After the 2011 Grey Cup I swore I'd never go to another CFL game ever again.
When the Bombers lost to Saskatchewan at the Banjo Bowl this year I couldn't stop laughing at what I thought was the dumbest decision made in the history of pro sports. My brother, who is still a Bomber fan, threw something at me. I guess he didn't think it was funny.
When I was a kid my dad had season tickets behind the visitor's bench in the front row on the 45 yard line. I'm old enough that I got to see Warren Moon play live as he destroyed the Bombers, and the fans were denied a free meal at 'The Old Spaghetti Factory".
Ray Jauch was the coach and he lived down the street on Assiniboine. His son went to the same school I did, and he was very nice and new everyone.
My favourite player was Dieter Brock, who would wind up starting for the LA Rams of the NFL before being forced to retire due to injury. Before leaving the CFL, the Bombers traded him to Hamilton for another Bomber legend and favourite player of mine, #2, Tom Clements (Brock wore 5)
When the Bombers played the Ticats in the Grey Cup that year, a lot of people in town had "Brock Buster" t-shirts with his old number 5 in a crossed out circle. It was awesome when the Bombers won to capture the Grey Cup for the first time in a long time.
Other favourite players of mine growing up were, Willard Reaves (38), Tyrone Jones (35, I met him), Trevor Kennard (3, met him too), Bob Cameron (6, played forever), James Murphy (21), James 'wild' West (58), Chris Walby (63), and Rick House (31), among others.
I used to join in with the drunks (at the time I didn't know they were drunk, they just got rowdier in the second half, after consuming a lot of beer) as we hurled insult after insult on the visiting team. It's probably the reason I'm still such a lippy/sarcastic person.
One of the most memorable games I went to was the game where Matt Dunigan threw for over 700 yards to set a league record. It was a fluke that I was there because my dad didn't have the season tickets anymore and we all had just sort of stopped going to the games and caring about the team.
We sat in the really cheap seats in the end zone, and bumped into my grade 6 teacher, Mrs. Gunther, who was happy that a former student had said hello to her. We were young and wasted and the experience seemed surreal. It was almost like we were watching someone play techmo bowl. It didn't seem like we were watching a real game. There was just no way someone could pass for that many yards in a real, single game.
It was funny that the subject of the Dunigan game up while I was at the game on Saturday. Even stranger was the person who was talking about it. Craig Hodginson was someone that I had gone to high school with and hadn't seen or talked to, in over a decade.
Out of the 25, 426 (I can't auto fail my blog) people watching a game where the 4-11 Bombers were defeated by the (whatever Calgary's record is, I don't have time to look it up right now), to eliminate the Bombers from the post season, I thought it was pretty funny that I would bump into "Hodgy", as he had been called in high school, way back in 1994.
Now 'Hodgy" (I won't refer to him as that in my article for class) is all grown up. He's married, has two kids and is a physical therapist. He also gave me a super awesome story (thank you so much Hodgy/Universe)
It certainly was a coincidence, but not the biggest coincidence I've ever had. That took place in 2008 in Korea at a baseball game with my parents who were visiting from Canada. Before the game we went to Burger King for lunch and after we were done my dad stepped outside to have a cigarette. I sat at the table with my mom as she finished her meal.
My dad turned and started to talk to someone. The funny thing was I knew the person he was talking to, but hadn't seen or talked to him in at least 6 years. It was Norm, someone I had gone to University with and that I knew was also in Korea, working as an English teacher. I just hadn't seen him in the 6 months I had been there. I thought it was funny that this was how I met him and he was the first person my dad chose to speak to going to a baseball game in Korea. (Norm was happy to talk to my dad because my dad had a goldeye hat on and Norm recognized a little piece of home. It was actually funny to hear Norm tell it from his point of view. He was on his way to a baseball game when an old man asked him a question. He recognized the hat and started to talk to him. At this point I came over and said hello.)
There was no way I could have known that Hodgy was going to be at the game. I did not pick where I was going to sit. My seat was chosen randomly and it could've been anyone who happened to sit a few rows back in the same section where Hodgy has shared season tickets with his dad and one of his friends for the last 15 years.
Small world.
I left for Korea in November of 2007 and I know for a fact that I have not seen or talked with him since. I'd lost all contact with Hodgy long before I left for Korea. We had never been all that close to begin with. We ran with different crowds in high school, and rarely would our crowds mix. In grade 12 we would sometimes hangout at the same party with friends of friends but that was about it.
The most direct contact I had with him was we were both on the soccer team in grade 12. We were also the two fastest beer chuggers at our school, and we had a lot of good drinkers who were very competitive. Hodgy was the undisputed champ and had never been beaten until I beat him at a party after the grad car wash. We had a rematch and he got his title back but for a brief moment I was the champ. In University we both competed on the same beer olympics team placing second in the competition, but by that time I had lost my touch and could no longer chug a beer in under 3 seconds like I could in high school. Back then my time was about 2.3 seconds to chug a beer. Damn I was fast.
Oh, I think I was supposed to write about why I swore that I was never going to go to a CFL game ever again, after the 2011 Grey Cup. It wasn't because the Bombers lost, it was because I couldn't even watch it.
The CFL does not care about its fans if they live outside of North America. They do not stream or provide any access to games for people who live there.
In 2007, the first time I was in Korea, I was able to watch the Bombers lose the Grey Cup game live by paying 10 buck to stream it online. In 2011, this was not possible. I sent the league an E-mail asking them about this but they never got back to me. They even got rid of all of the illegal feeds making it impossible to watch the game.
*Oh, I did eat while I was at the game but I didn't try anything new. I was really looking forward to having a big pretzel but I was very disappointed. For 5 dollars all I got was a cold piece of bread with lots of salt on it. I didn't even finish it. After that I bought something for 5 dollars and thought I was going to be trying something new. I'd never had a 'nip' before, but it turns out it's just another word for cheesburger.
Can anyone explain to me why they call it that?
Two thumbs down.
**Thanks for the free ticket, I guess. (I still would have liked to have watched the Grey Cup last year, even though we didn't win)
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