We are bearing down on the playoffs in the CFL, a league where 75% of the teams make the playoffs. If ever the term ‘backing into the playoffs’ applies, this is the time, although not for the Bombers. Winnipeg will fall into the bottom 25 percentile this year and not make the playoffs. Why are they so bad lately? I have a theory.
We’re all to blame. We’re all enablers. If we treated our teenage son the way we treat the Bombers, he’d turn out just as bad. Except in a ‘juvi’ kind of way, not in a miserable football team kind of way.
Consider:
They will finish 6-13 at best and they’re getting a brand, spanking-new, $190-million stadium in Fort Garry. That’s like our teenage son failing math and rewarding him with a new bedroom complete with a new iMac and Xbox.
The CFL rewards them – not this year – with making the playoffs as long as they’re not as bad as Toronto and Hamilton (Remember, they made the Grey Cup game last year). That’s like giving our teenage son the keys to the car with no curfew and spending money if his two friends Ed and Merle get more detentions than him.
Management as much as said, “It’s not your fault” by firing the head coach. That’s like going to the local school board and asking for the head of the superintendent when your boy fails Grade 11.
Why should they get better? They’re getting everything they want – and more – as it is. Expectations are so low, the players on the sidelines are thinking of showering the (interim) head coach with Gatorade for every first down instead of every league championship.
There’s no motivation for these guys to get good. Pride? That’s what I hear but I don’t see it. Seems to me the fall wenteth far before the pride. So much for adages.
Good thing the commitment to build the new stadium was made last year and not this year. Otherwise the boys would be lining up to the troughs one more year.
FOR SALE: One sideline canon used after Blue Bombers score. Mint condition. Offers?
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Rick Loewen writes sports for Spectator Tribune. He spent a year writing for the Free Press before being replaced by Lindor Reynolds; spent two years co-hosting 2 Sports Guys before being replaced by ‘The Red Green Show and spent four years hosting the morning show on AM talk radio before being replaced by…well the station died. Who will replace him next?
Follow him on Twitter: @rickloewen