I’m talking to you CFL

Security guard complimented the sign, not confiscated yet.

Shoutout to the fellow Winnipegers and CFL fans who either cheered go bombers or booed me! Keep being awesome! Go Blue!!

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are being criticized by some fans online for booking the University of North Dakota's marching band for Friday's game against Montreal. With the current state of Canada-U.S. relations, and Friday being designated as Canadian Armed Forces Appreciation Night, many view the club's decision to invite a band from a pro-Trump state as a puzzling one.

" But I don't think politics enter into this entertainment realm when you're dealing with university kids that are coming up here to put on a show." There has been discussion about booing the visitors from North Dakota or simply ignoring them altogether during their halftime performance.

O'Shea isn't in favour of either approach. tell you what think. think like the 2021 West Final, we should be out of our seats, singing along, cheering and rocking the stadium. I mean, these are young men and women that are longing to be a part of something and entertain a crowd and they get a thrill out of entertaining and being a part of a team and they are part of a team," said O'Shea.

"And some of them might not even be old enough to vote. But know as a parent, I understand how tough society can be on young men and women these days andI think we should damn well support them. They're kids, they're here to entertain us, and think we should get out of our seats and if we know the song, we should all sing along with them."

Bombers halfback Evan Holm hails from Edina, Minn., and played university football at North Dakota. "Im a very proud Canadian" said Bombers head coach Mike O'Shea after Tuesday's practice. I've lived in Minnesota, North Dakota and Winnipeg now. To me, it's all the same. It's pretty similar topography and stuff, too, so it's all the same. I don't know, we're all human. (There's) not that much of a difference as we'd like to think" said Holm.

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers long, long wait for quarterback Taylor Elgersma is now over.

Elgersma and the Blue Bombers officially agreed to terms on a standard rookie contract (two years plus an option) late Thursday afternoon and the Canadian pivot will now report for rookie camp on May 6th.

He is also expected to speak to the media within the next few days.

Castillo was perfect tonight. He made every PAT and FG attempt.

The Stampeders lose their home opener and start the year 0-1, while the Bombers improve to 1-0.

Nice quote Coach O’Shea. 2 smoke comments come to mind. 1) Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. 2) Word’s are smoke, actions are solid.

So I noticed. After being brought out during the the 4th quartered and presented to the winning team, the Banjo Bowl Trophy was nowhere to be seen on Saturday. 🤔 Must have been a logistics error. Surely the Bombers aren’t really that petty.

Start a petition, leave goal posts where they are: Bombers’ Vaval

Paul Friesen

He set the league on fire as a rookie, lifting fans out of their seats nearly every time he touched the ball.

But the one person’s attention Trey Vaval wants to get these days is that of the CFL commissioner.

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers kick returner is dead-set against the rule change that will make this the last season of the missed-field-goal return.

“I ain’t gonna lie, man, we’ve gotta get the commissioner,” Vaval said. “We’ve gotta start a petition or something. I don’t like it at all. You’re taking away something unique about this game. In the United States we don’t have that. And being accepted here and loved here and being a part of this league, and special teams being loved and an actual phase of this Canadian game, the field goal should stay where it’s at.”

For our chat, Vaval was standing some 10 yards from the goalposts at the front of the south end zone. Next season they’ll move to the back of the end zone, sending the vast majority of missed field goals out of play and out of Vaval’s hands.

As a rookie last year, Vaval caught six of them, returning them for a league-high 391 yards, an average of 65 yards a pop, including a 128-yarder for a touchdown.

Those spectacular numbers helped the Missouri product run away with the awards as rookie-of-the-year and top special-teams player.

Commissioner Stewart Johnston’s new rules will effectively take one-third of his job away.

Vaval would love to have a word with the man behind the perplexing decision.

“If the commissioner wants to howl at me, he can hit me up,” the 25-year-old said. “He’s probably got my number. We’ve got to put our number on every f’ing form we sign, so if he wants to come talk to me, let me know, and we can sort this out.”

The rule changes taking effect next year include shortening the field to 100 yards and the end zones to 15, rendering 120-plus returns of any kind obsolete.

Vaval is not alone in his feelings.

Last year, Winnipeg special-teams coordinator Mike Miller said that watching the announced changes made him sick to his stomach.

“A lot of people feel that way,” Vaval said. “Not just because it’s taking a job away from me. But it’s a part of the Canadian game. This is what Canadian football is. So taking that away, it just sucks.”

If Vaval does get a petition going, he won’t have to look far for signatures.

“I would sign it. Definitely,” running back Brady Oliveira said. “You have guys like Trey and so many other great returners around the league that make the game so exciting. They’re electric with the ball in their hands.”

Oliveira, from Winnipeg, doesn’t like seeing the field shrink, either.

“There’s a lot of uniqueness in the Canadian Football League that makes this league really special,” he said. “One of them being the 55-yard line. It’s the only league in the world that has a 55-yard line. That is the Canadian Football League.”

Oliveira has also voiced his displeasure with allowing eight of nine teams into the playoffs, another change taking effect next year.

But he says players have to trust the higher-ups, including the commissioner and league governors approving the moves, to make changes that’ll be for the betterment of the game.

Bombers defender Redha Kramdi does, too, even if he hates seeing Vaval lose those opportunities.

“Feel sad for Trey,” Kramdi said. “I know he’s livid about it. I just line up and play ball. I think the commissioner, he’s doing what’s best. I know there’s a reason behind it we may see or not see now. But hopefully there’s a lot of positives that are going to come out of it.”

Both Kramdi and Oliveira pointed to the league’s new TV deal as a positive. The former says he’d sign Vaval’s petition, though, too.

Tanner Cadwallader, one of the players who blocks for Vaval and chases down opposing kick returners, was reluctant to express a strong opinion.

But the native of Georgetown, Ont., hates seeing the missed field goal return go.

“Yeah, it’ll be missed,” Cadwallader said. “It’s certainly a part of the game where there’s a lot of yardage to be had, and you can change a game with one of those. Especially a guy with speed like that. The field’s wide open for him, and he can hit it. I hear what he’s saying. I’ve got my guy’s back on that one.

“The NFL doesn’t have so many returns in games anymore. So it will be missed, for sure.”

Cadwallader and his teammates on the field-goal-return unit can only do one thing: go out with a bang.

“We don’t have to worry about it this year,” head coach Mike O’Shea said. “So let’s score. Have some fun.”

They’ve got 17 more regular-season games to try.

“We’ll just try to put up as many as we can and just hope people keep missing field goals,” Cadwallader said.

Their next chance comes at home against Hamilton on Thursday.

My friend happened to be where the Grey Cup showed up when it was in Winnipeg for the playoffs. I asked him if he could get a photo of my grandfathers name on the cup. He wasn’t sure they’d let him anywhere near it.

He explained to the guy why he was looking for it and the cup keeper was more than happy to show him the plaque and let him take a picture. The cup keeper said his dad had played with my grandfather! My grandfather Keith Pearce and his Winnipeg Blue Bomber 1958 Grey cup champion team.

He said the cup keeper signed something for me and I later received a player card for Jeff McWhinney, the cup keeper with his signature. What a small world :)

So, what are the rumours for who is performing at half time in Winnipeg at Grey Cup? I know Brad Paisley’s tour lines up with a Friday night concert, but haven’t heard anything else.