TrueBlue4ever

https://www.cnn.com/style/article/ennio-morricone-death-intl-scli-style/index.html https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=bBixD-rTB_c&list=OLAK5uy_lw1v47HUiVD2huZiRBY2OyxOr-aPl0ipY

Hopefully, no one who reads the facts of his suffering hopefully will ever again argue (A) that COVID is just another flu, or (B) recovery = all turned out well. I know of a local dancer who “recovered” but had her leg amputated after suffering blood clots due to her COVID illness, but did not die. Hardly the “she’s all better” that most would equate with “recovery”.

They should just get rid of anthems before games.

Favourite - I feel personally that this one gets locked in wheN you are young and impressionable and “hero worship” these players. So while I loved that Willard Reaves was so good and gave those footballs to the kids in wheelchairs after he scored, for me it will always be Tom Clements. Super smart, not graced with superpower ability but a massive football IQ, quiet, humble, winner. Plus loved his crack when he came back for his Bomber Hall fo Fame induction “Thanks for the beautiful framed jersey, now I can return the one I stole from the locker room on my way out when I retired”. Close second would be Mike Riley, who always found the silver lining even in a tough loss and just was someone you wanted to cheer for since he seemed so nice and genuine. A middling college coaching career and the Oregon State player sex assault scandal tarnished His rep a bit. Least favourite is more built up over time. When I started following the club, Bernie Ruoff was the villain around town for his pot bust and ejection from the club, but before my time so no problem with him. Brock was the big villain for a long time For his zoo comments and holdout, but he returned graciously and the shine has never come off his brilliant play. Charlie Roberts is high on my list for squandering all that talent in the big games with his partying, and his walkout, but our 2019 Grey Cup has washed away the anger, and his overall play makes him hard to dislike. Gerald Wilcox was great until he trashed the team on his way out of town after being cut, which is never a good look, but the club was proved right in the “I can still play” “No you can’t” war when Calgary cut him in training camp. And Troy Westwood bothers me more now as a broadcaster than he did as a player even factoring in the ‘01 Cup, but he’s doing a bit on the radio as the resident contrarian, so meh. That leaves me with 2 on the management side as least favourite. #2: I was never wowed by Mike Kelly as an O/C (that offence was mainly on Dunigan improvising and not so much the genius of the game plan) and was leery when he was given the head coach spot given his arrogance and seeming entitlement to the job, and he did not disappoint in displaying those very characteristics. Middling results but an embarrassing spectacle in the PR world, capped off with his criminal charges after he left. But even he pales in comparison to the train wreck that was Joe Mack at #1. I knew a well placed football person in the Province who said that they were essentially one of three people Mack would be forced to pick up the phone and take advice from even when he chafed at the idea, and they said the combination of arrogance and ignorance from him was unlike anything they had encountered. He fought everyone, played the “I’m the smartest guy in the room, just ask me” card all the time, and the results? I’ll skip the litany of bad draft choices, coaches under the bus, patronizing media conferences, and just leave it at “52-0”.

BC - Don Matthews, such a sour man. I remember he got a shiner from taking a racquetball to the face one time, and the TSN commentators had to go out of their way to let people know that this was a pure accident, and no he did NOT get punched during a barroom disagreement like some had speculated. Kinda says something about the guy that this would be an expected assumption for many viewers, and required the media to stress that he did not get a whooping. Edmonton - Jason Maas. The ears, the attitude, the whininess, the phony "future considerations" trade with Hamilton that gifted the Esks the 2005 Grey Cup. Calgary - no one real despicable for me despite their run of success. I'm sure someone can remind me of someone to hate (Burris is tolerable for me) Saskatchewan - Have to agree with Jordan Reaves, too bad because I have met and like his dad, the sons are both high on my dislike list though for different reasons. Hamilton - Angelo Mosca, dirty player from yesteryear, then became a wrestling heel. When I see Joe Kapp punch an old man with a cane and say "wow, he totally deserved that, can't say I'm sorry he got dropped like that" I guess my dislike is still there. Simoni Lawrence is moving into contention. Toronto - Don Matthews, yep, again. Guess I really didn't like the guy. Ottawa - They were irrelevant for so long, hard to build up a dislike, but let's split between Horn Chen and the Glibermans for inept ownership, cheerleader dating, Mardi Gras flash the stands promotions, and shutting down 3 times. Montreal - Ed Philion for more dirty late hits than I can count. The blind side to Khari after an interception where he wasn't even a part of the play was the worst of all. The racist stuff with Westwood was a bad look too, if you accept Troy's version of events.

Tap & Hold to Copy GIF

I had forgotten his pre-season stint with the Bombers.

Was never a Bomber,IIRC

I would bet that even if he was included, he would fall far short of the most disliked Bomber, if for no other reason than he was here for such a short period and his actions were so inconsequential in the end to the big picture of the club. I can think of a number of coaches, GMs and club executives who would draw more wrath from the fans here.

More than fair enough. Completely respect that. Thank you. This take and the Mervyn Fernandez comments should provide some nice perspective on the “hate” angle.

Don’t be shy. Name names. I remember a story Nick Benjamin told when he joined the Bombers. He was an offensive lineman with Ottawa who was consistently regarded as the dirtiest player in the league amongst his peers. He got traded to the Bombers and actually said he was afraid walking into the locker room to face Ty Jones and James West knowing all the cheap shots he had taken against them in the past, sensing that an offhand “Sorry about trying to take out your knees so many times” might fall flat. He approached them and before he could get a word out beyond “So I just wanted to clear the air...” both players walked up to him and pulled him aside into a corner, and West said “Look, what ever has happened in the past, you are now our teammate here, we expect you to be a Bomber, we have your back and we expect you to have ours. Let’s just leave all the rest of it at the door you just walked through”. No apology, no forgiveness, just an understanding of how it was going to be going forward.

But who was the worst of the worst? Go one per team if you have to.

Let’s round out the player discussion threads with this topic. Who is your all-time favourite Bomber, and why, and who is your least favourite Bomber, and why?

OK, so the opposite post got going after some initial blow back, but this one should be much easier. Which opposing player did you absolutely hate the most? Can be any reason, personal dislike or professional anger/jealousy. The good player who killed us too often, the dirty player, the disloyal selfish guy, the overall jerk. Have at it, and the most descriptive the vitriol, the better. This is catharsis, people, don’t hold back.

Just remember, Durant’s shenanigans landed us both Adam Bighill and Chris Streveler, so do we hate him or thank him?

Players already got their final pay checks for the regular season I heard. It’s not about money owing, it’s really about the escrow payments built into the CBA. If the league revenues are less than expected the players give back some of their salary per the CBA. Given how much the league would lose on an incomplete season, it is in the players’ best interests to finish the year rather than get hammered on escrow payback (although with no fans in the stands hard to know how much playoff revenue will be lost).

Gee, in hindsight I'm glad I didn't send that post I was thinking of where I said "Shouldn't you be shooing kids off your lawn right now?" in response to one of your anti-Ambrosie rants. That would have been awkward. In all seriousness, we all give and take some (hopefully mostly good-natured) shots as part of this board, but no one should ever be silenced for their opinion if it doesn't violate board rules, or made to feel personally debased for offering an insight. I too enjoy hearing about more than just the last 20 years of Bomber teams.

Like this one. He also was renowned for putting a bird feather in his helmet facemask before games.

Just going to put this back right here since it apparently bears repeating.

Good nickname. Also liked Milt Stegall's handle for Lewis - "butts and guts" since he seemingly carried all 250 lbs of his weight around the middle. Looked like a wine barrel with arms and legs.

What's really ridiculous is how some here go on and on about how terrible Riderfans is because they engage in militant groupthink and ban people who don't fall all over the Riders and want to talk about other teams, yet display the same insecurity here by criticizing a topic that dares go outside the Bomber boundaries. But I digress: BC - Nick Hebeler was a pretty funny guy, Darren Flutie who I first thought was simply riding on his brother's coattails actually had quite a good career playing without Doug throwing to him, Lulay is as tough as they come, respected Pierce and Harris before they became Bombers Edmonton - Brian Kelly was clutch and just looked like he worked harder on every play than everyone else, maybe because he looked smaller on the field. Warren Moon gets the Gretzky treatment - hated him when he regularly torched the Bombers, have massive respect for how good he was now that he's gone. Calgary - Doug Flutie was a big CFL booster throughout his time here and never talked down the league even after he went back to the NFL. Seemed to genuinely appreciate the second chance he got up here. Saskatchewan - Ray Elgaard was frustrating in how he "cheated" off the line of scrimmage on seemingly every play and never got called for it, but I'll credit him for one great awards show speech he gave. The year Dunigan and Flutie were up for MOP and both presented an award earlier, they did the usual pre-award banter and Dunigan finished by saying "OK do you think we've done enough suckholing now, should we get on with giving the award?". So Elgaard later wins Outstanding Canadian and starts the usual list of thank you's, then says "I also want to thank Matt Dunigan for setting the bar and making it acceptable for me to use the word "suckhole" in my acceptance speech. And while we're on that topic, I want to acknowledge the Football Reporters of Canada who voted for me" Hamilton - Clements, DiPietro. Love Neil Lumsden as a colour guy, especially when he pairs up with Irving when the Bombers play the Cats in Hamilton. Toronto - Already picked Pinball, Carl Brazley was a good guy and always got into a friendly banter with opposing fans without it ever being mean spirited, O'Shea and Dan Ferrone always showed class in speaking about their opponents. Ottawa - JC Watts, Tony Gabriel Montreal - Calvillo also gets the Gretzky treatment, but super humble and classy and who can root against someone who battled cancer and had to watch his wife go through the same thing?

Well the #1 movie at the box office this week was Jurassic Park, with Jaws at #2, so maybe we are.

Here is the original story: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/26/us/politics/russia-afghanistan-bounties.html?action=click&module=Top Stories&pgtype=Homepage Also read (but have not confirmed the source) that the White House did not release a threat level briefing like that would normally do the same month this report came to them. And since March Trump has invited Putin to a summit meeting and tried to get Russia back in to the G8 after their expulsion years ago.

Pinball Clemons. Every interview he did made you feel better about the world when he was done.

So tonight was supposed to be the Bomber home opener and banner raising. And I was not going to be there because we had planned a trip to Italy of all places to celebrate my youngest’s graduation. Needless to say COVID threw all of that and more out the window. So i am curious what people around here have missed the most, what they have not missed that much, and what they are looking forward to the most when the world gets back to some degree of normal again. For me although I am disappointed that sports are not going on, it isn’t killing me like I thought it would. I will enjoy being at a stadium or arena when it starts up again, and I am also looking forward to going out to a movie theatre again. I was able to go out for dinner, and realized how much I did NOT miss it and the money spent on it, and I suspect I’ll do much less of that going forward. Maybe it will be the same with movies and sports. Very disappointed my travel plans got scrapped, but the world will always be there and I will go later. The biggest thing I have missed is in fact something my son missed out on. Closing school is tough on kids, especially those in grad year. And of all the things he did not get to do, his senior year school play was the toughest on me. Having devoted years to drama at school and always playing lesser roles, he finally got the lead in his last ever play, and school shut down 5 days before he was to hit the stage. And that is something we will never get a chance to see later on. How about everyone else?