Quick Slants: We Are All Fans
Published: Thursday, Sep 6th 2018, 5:09am
by: Greg McCulloch (@GregOnSports)
We are all fans
I bleed green.
No, I am not Vulcan, I am a Rider fan, and chances are if you are reading this you are too. That’s right come for the Rider coverage stay for the Star Trek humour.
But as a Rider and CFL fan, I also understand there are fans from other teams. That’s what makes this league great there are other people as passionate as us for their team. With that comes some good-natured ribbing and jokes especially with our brothers and sisters in blue from Manitoba.
They bug us with the unoriginal 13th man or counting jokes and we bug them about not winning a Grey Cup since Home Alone was in theatres.
Or that Ottawa has had 3 different franchises since they last won a Cup, including a Cup winner…
Or that more American teams have won a cup in the past 20 years than they have…
Or that anyone under the age of 30 that talks about 10 Grey Cups doesn’t own the technology to watch anyone them…
Where was I going with this? Oh right, they are just as passionate as us.
That’s part of the reason I love the Labour Day classic, there is always a good pocket or two of blue spread amongst the sea of green. It is two great fan bases coming together to watch the Bombers lose, usually. At the end of it all we tip a hat, toast a beer, and all have a good time.
However, in every fan base, there are mouth breathing Neanderthals that don’t seem to understand the concept of a good time.
As my alter ego, I work with a very passionate Bomber fan. Born and raised in Winnipeg, owns season tickets for the Bombers, and RARELY misses a home game.
He makes that 10 hour round trip just to watch Matt Nichols get booed out of his home stadium, now that is a fan….
He also never misses a Labour Day Classic, but after this year he may have had enough. Frankly, I don’t really blame him.
I can attest he can take the ribbing, he can even take some loud-mouthed jackwagons, but at the end of the day, he can’t take getting hit by a beer can for wearing a Bomber jersey after the game was over.
That crosses the line from a good time to assault.
Fortunately, it merely grazed him and he kind of shook it off, while Throwy McBeerCan was ushered out of the stadium very quickly by his friends who knew sticking around probably wasn’t an option.
We as fans are better than that, well at least I thought we were.
But stuff like this reminds me that fan comes from the word fanatic and there will always be those that take it too far.
However, I am still looking forward to going to the Banjo Bowl this week. I am looking forward to going with 54 other people on the Piffles Banjo Bus, and I look forward to cracking a beer with some great Bomber fans, both ones I know and will meet for the first time.
Will some be mouth breathing Neanderthals? There is a good possibility but a majority of them will just be great fans who are looking to have fun.
Because that what makes the CFL awesome.
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