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IT'S A FLATLANDERS' CHAMPIONSHIP GAME FOR THE AGES.
And I will be there next Sunday, Nov. 25, in Toronto -- Canada's centre of the universe -- to cover it.
In a pair of upsets on Sunday, our team defeated the Toronto club in our divisional final 19-9 in Toronto, even though our top player and quarterback suffered a broken arm and despite Toronto's insistence we would not score 10 points.
Our team was in first place in our division until the final week of the season, when Toronto took over. The week before this, we had beaten Montreal in the semifinal. On Sunday, we beat Toronto in the division final.Despite the broken arm to our No. 1 quarterback, that gets us into our first Canadian Football League championship game since 2001, when we lost to a team from Calgary when we should have won.
From a Canadian point of view, and certainly from mine, the most fascinating part of the Grey Cup on Sunday will be the two teams facing each other: the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and the Saskatchewan Roughriders.First, these two teams (and cities) are from the Canadian Prairies. They're among the two smallest major cities in the country. Winnipeg hasn't been to a Grey Cup since 2001, Saskatchewan hasn't been since 1997.
These are underdog cities with underdog, publicly-owned teams. They each beat privately-owned teams from much bigger metropolitan areas to advance to the championship game after years of failure.
The two cities where the teams are based -- Winnipeg and Regina -- are both economically depressed, blue-collar places that are often overlooked when it comes to the best of what Canada is, overshadowed by Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Ottawa, Calgary and Edmonton.
Regina and Winnipeg are Prairie burgs, nothing else, about 500 miles from each other, considered by the mainstream media and therefore a lot of Canadians as just places to bypass on their way east or west.
But these two places are so much alike that they have an annual Labour Day game that is celebrated by each place as an annual test of wills. Saskatchewan beat Winnipeg in Game 1 there, but Winnipeg won Game 2.
Now it comes down to Game 3, in Toronto. Saskatchewan's green and white vs. Winnipeg's blue and gold. I'm looking forward to being there.
Go WHATEVERPEG!
ReplyDeleteBOO Sasquatchewan
ReplyDeletehissssssss
What does the Mayor of Whaterverpeg have planned for your Birthday?
ReplyDeleteI am NOT cleaning up after another ticker-tape parade. Forget it!
I might as well waste some more space...
ReplyDeleteso what about them Jets?
Homo Get-a-F***-Life:
ReplyDeleteDon't you have something better to do, like take your son to school or something?
My car got crunched by a hit and run so-and-so while it was parked on the weekend so I have to report that to the cops and insurance people.
I have to pack.
I have to book a hotel room.
I have to work today even though I was scheduled off.
I will also have to cover our university team playing in the national final on Friday night in Toronto.
Let's see, what else...
The mayor hasn't told me what plans he has for my birthday.
See you next week.
Go Lions! (Oops.) OK, I'm rooting for Whateverpeg, too, especially since you got your car smooshed. I hope it's warm in T.O.
ReplyDeleteAndrea:
ReplyDeleteOh, I thought you were visiting to tell me you made a mistake and that it was ME who won the draw for one of your beautiful works...
Go Bombers Go!!!
Errr...I'm not supposed to cheer. Have to be objective and all that, dontcha know...
Watch for me on TV!!!
I'll be the guy getting champagne sprayed in my face in the Bomber dressing room after they win!!!
P.S. The Big Smoke is going to be Big and Smokey. It's supposed to be warm the next couple of days but cool off Thursday...
Ummm... Go team! Any team! It's cricket season here, which is always nice. Cricket is such a peaceful game, very refreshing after spending from March till September hearing of nothing but football. There's been an uproar lately about a football player called Ben Cousins, and his drug problem and stuff... and there's always footy players getting into drunken fights in clubs and stuff... cricketers don't behave like that! Except Shane Warne, but all he does is lead a dubious private life involving sex lines and women other than his wife. When I say "private life", well, it's obviously not that private since everybody knows about it. It was a figure of speech.
ReplyDeletedo
ReplyDeletehave
ReplyDeletea life!
ReplyDeleteYou are just too easy to annoy!
ReplyDeleteso nyeh!
ReplyDeleteHE, you have way too much time on your hands :)
ReplyDeleteHE:
ReplyDeleteHa Ha Ha!!! What a barrel of laughs!!!
Stace:
Thanks for injecting some sanity into this otherwise quirky soliloquy by Homer Escapeons from the Land Down Under of crickets, funny guys with white hats, etc.
I've been accused of many things, but sanity has never been one of them. Should I feel complimented or insulted? hehe
ReplyDeleteI'm a little jealous that you're going to this game. I wanted to go too, but I'll be in Cuba instead.
ReplyDeletesounds magnificent... i love an underdog! the win is so much better then!
ReplyDeletego bombers!!!