate him more than the litany of terrible kickers our team fielded after him? Alexis Serna, Justin Palardy? DeAngelis? Between his last full year (2007) and now, the Bombers realistically had two stints of good kicking: (1) Hajrullahu's phenomenal rookie year and (2) The current Medlock era.

Is he gonna have a statue outside IGF anytime soon? Nope...but worst ever? Don't know about that...

Didn't hate him as a kicker.....more for taking the "insider" Sun gig, standing on his soapbox, after being benched by Berry (55% FG ave)

[Noeller]

9 minutes ago, do or die said:

Didn't hate him as a kicker.....more for taking the "insider" Sun gig, standing on his soapbox, after being benched by Berry (55% FG ave)

So, I'm fortunate to have been gifted a fresh batch of Bombers games on DVD that start in the 07 season. I had forgotten about this situation where Westwood cost us in the season opener against Edmonton, where we lost in OT because he missed a couple relative chip shots. Then the next game, which we won, was the new kicker and of course that's all the announcers are talking about. (Palardy, I think?) And they kept showing Westwood on the sideline....refusing to be anywhere near his teammates and not cheering for the new guy (or the team, in general). It was a really really interesting thing to watch that whole situation unfold...

[Eternal optimist]

1 hour ago, Noeller said:

So, I'm fortunate to have been gifted a fresh batch of Bombers games on DVD that start in the 07 season. I had forgotten about this situation where Westwood cost us in the season opener against Edmonton, where we lost in OT because he missed a couple relative chip shots. Then the next game, which we won, was the new kicker and of course that's all the announcers are talking about. (Palardy, I think?) And they kept showing Westwood on the sideline....refusing to be anywhere near his teammates and not cheering for the new guy (or the team, in general). It was a really really interesting thing to watch that whole situation unfold...

You are thinking of Rob Pikula. Pikula went 10/16 (62.5%) that year, Fleming replaced Westwood for punting with an average of 43.7 yards/kick. Both players were only marginally better than Westwood during his funk (Westwood's #'s were 20/33 (60.6%) for FG's and punting average of 56.7 yards/kick). Since Westwood was a Canadian and could handle both duties, I would argue he was the better fit..

Westwood also kicked the game-winning field-goal in the Eastern Semi-Final that year that sent Winnipeg to Toronto, where Glenn would unfortunately break his arm. It was a 20-yard chip shot mind you, but he did so while ailing from a hamstring injury.

As for being a team guy, I'll concede on that point, he always added to any circus going on off the field. That said, in '07, Westwood was 18 years into his career and got benched after one bad game. Not only that, the guy who replaced him (Pikula) struggled immediately, going 1/2 in his first game.

[Pete Catan's Ghost]

Favourite - 1) Pete Catan 2) Willard Reaves 3) Eugene Goodlow

Least - 1) Tim Burke 2) Greg Marshall, 3) White Zombie

[bigg jay]

Favorite: Mike Sellers

Least: Nate Davis... would easily be Durant had he suited up for even one game.

[Mark H.]

9 hours ago, Eternal optimist said:

Yeah, the 2001 Grey Cup stings sure, but my absolute least favorite player, ever? People are forgetting some of the good things he did:

1. He referred to Regina's faithful as "a bunch of banjo-pickin' inbreds", and followed it up by 'apologizing' with "... the vast majority of people in Saskatchewan have no idea how to play the Banjo", you could argue he basically invented the Banjo Bowl, which is awesome. Also this is still funny to me today.
2. He's #6 on all-time playoff scorers as of the 2017 record book (this is the most recent available on CFL's site).
3. He played his entire CFL career with Winnipeg, and stayed here, he was also born in Manitoba (Dauphin).

Would you honestly say you hate him more than the litany of terrible kickers our team fielded after him? Alexis Serna, Justin Palardy? DeAngelis? Between his last full year (2007) and now, the Bombers realistically had two stints of good kicking: (1) Hajrullahu's phenomenal rookie year and (2) The current Medlock era.

Is he gonna have a statue outside IGF anytime soon? Nope...but worst ever? Don't know about that...

I really can’t stand your positive attitude. 😀

[Nolby]

Least favorite-Mike Kelly

Favorite- either Charles Robert's or Milt

[BattleLevel]

Favourite- Greg Battle, Terrance Edwards, Bob Cameron, Eric Blount, Milt

Least Favourite - I don't have a really specific reason, but Brock Ralph always bugged me.  

[MOBomberFan]

1 hour ago, BattleLevel said:

Favourite- Greg Battle, Terrance Edwards, Bob Cameron, Eric Blount, Milt

Least Favourite - I don't have a really specific reason, but Brock Ralph always bugged me.  

Edwards was a blessing, we were lucky to have such a trooper.

And a sweep to Brock Ralph gets stopped for a 1 yard loss... again for the dozenth time

[SpeedFlex27]

On 2020-07-08 at 9:03 PM, Mark H. said:

I really can’t stand your positive attitude. 😀

Troy Westwood misses 3 out of 4 FG's in 2001 Grey Cup. He had a career 72.3% success rate as a kicker.  Justin Medlock is a career 86.5% CFL kicker. He played a long time & I always wondered why the team never drafted anyone to challenge him or even take his job. His majn claim to fame is naming a football game.  

[Brandon]

2 hours ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

Troy Westwood misses 3 out of 4 FG's in 2001 Grey Cup. He had a career 72.3% success rate as a kicker.  Justin Medlock is a career 86.5% CFL kicker. He played a long time & I always wondered why the team never drafted anyone to challenge him or even take his job. His majn claim to fame is naming a football game.  

Westwood is 5th all time for points by a place kicker and stayed with one team for nearly 20 years.

According to others this means he's an all time great 😁

[Tracker]

3 hours ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

Troy Westwood misses 3 out of 4 FG's in 2001 Grey Cup. He had a career 72.3% success rate as a kicker.  Justin Medlock is a career 86.5% CFL kicker. He played a long time & I always wondered why the team never drafted anyone to challenge him or even take his job. His majn claim to fame is naming a football game.  

This just might be the year Medlock is challenged by that guy from Quebec.

[SpeedFlex27]

41 minutes ago, Tracker said:

This just might be the year Medlock is challenged by that guy from Quebec.

He may be the long term replacement. Problem is if he is put on the PR he'd be snapped up. Don't know how the Bombers will handle that.

[Tracker]

5 minutes ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

He may be the long term replacement. Problem is if he is put on the PR he'd be snapped up. Don't know how the Bombers will handle that.

If he is not clearly better than Medlock, he might develop a painful hangnail or such that would sideline him for the season.

[SpeedFlex27]

On 2020-07-08 at 2:05 PM, Eternal optimist said:

You are thinking of Rob Pikula. Pikula went 10/16 (62.5%) that year, Fleming replaced Westwood for punting with an average of 43.7 yards/kick. Both players were only marginally better than Westwood during his funk (Westwood's #'s were 20/33 (60.6%) for FG's and punting average of 56.7 yards/kick). Since Westwood was a Canadian and could handle both duties, I would argue he was the better fit..

Westwood also kicked the game-winning field-goal in the Eastern Semi-Final that year that sent Winnipeg to Toronto, where Glenn would unfortunately break his arm. It was a 20-yard chip shot mind you, but he did so while ailing from a hamstring injury.

As for being a team guy, I'll concede on that point, he always added to any circus going on off the field. That said, in '07, Westwood was 18 years into his career and got benched after one bad game. Not only that, the guy who replaced him (Pikula) struggled immediately, going 1/2 in his first game.

Too bad his name wasn't Piluka & he was from Ponoka. Then the kicker would have been the Piluka from Ponoka. 

[SpeedFlex27]

1 hour ago, Tracker said:

If he is not clearly better than Medlock, he might develop a painful hangnail or such that would sideline him for the season.

I wonder if Tyler Crapigna is still bouncing around? 

[johnzo]

6 hours ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

Troy Westwood misses 3 out of 4 FG's in 2001 Grey Cup. He had a career 72.3% success rate as a kicker.

but that was pretty much what every CFL kicker kicked in those days.

my least favorite recent bomber is probably Dominic Picard during his second tour of duty.  it's not personal or anything, for all I know he is a total quality dude, but in 2015 the man could. not. snap. the. football. His snaps were a wobbly slow arcs that almost never hit the QB in their hands.  I wonder how much better our QBs would have been in 2015 if they'd been getting crisp snaps in the hands every time, and didn't have to take the fraction of a second to locate the ball before they got their eyes downfield.  Drove me crazy, it was like we were starting every play on the wrong foot.

Edited July 23, 2020 by johnzo

[Eternal optimist]

24 minutes ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

I wonder if Tyler Crapigna is still bouncing around? 

Timeline of his career, to-date

1. Stamps drafted him in 2014, didn't get into CFL really until 2015 when he was on Stamps PR.
2. Stamps traded him to Saskabush and a third round pick for Jerome Messam (wow, nice trade SSK) in 2015. Stamps also got a 5th-rounder in exchange.
3. ** Career highlight** Kicked game-winning field goal post at New Mosaic Stadium July 1, 2017.
4. Missed 2018 season, released by SSK
5. Cut in Argos 2019 training camp, but re-signed after Derek Brown performed poorly
6. Argos traded him to Als in exchange for Boris Bede.

Still under contract for 2020, I think? Who cares.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyler_Crapigna

[johnzo]

6 hours ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

Troy Westwood misses 3 out of 4 FG's in 2001 Grey Cup. He had a career 72.3% success rate as a kicker.  Justin Medlock is a career 86.5% CFL kicker. He played a long time & I always wondered why the team never drafted anyone to challenge him or even take his job. His majn claim to fame is naming a football game.  

ah yeah, I knew I wrote something specific about this before, this is from back in 2018:
 

Quote

 

70% was what a starting cfl kicker kicked in Westwood's era.  Paul Osbaldiston was career 72%, Mark McLoughlin 74%, Terry Baker 72%, Prefontaine 72%.  McCallum was a 70% kicker for the first decade of his career.

Something happened in 2006, suddenly the leading kickers were 80%+, and since 2011 we've had multiple 90%+ kickers every year.  This year (remember, wrote this in 2018) there were four, and Medlock just missed with 89.6%

It's amazing how much better kickers are now.  Maybe it's like goaltending, where the coaching got a lot better?

 

[SpeedFlex27]

9 minutes ago, johnzo said:

ah yeah, I knew I wrote something specific about this before, this is from back in 2018:
 

McCallum's improvement was easy. Going from the wind at Mosaic Stadium to the perfect conditions of a dome in BC. 

[Wanna-B-Fanboy]

On 2020-07-06 at 12:09 PM, Rod Black said:

Favourite, Ken Ploen. For all the reasons mentioned above. 
 

Least, Kerwin Bell. What kind of arrogant idiot chucks a ball to the ground and gets  It back in the nuts eh?

Obligatory gif:

 

Favourite: Blink, Big Bird, and Stegall- not in that order.

Worst bombers... those that quit on the team and think they are bigger than the Bombers...

Terence Jeffers-Harris and Nic Grigsby

[wbbfan]

A few at best border line but more realistically dirty guys like dave donaldson (i feel like he must have the team record for UR flags) kyries hebert, and brandon dyson (a shame as he had legit talent). 

A few guys that created sour notes especially on leaving, tj heath (as much for selfish play to the point of being a liability), korey banks, arland bruce, and for a mix of both groups brian clark. (loved his talent and work ethic but he did some real dirt bag stuff)

Some why are they still playing guys like ejiro kuale, hurl, and too many guys at the end of dave ritchies time here. 

Over hyped under achievers, wayne mcgarrity, incompleterson, kerwin bell, and way too many qbs to count. 

Overachievers and role players i loved watching play, geoff drover, wade miller, matt sheridan, 

Guys with under rated careers, harold nash, anthony marlbrough, brett macniel

Every one loves the greats like milt and blink etc So some random guys.

Westwood. I always thought he was a lousy kicker and a high strung player. Though i enjoyed him on 1290. 

Keith stokes was wildly entertaining but a selfish ass. 

Terrence edwards deserves all the blue and gold love in the world.

Kevin glenn always seemed to find a way to disappoint. 

I loved watching KD williams play, and elfrid payton as well (despite peytons various flaws) 

Especially loved mike sellers, he ruined watching FBs for me. I always hope we dig up another one and it just doesnt and wont happen. 

Especially dislike all the guys who gave up on the team. Guys who no showed while under contract with out a call, and the extremely talented / athletic guys who just didnt seem to want it bad enough. 

 

[Brandon]

It may be my fuzzy memories of being a young guy... but whenever I watched KD Williams play live it seemed like he continuously made big plays (sacks or tackles behind LOS) and the announcer going apeshit calling out his name each time.  Seemed like a big time and clutch player.

[HardCoreBlue]

On 2020-07-23 at 8:53 AM, BattleLevel said:

Favourite- Greg Battle, Terrance Edwards, Bob Cameron, Eric Blount, Milt

Least Favourite - I don't have a really specific reason, but Brock Ralph always bugged me.  

Brock Ralph great guy, great coach tho he is one of the coaches on my sons senior high school football team here in Edmonton. The Harry Ainlay Titans 2019 Alberta Senior Provincial Football Champions

[Stats Junkie]

My favourite is Joe Poplawski

A candidate for least favourite is Louie Sakoda. He wins the job to replace Alexis Serna then injures his calf one day prior to the game. Sakoda hides the injury from the team until game day at which point it is too late to replace him on the roster. The Blue Bombers wasted a valuable DI spot on him.