coach17

If I was Steinhauer, I'd show BLM the door along with Schilz & sign a healthy MBT & keep the kid Taylor Powell as backup. Sign a young qb to learn behind them. Bo should be in broadcasting with TSN like LaPo is & hopefully stays. I was watching LaPo today on TSN's coverage of events leading up to tomorrow's game. He's relaxed & engaged. Knows his stuff. He's better than some of the panelists. LaPo has become a star & if TSN wants to keep him then they better pay him. He looks excited to be there & seems happy to be away from the pressures of being a head coach. 

No one asks hard questions anymore out of fear they'll lose their press credentials. The days of the media holding the HC & GM's feet to the fire is over.
There are no more Jack Matheson's Don Blanchard's or John Robertson's. They were as smart as the team manager as they'd all covered the Bombers for at least 30 years. Matheson back into the early 50's for the old Winnipeg Tribune. If they wanted to, they could make life miserable for any GM & HC duo if they got on their bad side.
Then on the radio side was Jack Wells who also was hard to fool. Although, he generally had a good relationship with Lunsford & any of the coaches he hired. Being on radio, he could only really give sound bites & not go into anything in great detail. The same in local TV with Don Wittman, Bob Picken & Stew McPherson. Thyey only had maybe 3 or 4 minutes to tell a story about the Bombers before having to move on to other subjects in an 8-10 minute sprtscast.
They all had insider CFL contacts in every city & more importantly were never intimidated by guys like GM Earl Lunsford or any of the many head coaches he hired at the time. And there were a few. If there were tough questions to ask then they all did it.
The only head coach that I remember Jack Matheson & the rest of the media holding in high esteem was Bud Grant after he left. I do remember that Grant was pretty close with most of them. I know Bud shared more than a few drinks after hours with those guys & some of them were his good friends. 
Bud Riley never got along with the local media very much. It was always frosty as he never never trusted them. That changed when Ray Jauch was hired. He knew most of them from his time as a player with the Bombers & he won a GC as a Head Coach in Edmonton. When Matheson smelled a story, he was relentless uncovering it. Guys like Earl Lunsford had to treat the media with respect even if he didn't like them. It made for some great reading in both newspapers.
Times are certainly different today. It would be interesting to see the relationship those old media types would have with Mike O'Shea today as he keeps a lot of things close to the vest. I think they'd have a hard time getting info from their sources as the league has closed ranks in a lot of ways to the media. Things aren't as open as they used to be. 

I’m flying in from sunny Los Angeles to the frigid north tomorrow! It’ll be my first Bomber game live since the 2021 Grey Cup despite still having season tickets so I fully plan on losing my voice!

“He’s a mobster, bro. He’s a Greek Mobster,” said Drew Wolitarsky. “I think Zach might be the most competitive guy on the team. You may not always think that because of how cordial and relaxed he is off the field, but that boy loves to win. And he does it for the people around him. That’s why I call him the Mobster because he’ll do anything for family.
Tait's latest:
https://www.bluebombers.com/2023/11/17/48-hour-primer-grey-cup/

I sent this clip to some German friends and now they are going to be tuning in to watch the game on Sunday from Germany.  They didn't know we had a German Panzer in our line up! LOL

So the quick answer is yes it has happened before, but with a caveat. In the earliest years of the MOP award (starting in 1953) the eastern and western teams did not play an interlocking schedule, so the only chance for them to meet was in the Grey Cup. So in 1953 the MOP was Edmonton’s Billy Vessels, but the Tiger-Cats beat Winnipeg in the Grey Cup, so he did not face Hamilton. It happened 3 more times in the 1950’s when the Esks Jackie Parker (in ‘57 and ‘58) and Johnny Bright (in ‘59) won MOP but Hamilton and Winnipeg played in the Cup each year. By the time Montreal’s George Dixon won MOP without playing in the Grey Cup, CFL teams were playing a full interlocking schedule, so he faced the Bombers in the regular season. 
I haven’t done a deep dive through the rest of the 1960’s and 1970’s, but as far as I can tell, the MOP for each season from 1980 to 2022 either played for or against the eventual Grey Cup champions for that season.
There were two close calls though. In 2002 Milt Stegall did play against Edmonton in one game, and started the second before being injured early, and then did not play in the playoff game as the Esks went on to win the Cup. In 2004 BC’s Casey Printers won MOP and did play eventual champion Toronto at home in August as he was replacing an injured Dave Dickenson. He’d play a bit of the re-match in Toronto before being pulled midway through a loss. And then he famously was sat for the Cup in favour of Dickenson three days after winning the MOP, and the Argos won. 
Now since the whole implication of this question is that Kelly sat out against the Bombers in their lone meeting and the Bombers are destined to win, if you have now angered the football Gods with your presumptive confidence and jinxed us come this Sunday if the Als pull off an upset, and made me do all this work to boot, then

Yeah I’m curious if this is the first time that’s ever happened when the Bombers win on Sunday 

We get only one quick walk through the garden and everyone deserves to have a dream to pursue.

What a game Kyrie had.
Should have had a gameday thread for this repeat!

Love Darvin. 
 
Too bad he didn’t want to be given a full reception by the fans that he deserved.
It was clear that he just wanted to focus on the now. 
Hopefully he comes back to a game some day and gets a proper thank you. 

This game just makes me miss prime Darvin Adams. I know he's too old now and Bailey has largely taken his blocking role, but dude was just nasty for other teams to deal with.

Or how they were owned by the BC Lions owner for several years.
I know people **** on him here but David Braley is on my good guy list.  Imagine loving the CFL enough that you would own not one, but two teams.  Still, super sketchy and a very weird look for the league.

It would suck to lose him, but if anyone deserves a shot at a bigger payday, that guy does.

I just arrived at Toronto airport. Next stop Hamilton!

I wouldn't be concerned about your chances in general, as it is unlikely that one team can be so fortunate as to have two teams utterly meltdown to their benefit in back to back Championship games.
But more specifically I wouldn't be bothered over the "not a cold weather QB" stuff. At least not for Sunday where it's basically going to be perfect weather.

Toronto and Hamilton both had about 135-140 yards rushing on Montreal's D in their playoff games. I think Montreal's D can be ran on.

Jeff Hecht getting the hook for BA, plus using Taylor and Maston completely transformed the back end… that said we still needed a qb with Nichols out and Strev on one leg.  McGuire wasn’t taking us to the promised land by himself so Zach was also a vital ingredient to the cup run.  It can be both.

I was at that game.  As soon as I saw Nichols get tackled I knew he was done, fell right on the shoulder and got pile drived.  I think it was Lemon correct?

Brady’s work is phenomenal, undoubtedly. But as a completely non football related award, I’m not sure it’s a big deal. Again, I don’t care who wins it, I’m proud of those who are contributing. Brady could win the next 10 and I’d applaud him.

Let's be fair here, Nichols didn't have the level of receivers to work with that Zach has now. We kept signing 32 year plus receivers whose better days were behind them. We were starting Daniel Peterman, we had a couple of rickety Rider receivers (Dressler & Smith) who were always hurt. Our OL was just finding itself. Neufeld was always hurt. The young studs on the OL Walters drafted were young & inexperienced. Nichols came in & made us competitive. I'm grateful Chris Jones let him go for a 7th rounder & a bag of footballs. He doesn't get the credit he deserves. That injury he suffered was really unfortunate. 

very good photos of Bomber practise in Hamilton.  brady is thick
 
https://www.cfl.ca/through-the-lens-bombers-practice-thursday-at-thf/

Lolololololololol................
 

I wonder if the Bombers will.

I"d say the DL play we saw on Sunday, is at least even with the Als DL - at least.