#WhatABoutKaren – The League Responds

#WhatABoutKaren – The League Responds

Published: Friday, Jul 14th 2017, 6:07pm

By Stephen Safinuk (@Safimod)

As a Rider fan, one of my favourite traditions is the suffering of Winnipeg Blue Bomber fans. But for the first time in a long time, I felt some sympathy for a Bombers fan.

For those who weren’t watching yesterday, or online today, Karen Kuldys of Winnipeg, MB was the Safeway Touchdown to Win contestant during last night’s game in Winnipeg vs Toronto. After Ryan Lankford returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown, winning Kuldys a $25,000 Home Entertainment System from Visions, fans across the league were watching what could only be described as a game full of Special Teams meltdowns. A punt return TD, multiple long returns, and then this:

Here’s the $1 million penalty that will haunt Karen forever. #Argos #Bombers #CFL pic.twitter.com/Djwxg0Acht

— Devin Heroux (@Devin_Heroux) July 14, 2017

It looked to everyone like Karen Kuldys had won the $1,000,000 from Safeway, but hold on. A VERY late flag for an illegal block brought the touchdown back, and twitter exploded. The hashtag #WhatAboutKaren was born as fans across the CFL were clamoring to have the league/Safeway do the right thing and award Karen the prize.

I must applaud the league’s swift reaction to what can only be described as a PR nightmare. Randy Ambrosie, who was in the stadium for the game, reached out to Karen. The league has invited Karen and her family out to Ottawa for the Grey Cup this year.

The Bombers also reached out to Kuldys, giving her season tickets for the remainder of 2017 and 2018.

Safeway/Sobey’s has offered Kuldys free groceries for a year from any Safeway or Sobey’s store across Canada.

All in all, I must credit the league, the Bombers and Safeway for their quick response to this. Of course the league isn’t going to go out of their way to admit they got the call wrong. If they did, they would likely be opening themselves up to a lawsuit. Instead, they offered up what they could and hopefully Karen has a great time in Ottawa.

While Karen Kuldys may be out $1,000,000, at least all parties involved did what they could to try and mend fences and do something to make things right. On the plus side, Karen will be watching the next Bomber’s away game from her couch on her new $25,000 Home Entertainment system… I hope she turns off this game disappointed, for a whole different reason.

Update: Airmiles Canada is getting in on the PR