Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ defensive tackle Doug Brown has the complete scenario already fixed in his mind. He’s been thinking about his vision of the future for a few weeks now and as self-fulfilling prophecies go, he’s starting to believe it might actually come true.
“Remember in 2001, when an 8-10 team from Calgary that didn’t even deserve to be on the same field as a 14-4 team from Winnipeg, went into Montreal and beat that Winnipeg team in the Grey Cup? Remember?” Brown says, raising his eyebrows.
“Well, this year, I have a funny feeling we might turn the table. An 8-10 team from Winnipeg, a team that started 2-8, goes all the way to Montreal to play a 13-5 Calgary team in the Grey Cup and beats them. It sure sounds good to me.”
Brown isn’t making any predictions. He’s been around too long and he’s obviously too smart for that, but a guy who made history this year by becoming the first Blue Bomber player ever nominated for three outstanding player awards – most outstanding defensive player, most outstanding player and most outstanding Canadian – has a funny feeling that this struggling Blue Bombers outfit might just have the talent and emotional wherewithal to win the Grey Cup.
Last Saturday afternoon, the Bombers completed the CFL’s 2008 regular season with a 44-30 shellacking of the last-place 3-15 Hamilton Tiger-Cats. Bombers wideout Romby Bryant caught a couple of touchdown passes from Kevin Glenn, Casey McGahee ran back a punt 57 yards for another TD and Fred Reid carried 14 times for 160 yards. Of note, Casey Printers likely played his final game in Hamilton while Milt Stegall probably played his final regular season game for Winnipeg.
It could have easily been called a meaningless exercise, except for one not-so-little thing. It meant the Bombers finished the season 6-2 over their final eight games and because of that, there is now a firm belief within the confines of their own locker room that this Winnipeg team is good enough to win the Grey Cup.
This Saturday, the Bombers will get a shot at the 10-8 Edmonton Eskimos in the Eastern semifinal at Canad Inns Stadium, a place where Winnipeg went 3-0 in the final seven weeks of the season. With the addition of Jason Armstead, Zeke Moreno, Willie Amos, Joe Smith and Kai Ellis the Bombers have improved dramatically in recent weeks and with injured players such as Ike Charlton, Joe Lobendahn and Barrin Simpson beginning to return to the lineup, this is not the same team that started the season 2-8.
“Kudos to our front office for pulling the trigger on some important moves in September,” Brown said, shortly after Saturday’s win. “We’re the hottest team in the CFL right now, 6-2 down the stretch. But to beat Edmonton next week – and don’t worry, we’re not looking past Edmonton — we’re going to have to play our best game of the year. They beat us in their place and we beat them in our place, but to beat them again, we’ll have to be very good.
“But if, somehow, we can get through these next two playoff games and run into Calgary and then beat them in the Grey Cup, you’ll be able to go to Wikipedia and look up the term ’What goes around comes around’ and our picture will be there.”
Saturday, Winnipeg will play host to the Eskimos in the Eastern semifinal. Sure, an Eastern semi with teams from Edmonton and Winnipeg sounds ridiculous, but it’s not the first time West has gone East in the crossover. In four previous West-to-East crossovers, the East won all four.
And there’s another little bit of history that plays right into Doug Brown’s vision.
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